The below was written by C.M. Raulston, Jr. C.M. passed away in 2001. He was my (Gothic Hobby) Dad's brother.
The Dietz name first appeared on record in Nassau, the former duchy of West Germany, in the year 1338 as Count of Nassau. The name is derived from the root form "Diet" meaning "People". From this has arisen Dietsh, Dietze, Dietzel, and Dietzen. Noble families of Dietz abound in the heraldic and other records. We find them owners of vast estates and castles in Franconia, Silesia, Prussia, Bavaria, Esthonia and Switzerland. In addition to being landowners and leaders in government, many members of the Dietz family were very talented in the Arts and Sciences. Johann Christian Dietz invented the melodian and the clove harp. One of the most gifted painters of battle scenes was Feodor Dietz who was born in Germany in the year 1813. Ten coats of arms were awarded to the Dietz families, the most significant of which is a blue shield with gold lions rampant standing on a green triple mount.
The first Dietz in America was George Dietz who arrived on the sailing ship "Thistle" under command of Captain Hansen on October 27, 1738. Jonas Dietz came to Texas from Kentucky in about 1840. He served under Houston during the Texas Revolution and his name is recorded in the archives of the Alamo. He was given a land patent in Red River County. The major portion of this land lies in present day Lamar County. This land patent is on record in the deed records of Lamar County, Paris, Texas. Jonas Dietz had three daughters: Maggie, Hanna and Rebecca, and one son, Richard Logan Dietz.
Richard Logan Dietz served four years in the Confederate Army and married Nancy Adeline Raulston on October 3, 1865. Uncle Logan was a fine carpenter and cabinet maker. At about the time he married Adeline, he made for his mother-in-law a pine kitchen safe. The antique dealer of today will call it a pie safe. On the farm it was used more for potatoes and beans. That old pine safe has presided over daily meals and Sunday gatherings in the old farm kitchen for more than a century. It is now one of the most prized possessions in my home.
More written by C.M. Raulston, Jr. in 1995:
MOUNTAINTOP
It is seldom that a person doing genealogical research has a Mountain Top experience but such things do happen, and did happen right here in Dimple. On Sunday, October 30, 1988 a young man introduced himself to my wife, Dorothy, as Ernest Lad Heisten III, calling from Madison, WI to inquire if her husband might know something of the Dietz family in Red River County. Dorothy, who tends to get a bit enthusiastic about such matters, replied, "he is out puttering in the shop, but you hang on, I will fetch him'. She then held the phone at armslength and blew a mighty blast upon her trusty police whistle which she wears around her neck. I appeared at her side in an instant, for I know when I hear that whistle, the lady of my house is in no mood to put up with any messin' around!
It developed that the State Library in Madison had a copy, of "Red River Recollections" and Lad had read R. L. Dietz md. Nancy Adeline Raulston - Oct. 31 1865 - in a short family lineage I had written for that Publication. Lad knew from oral family history his great-great-grandfather was Logan Dietz, a veteran of the Confederate Cause. He had decided to not call me but his wife told him the L in R. L. might very well be Logan. When I answered the phone my knowledge of the Dietz family was as I had written in 1973 in The Raulstons of Red River County limited to what my father had told and what Mittie Dietz Gardener, a grand-daughter to Logan, had written to me in letters from Santa Fe.
Jonas Dietz came to Texas in about 1840 and worked for Sam Houston helping to build a stockade for prisoners of war on Galveston Island and was granted a land patent in Lamar County. Jonas had three daughters, Maggie, Hannah and Rebecca, and one son, Richard Logan Dietz. I had also listed the marriage of Logan to Adeline and the names of their children and the descendants of those children. I wrote that Uncle Logan was a fine carpenter and cabinet maker and at about the time he was courting Adeline, he made for her mother, Fannie Ousley Raulston, a pine kitchen safe. That safe sits in our house today (Dec. 1995).
Logan served in the Confederate Army, and he and Adeline were buried in The New Haven Cemetery in Dimple. During our phone conversation I learned the following.
In his research, Lad had discovered a Logan Dietz at age 19 in Lamar County married to a Mary C. Gray. He had Logan's father listed as Jonas with some vague information that Jonas had served in the Texas Revolution and that Jonas had a brother, Amos, buried in the Bogata Cemetery in Red River County. He then related the following family legend to me .
