Dietz

Dietz was on State Highway 46 eight miles northwest of Seguin in Guadalupe County. The land was part of the 1831 Esnaurizar land grant of eleven leagues. Jacob de Cordova, land agent, author, and entrepreneur, settled in the area in 1851. His homestead was called Wanderer's Retreat because of the beauty of the land and the fertility of the soil. According to tradition, Cordova sold Wanderer's Retreat to nine young German bachelors who worked for him. Though this sale cannot be verified, Cordova did sell several parcels of land to Henry Bauer and August Dietz in 1849. Ferdinand Dietz bought adjoining land in 1853, and the area became known as the Dietz community. By 1854 Bauer had sold his land to the two Dietz brothers.

In the years preceding the Civil War Dietz became a way station between Seguin and New Braunfels, on the "German Emigrant Road." After the war the community began to flourish. In 1861 Johann Phillip Stautzenberger bought land, and in 1871 Jacob Stautzenberger bought land from August Dietz. Phillip Stautzenberger built a home on a hill overlooking the dirt road to Clear Spring and New Braunfels. Near his residence he built a general store that still stood in the late 1980s. By the 1870s the citizens of Dietz had built a two-room schoolhouse and named it Frankfort School; the well close to the school site still stood on the east side of State Highway 46 in 1986. In 1886 Phillip Stautzenberger established a post office at Dietz; it was moved to Seguin in 1889. Frankfort School became the focal point for the community. At it was formed the Frohsinn Maennerchor, which still existed in 1986 as the Frohsinn Mixed Chorus of Clear Springs. The school was also the site of the founding of Frieden Church in 1895; the church is now three miles east of Dietz and has a state historical marker. By 1902 Dietz was served by rural free delivery mail. The Dietz community began to disperse in the early 1900s. Frankfort School was consolidated with the Clear Spring school in 1911. The choir moved to Clear Spring in 1916. By 1947 Dietz ceased to exist as a community.