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  John B. Deitz

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Fred and Margaret Deitz, of which I know little but their names, had two known sons -- George Deitz, Sr. (b. 1832, d. 1895) and John Frederick Diez (b.1844, d. 1916).  George immigrated to Western New York about 1842.  I do not know when Frederick immigrated (he's 12 years younger, and would not yet be born when George probably immigrated), however he settled for a while in Chicago, IL.

Frederick Diez came from Chicago to Custer Co., Colorado with his family about 1870.   He settled on homestead land in the Wet Mountain Valley on 20 Dec 1871, building his first house. He built his second house in May 1873.  I have no evidence, except for the coincidence of timing, that Frederick Diez was part of the German Colonization Society of Colfax movement described below.  However, it is likely that he moved to Colorado based on information then available to the Chicago German community, even if not formally a part of the Society.

The Diez's (and the Reister's with whom they were related by marriage), eventually acquired 2400 acres in Custer and Huerfano Counties through Federal Land Patents.  They may have owned or leased additional land.

Fred Deitz (b. 1864, d. 1945) -- Frederick's nephew, son of Frederick's brother George Deitz -- also went to Colorado from Western New York as a young man to work with his uncle, probably before 1880, as he was not in his father's household at that census.  However, he again moved -- to Oklahoma in 1895.  Both Frederick Deitz (m. 1866) and Fred Deitz (m. ?) married daughters of Anton Reister.

According to Roxy Price Dietz (daughter-in-law of Fred Dietz), "all the Dietzes [sic] in Colorado are gone now" (letter written in 1969).  This may be true for the male line and the Diez surname, but there may be female descendents -- Frederick's daughters married surnames ACKELBEIN, KEMMERLE, and HALLAUER.   I'm pursuing these lines.

The Frederick Diez's mostly used this variant of their surname, although in some records they seem to have used Dietz.  The George Deitz's (of which I descend, and of which Fred is a son) used either Deitz or Dietz variants.  Fred (and his descendents) eventually exclusively used Dietz.  It is interesting to note that George Deitz's marriage certificate (in German from a German Lutheran Church) shows his surname as "Diez," but he otherwise exclusively used Deitz.   There also were other apparently unrelated Dietz's in Custer County during this time (as also there were near the George Deitz family in the Town of Colden, Erie County, New York).  Apparently all, regardless of spelling, pronounced the name "deets" (rhymes with beets), never "dites" (rhymes with kites), a more proper German pronunciation for Deitz.

The following is excerpted from
 A Short History of Custer County, Colorado:

A German colony from Chicago, led by Civil War veteran Gen. Carl Wulsten arrived in March 1870. The Chicago Tribune, February 9, 1870, described the beginning of the trip:

So they started from Chicago, a group of 250 people, the pioneers of civilization. A notable event in the history of Chicago transpired yesterday. It was the departure of a colony of Chicago citizens for a home in the western wilds, the first of its kind which ever left this city and the first, it is believed, ever organized in America. It is called the German Colonization Society of Colfax, Colorado....An immense throng of relatives and friends gathered...to bid them farewell and God speed.

...They were a splendid looking set of people...[including] muscular athletic young fellows with rifles strapped to their backs, [and] 20 fair haired, clear skinned German girls, all young, good looking, and seemingly capable of taking good care of themselves and making excellent wives for those same gallant rifle bearers....

The Tribune noted that "a serious drawback to the development [of the mining west] was the fact that the march of agriculture had not kept pace with the feverish rush of the seekers after the hidden treasures of the earth." Gen. Wulsten saw the possibilities in providing cheaper food on the spot, saving the miners the exorbitant costs of that which was transported in from long distances. The baggage car of the train carried a large sign: "Westward The Star of Empire Takes Its Course..."

Where the railroad tracks ended, the group shifted to covered wagons, with a military escort from Ft. Lyons, and six-mule teams. The new town was named after Vice President Schuyler Colfax who had expedited the government assistance and transportation to the Wet Mountain Valley. The group arrived at their destination, fifteen miles west of today's Westcliffe, on March 17, 1870.

The newcomers were welcomed with cheers, speeches and cannon salute by residents of then-Fremont County. But Denver's Rocky Mountain Herald was "painfully agitated about the Wulsten colony" and said:

The Greeley colony of Yankees on the Cache-a-la-Poudre will offset the Germans in Wet Mountain valley, and keep the thing level. Likely as not there will be several thousands more of 'black republicans' in the territory before fall. Really our democratic friends must get used to these things and take them calmly.

Wulsten wrote of the venture in the 1879 county history:

In 1869 [Wulsten], propelled by a desire to ameliorate the physical condition of the poorer class of Germans, who were condemned by a cruel fate to work in greasy, ill-ventilated and nerve-destroyed factories of the great city of Chicago, formed a band of about a hundred into a colony, took them and their families out of the nauseous back alleys and cellars of the over-crowded Garden City and brought them to "El Mojada." But short-sighted is man, and his ways do "gang aft aglee." This was in the spring of 1870. The organization of this colony stood until fall, when it collapsed, every pater familias from thence shifting for himself....