"When Logan marched off to the Civil War from his farm somewhere in Tennessee, he turned for a last loving look at his family and saw his young son and little daughter swinging on the yard gate waving goodbye and their mother who waved from the porch behind them. That was the last time he saw his Tennessee family and it was the last the little Tennessee family ever saw or heard of Logan. When the war ended and Logan returned to his farm he found the place had been pillaged, the buildings burned, and his wife had died from starvation and exposure. The children had been taken to live with relatives by people "going west." This legend had been passed down by the boy left swinging on the gate, James Monroe Dietz, who was Lad's great-grandfather. James Monroe and his younger sister grew up in the Missouri Ozarks near the small town of Webb City, MD, as did his descendants. Lad's parents, Ernest L. Heisten Jr. and Betty Jean (Dietz) Heisten live there today
(Dec. 1995). Lad speculated that Logan, in his search for his children, returned to Lamar County to visit his father and relatives of Mary C. Gray, his deceased wife, who were the logical people to have the children. Imagine his terrible disappointment and grief upon learning his family had not been heard from in Lamar County. He further speculated that Logan met Adeline in his aimless wanderings and married her. When that first conversation ended, Lad was elated but I was not so sure because my father, who enjoyed telling me stories of olden times, never mentioned a prior marriage of Uncle Logan. Lad called me again on Sunday, November 6, to thank me for some papers I had mailed to him and we covered about the same ground concerning Logan. When we were about to hang up, Lad asked me if I knew anyone who might have a photo of Logan. Up to this point I had not remembered that Uncle Logan had a living, breathing grandson right here in Red River County in the Community of Negley. I apologized profusely about the memory lapse and gave him the name and phone number of Wes Braddock. About an hour later Lad called back in a state of high excitement to report that with no prompting whatsoever from Lad, Wes related almost verbatim, the story of the children swinging on the gate and their subsequent disappearance. At this point Lad and I were convinced we had old Logan nailed!
During the week of November 7th 1988 I visited with Wes and Jo Braddock in their home in Negley and borrowed a Black and White photo of Logan and his three boys standing in front of their Carpentry and Blacksmith Shop at 200 South Walnut in Clarksville. That would be where the abandoned Citizens Drive Through Bank is located today (Dec. 1995). I made several Photocopies and returned the original. Lad called on November 13, to say he had scheduled a trip to Texas for November 19 thru 23. Lad arrived at DFW at 11:00 A. M. November 19th, picked up a rental and drove to The Dallas Public Library where he extracted several documents concerning Logan's war record. He arrived at our house at 10:30 A. M. November 20. Soon after his arrival he called his wife to report his progress and told her his hand rested on an ancient pine kitchen safe which Logan had made with his own hands, here on this farm using timber cut from this land, and all the while he was
courting Adeline. Lad and his wife were both ecstatic. Lad departed our house shortly after noon on November 20, 1988 for his first visit with Wes and Jo Braddock. Soon after his arrival there he made three important discoveries.
(1) Jo produced three photographs of Logan, one a studio portrait.
(2) Wes brought out his Mother's family bible in which she (Cumi Dietz Braddock) had written her father (Logan Dietz's) war record as he dictated it to her. In that record Lad discovered the young Logan had been in three major battles and two or three minor skirmishes and had sustained but one wound, a broken finger while trying to do rapid fire with a muzzle loading rifle.
(3) Lad Heisten has the final joint on both small fingers bent so the tips of the fingers point toward the other fingers on the same hand. If the hands are held, palms facing bearer, with the small fingers aligned and touching, the tips of those fingers point away from each other. Lad's Mother has these fingers as does her father and his father. Much to Lad's amazement and great joy, so did Wes Braddock!
Lad spent the night of November 20, with the Braddocks and on the morning of November 21, drove to Paris to search some courthouse records and drove back to Clarksville to look at some census records. He spent the night of November 21 at our house and in the morning of November 22, 1988 I accompanied him to The New Haven Cemetery where I pointed out the graves of Logan and Adeline. The markers were covered with lichen so I produced a block of Styrofoam which makes a good buffer but leaves the letters filled with grit. As he stood on his knees over the graves clearing the letters, Lad looked at me with tears beginning to well and said, "I am sorry, but you cannot know what this means to me". I replied, "You are the great-grandson of the man who started this search 124 years ago! You just this minute finished that long search, of course it's an emotional climax". He studied the stone in silence for a minute then, in a loud, firm voice filled with emotion
said, "Richard Logan Dietz, You Old Warrior, After Your Being Lost For A Century and A Quarter, I HAVE FOUND YOU ! As Lad departed the Braddock home on November 22, 1988, an old Grandfather Clock began tolling the midnight hour, just as it had so long ago, in the home of Nancy Adeline and Richard Logan Dietz. That Folks, Is The TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN! CMR - 12/95
The Dietz name first appeared on record in Nassau, the former duchy of West Germany, in the year 1338 as Count of Nassau. The name is derived from the root form "Diet" meaning "People". From this has arisen Dietsh, Dietze, Dietzel, and Dietzen. Noble families of Dietz abound in the heraldic and other records. We find them owners of vast estates and castles in Franconia, Silesia, Prussia, Bavaria, Esthonia and Switzerland. In addition to being landowners and leaders in government, many members of the Dietz family were very talented in the Arts and Sciences. Johann Christian Dietz invented the melodian and the clove harp. One of the most gifted painters of battle scenes was Feodor Dietz who was born in Germany in the year 1813. Ten coats of arms were awarded to the Dietz families, the most significant of which is a blue shield with gold lions rampant standing on a green triple mount.
The first Dietz in America was George Dietz who arrived on the sailing ship "Thistle" under command of Captain Hansen on October 27, 1738. Jonas Dietz came to Texas from Kentucky in about 1840. He served under Houston during the Texas Revolution and his name is recorded in the archives of the Alamo. He was given a land patent in Red River County. The major portion of this land lies in present day Lamar County. This land patent is on record in the deed records of Lamar County, Paris, Texas. Jonas Dietz had three daughters: Maggie, Hanna and Rebecca, and one son, Richard Logan Dietz.
Richard Logan Dietz served four years in the Confederate Army and married Nancy Adeline Raulston on October 3, 1865. Uncle Logan was a fine carpenter and cabinet maker. At about the time he married Adeline, he made for his mother-in-law a pine kitchen safe. The antique dealer of today will call it a pie safe. On the farm it was used more for potatoes and beans. That old pine safe has presided over daily meals and Sunday gatherings in the old farm kitchen for more than a century. It is now one of the most prized possessions in my home.
More written by C.M. Raulston, Jr. in 1995:
MOUNTAINTOP
It is seldom that a person doing genealogical research has a Mountain Top experience but such things do happen, and did happen right here in Dimple. On Sunday, October 30, 1988 a young man introduced himself to my wife, Dorothy, as Ernest Lad Heisten III, calling from Madison, WI to inquire if her husband might know something of the Dietz family in Red River County. Dorothy, who tends to get a bit enthusiastic about such matters, replied, "he is out puttering in the shop, but you hang on, I will fetch him'. She then held the phone at armslength and blew a mighty blast upon her trusty police whistle which she wears around her neck. I appeared at her side in an instant, for I know when I hear that whistle, the lady of my house is in no mood to put up with any messin' around!
It developed that the State Library in Madison had a copy, of "Red River Recollections" and Lad had read R. L. Dietz md. Nancy Adeline Raulston - Oct. 31 1865 - in a short family lineage I had written for that Publication. Lad knew from oral family history his great-great-grandfather was Logan Dietz, a veteran of the Confederate Cause. He had decided to not call me but his wife told him the L in R. L. might very well be Logan. When I answered the phone my knowledge of the Dietz family was as I had written in 1973 in The Raulstons of Red River County limited to what my father had told and what Mittie Dietz Gardener, a grand-daughter to Logan, had written to me in letters from Santa Fe.
Jonas Dietz came to Texas in about 1840 and worked for Sam Houston helping to build a stockade for prisoners of war on Galveston Island and was granted a land patent in Lamar County. Jonas had three daughters, Maggie, Hannah and Rebecca, and one son, Richard Logan Dietz. I had also listed the marriage of Logan to Adeline and the names of their children and the descendants of those children. I wrote that Uncle Logan was a fine carpenter and cabinet maker and at about the time he was courting Adeline, he made for her mother, Fannie Ousley Raulston, a pine kitchen safe. That safe sits in our house today (Dec. 1995).
Logan served in the Confederate Army, and he and Adeline were buried in The New Haven Cemetery in Dimple. During our phone conversation I learned the following.
In his research, Lad had discovered a Logan Dietz at age 19 in Lamar County married to a Mary C. Gray. He had Logan's father listed as Jonas with some vague information that Jonas had served in the Texas Revolution and that Jonas had a brother, Amos, buried in the Bogata Cemetery in Red River County. He then related the following family legend to me .
"When Logan marched off to the Civil War from his farm somewhere in Tennessee, he turned for a last loving look at his family and saw his young son and little daughter swinging on the yard gate waving goodbye and their mother who waved from the porch behind them. That was the last time he saw his Tennessee family and it was the last the little Tennessee family ever saw or heard of Logan. When the war ended and Logan returned to his farm he found the place had been pillaged, the buildings burned, and his wife had died from starvation and exposure. The children had been taken to live with relatives by people "going west." This legend had been passed down by the boy left swinging on the gate, James Monroe Dietz, who was Lad's great-grandfather. James Monroe and his younger sister grew up in the Missouri Ozarks near the small town of Webb City, MD, as did his descendants. Lad's parents, Ernest L. Heisten Jr. and Betty Jean (Dietz) Heisten live there today
(Dec. 1995). Lad speculated that Logan, in his search for his children, returned to Lamar County to visit his father and relatives of Mary C. Gray, his deceased wife, who were the logical people to have the children. Imagine his terrible disappointment and grief upon learning his family had not been heard from in Lamar County. He further speculated that Logan met Adeline in his aimless wanderings and married her. When that first conversation ended, Lad was elated but I was not so sure because my father, who enjoyed telling me stories of olden times, never mentioned a prior marriage of Uncle Logan. Lad called me again on Sunday, November 6, to thank me for some papers I had mailed to him and we covered about the same ground concerning Logan. When we were about to hang up, Lad asked me if I knew anyone who might have a photo of Logan. Up to this point I had not remembered that Uncle Logan had a living, breathing grandson right here in Red River County in the Community of Negley. I apologized profusely about the memory lapse and gave him the name and phone number of Wes Braddock. About an hour later Lad called back in a state of high excitement to report that with no prompting whatsoever from Lad, Wes related almost verbatim, the story of the children swinging on the gate and their subsequent disappearance. At this point Lad and I were convinced we had old Logan nailed!
During the week of November 7th 1988 I visited with Wes and Jo Braddock in their home in Negley and borrowed a Black and White photo of Logan and his three boys standing in front of their Carpentry and Blacksmith Shop at 200 South Walnut in Clarksville. That would be where the abandoned Citizens Drive Through Bank is located today (Dec. 1995). I made several Photocopies and returned the original. Lad called on November 13, to say he had scheduled a trip to Texas for November 19 thru 23. Lad arrived at DFW at 11:00 A. M. November 19th, picked up a rental and drove to The Dallas Public Library where he extracted several documents concerning Logan's war record. He arrived at our house at 10:30 A. M. November 20. Soon after his arrival he called his wife to report his progress and told her his hand rested on an ancient pine kitchen safe which Logan had made with his own hands, here on this farm using timber cut from this land, and all the while he was
courting Adeline. Lad and his wife were both ecstatic. Lad departed our house shortly after noon on November 20, 1988 for his first visit with Wes and Jo Braddock. Soon after his arrival there he made three important discoveries.
(1) Jo produced three photographs of Logan, one a studio portrait.
(2) Wes brought out his Mother's family bible in which she (Cumi Dietz Braddock) had written her father (Logan Dietz's) war record as he dictated it to her. In that record Lad discovered the young Logan had been in three major battles and two or three minor skirmishes and had sustained but one wound, a broken finger while trying to do rapid fire with a muzzle loading rifle.
(3) Lad Heisten has the final joint on both small fingers bent so the tips of the fingers point toward the other fingers on the same hand. If the hands are held, palms facing bearer, with the small fingers aligned and touching, the tips of those fingers point away from each other. Lad's Mother has these fingers as does her father and his father. Much to Lad's amazement and great joy, so did Wes Braddock!
Lad spent the night of November 20, with the Braddocks and on the morning of November 21, drove to Paris to search some courthouse records and drove back to Clarksville to look at some census records. He spent the night of November 21 at our house and in the morning of November 22, 1988 I accompanied him to The New Haven Cemetery where I pointed out the graves of Logan and Adeline. The markers were covered with lichen so I produced a block of Styrofoam which makes a good buffer but leaves the letters filled with grit. As he stood on his knees over the graves clearing the letters, Lad looked at me with tears beginning to well and said, "I am sorry, but you cannot know what this means to me". I replied, "You are the great-grandson of the man who started this search 124 years ago! You just this minute finished that long search, of course it's an emotional climax". He studied the stone in silence for a minute then, in a loud, firm voice filled with emotion
said, "Richard Logan Dietz, You Old Warrior, After Your Being Lost For A Century and A Quarter, I HAVE FOUND YOU ! As Lad departed the Braddock home on November 22, 1988, an old Grandfather Clock began tolling the midnight hour, just as it had so long ago, in the home of Nancy Adeline and Richard Logan Dietz. That Folks, Is The TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN! CMR - 12/95
The below was written by C.M. Raulston, Jr. C.M. passed away in 2001. He was my (Gothic Hobby) Dad's brother.
The Dietz name first appeared on record in Nassau, the former duchy of West Germany, in the year 1338 as Count of Nassau. The name is derived from the root form "Diet" meaning "People". From this has arisen Dietsh, Dietze, Dietzel, and Dietzen. Noble families of Dietz abound in the heraldic and other records. We find them owners of vast estates and castles in Franconia, Silesia, Prussia, Bavaria, Esthonia and Switzerland. In addition to being landowners and leaders in government, many members of the Dietz family were very talented in the Arts and Sciences. Johann Christian Dietz invented the melodian and the clove harp. One of the most gifted painters of battle scenes was Feodor Dietz who was born in Germany in the year 1813. Ten coats of arms were awarded to the Dietz families, the most significant of which is a blue shield with gold lions rampant standing on a green triple mount.
The first Dietz in America was George Dietz who arrived on the sailing ship "Thistle" under command of Captain Hansen on October 27, 1738. Jonas Dietz came to Texas from Kentucky in about 1840. He served under Houston during the Texas Revolution and his name is recorded in the archives of the Alamo. He was given a land patent in Red River County. The major portion of this land lies in present day Lamar County. This land patent is on record in the deed records of Lamar County, Paris, Texas. Jonas Dietz had three daughters: Maggie, Hanna and Rebecca, and one son, Richard Logan Dietz.
Richard Logan Dietz served four years in the Confederate Army and married Nancy Adeline Raulston on October 3, 1865. Uncle Logan was a fine carpenter and cabinet maker. At about the time he married Adeline, he made for his mother-in-law a pine kitchen safe. The antique dealer of today will call it a pie safe. On the farm it was used more for potatoes and beans. That old pine safe has presided over daily meals and Sunday gatherings in the old farm kitchen for more than a century. It is now one of the most prized possessions in my home.
More written by C.M. Raulston, Jr. in 1995:
MOUNTAINTOP
It is seldom that a person doing genealogical research has a Mountain Top experience but such things do happen, and did happen right here in Dimple. On Sunday, October 30, 1988 a young man introduced himself to my wife, Dorothy, as Ernest Lad Heisten III, calling from Madison, WI to inquire if her husband might know something of the Dietz family in Red River County. Dorothy, who tends to get a bit enthusiastic about such matters, replied, "he is out puttering in the shop, but you hang on, I will fetch him'. She then held the phone at armslength and blew a mighty blast upon her trusty police whistle which she wears around her neck. I appeared at her side in an instant, for I know when I hear that whistle, the lady of my house is in no mood to put up with any messin' around!
It developed that the State Library in Madison had a copy, of "Red River Recollections" and Lad had read R. L. Dietz md. Nancy Adeline Raulston - Oct. 31 1865 - in a short family lineage I had written for that Publication. Lad knew from oral family history his great-great-grandfather was Logan Dietz, a veteran of the Confederate Cause. He had decided to not call me but his wife told him the L in R. L. might very well be Logan. When I answered the phone my knowledge of the Dietz family was as I had written in 1973 in The Raulstons of Red River County limited to what my father had told and what Mittie Dietz Gardener, a grand-daughter to Logan, had written to me in letters from Santa Fe.
Jonas Dietz came to Texas in about 1840 and worked for Sam Houston helping to build a stockade for prisoners of war on Galveston Island and was granted a land patent in Lamar County. Jonas had three daughters, Maggie, Hannah and Rebecca, and one son, Richard Logan Dietz. I had also listed the marriage of Logan to Adeline and the names of their children and the descendants of those children. I wrote that Uncle Logan was a fine carpenter and cabinet maker and at about the time he was courting Adeline, he made for her mother, Fannie Ousley Raulston, a pine kitchen safe. That safe sits in our house today (Dec. 1995).
Logan served in the Confederate Army, and he and Adeline were buried in The New Haven Cemetery in Dimple. During our phone conversation I learned the following.
In his research, Lad had discovered a Logan Dietz at age 19 in Lamar County married to a Mary C. Gray. He had Logan's father listed as Jonas with some vague information that Jonas had served in the Texas Revolution and that Jonas had a brother, Amos, buried in the Bogata Cemetery in Red River County. He then related the following family legend to me .
"When Logan marched off to the Civil War from his farm somewhere in Tennessee, he turned for a last loving look at his family and saw his young son and little daughter swinging on the yard gate waving goodbye and their mother who waved from the porch behind them. That was the last time he saw his Tennessee family and it was the last the little Tennessee family ever saw or heard of Logan. When the war ended and Logan returned to his farm he found the place had been pillaged, the buildings burned, and his wife had died from starvation and exposure. The children had been taken to live with relatives by people "going west." This legend had been passed down by the boy left swinging on the gate, James Monroe Dietz, who was Lad's great-grandfather. James Monroe and his younger sister grew up in the Missouri Ozarks near the small town of Webb City, MD, as did his descendants. Lad's parents, Ernest L. Heisten Jr. and Betty Jean (Dietz) Heisten live there today
(Dec. 1995). Lad speculated that Logan, in his search for his children, returned to Lamar County to visit his father and relatives of Mary C. Gray, his deceased wife, who were the logical people to have the children. Imagine his terrible disappointment and grief upon learning his family had not been heard from in Lamar County. He further speculated that Logan met Adeline in his aimless wanderings and married her. When that first conversation ended, Lad was elated but I was not so sure because my father, who enjoyed telling me stories of olden times, never mentioned a prior marriage of Uncle Logan. Lad called me again on Sunday, November 6, to thank me for some papers I had mailed to him and we covered about the same ground concerning Logan. When we were about to hang up, Lad asked me if I knew anyone who might have a photo of Logan. Up to this point I had not remembered that Uncle Logan had a living, breathing grandson right here in Red River County in the Community of Negley. I apologized profusely about the memory lapse and gave him the name and phone number of Wes Braddock. About an hour later Lad called back in a state of high excitement to report that with no prompting whatsoever from Lad, Wes related almost verbatim, the story of the children swinging on the gate and their subsequent disappearance. At this point Lad and I were convinced we had old Logan nailed!
During the week of November 7th 1988 I visited with Wes and Jo Braddock in their home in Negley and borrowed a Black and White photo of Logan and his three boys standing in front of their Carpentry and Blacksmith Shop at 200 South Walnut in Clarksville. That would be where the abandoned Citizens Drive Through Bank is located today (Dec. 1995). I made several Photocopies and returned the original. Lad called on November 13, to say he had scheduled a trip to Texas for November 19 thru 23. Lad arrived at DFW at 11:00 A. M. November 19th, picked up a rental and drove to The Dallas Public Library where he extracted several documents concerning Logan's war record. He arrived at our house at 10:30 A. M. November 20. Soon after his arrival he called his wife to report his progress and told her his hand rested on an ancient pine kitchen safe which Logan had made with his own hands, here on this farm using timber cut from this land, and all the while he was
courting Adeline. Lad and his wife were both ecstatic. Lad departed our house shortly after noon on November 20, 1988 for his first visit with Wes and Jo Braddock. Soon after his arrival there he made three important discoveries.
(1) Jo produced three photographs of Logan, one a studio portrait.
(2) Wes brought out his Mother's family bible in which she (Cumi Dietz Braddock) had written her father (Logan Dietz's) war record as he dictated it to her. In that record Lad discovered the young Logan had been in three major battles and two or three minor skirmishes and had sustained but one wound, a broken finger while trying to do rapid fire with a muzzle loading rifle.
(3) Lad Heisten has the final joint on both small fingers bent so the tips of the fingers point toward the other fingers on the same hand. If the hands are held, palms facing bearer, with the small fingers aligned and touching, the tips of those fingers point away from each other. Lad's Mother has these fingers as does her father and his father. Much to Lad's amazement and great joy, so did Wes Braddock!
Lad spent the night of November 20, with the Braddocks and on the morning of November 21, drove to Paris to search some courthouse records and drove back to Clarksville to look at some census records. He spent the night of November 21 at our house and in the morning of November 22, 1988 I accompanied him to The New Haven Cemetery where I pointed out the graves of Logan and Adeline. The markers were covered with lichen so I produced a block of Styrofoam which makes a good buffer but leaves the letters filled with grit. As he stood on his knees over the graves clearing the letters, Lad looked at me with tears beginning to well and said, "I am sorry, but you cannot know what this means to me". I replied, "You are the great-grandson of the man who started this search 124 years ago! You just this minute finished that long search, of course it's an emotional climax". He studied the stone in silence for a minute then, in a loud, firm voice filled with emotion
said, "Richard Logan Dietz, You Old Warrior, After Your Being Lost For A Century and A Quarter, I HAVE FOUND YOU ! As Lad departed the Braddock home on November 22, 1988, an old Grandfather Clock began tolling the midnight hour, just as it had so long ago, in the home of Nancy Adeline and Richard Logan Dietz. That Folks, Is The TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN! CMR - 12/95
The Dietz name first appeared on record in Nassau, the former duchy of West Germany, in the year 1338 as Count of Nassau. The name is derived from the root form "Diet" meaning "People". From this has arisen Dietsh, Dietze, Dietzel, and Dietzen. Noble families of Dietz abound in the heraldic and other records. We find them owners of vast estates and castles in Franconia, Silesia, Prussia, Bavaria, Esthonia and Switzerland. In addition to being landowners and leaders in government, many members of the Dietz family were very talented in the Arts and Sciences. Johann Christian Dietz invented the melodian and the clove harp. One of the most gifted painters of battle scenes was Feodor Dietz who was born in Germany in the year 1813. Ten coats of arms were awarded to the Dietz families, the most significant of which is a blue shield with gold lions rampant standing on a green triple mount.
The first Dietz in America was George Dietz who arrived on the sailing ship "Thistle" under command of Captain Hansen on October 27, 1738. Jonas Dietz came to Texas from Kentucky in about 1840. He served under Houston during the Texas Revolution and his name is recorded in the archives of the Alamo. He was given a land patent in Red River County. The major portion of this land lies in present day Lamar County. This land patent is on record in the deed records of Lamar County, Paris, Texas. Jonas Dietz had three daughters: Maggie, Hanna and Rebecca, and one son, Richard Logan Dietz.
Richard Logan Dietz served four years in the Confederate Army and married Nancy Adeline Raulston on October 3, 1865. Uncle Logan was a fine carpenter and cabinet maker. At about the time he married Adeline, he made for his mother-in-law a pine kitchen safe. The antique dealer of today will call it a pie safe. On the farm it was used more for potatoes and beans. That old pine safe has presided over daily meals and Sunday gatherings in the old farm kitchen for more than a century. It is now one of the most prized possessions in my home.
More written by C.M. Raulston, Jr. in 1995:
MOUNTAINTOP
It is seldom that a person doing genealogical research has a Mountain Top experience but such things do happen, and did happen right here in Dimple. On Sunday, October 30, 1988 a young man introduced himself to my wife, Dorothy, as Ernest Lad Heisten III, calling from Madison, WI to inquire if her husband might know something of the Dietz family in Red River County. Dorothy, who tends to get a bit enthusiastic about such matters, replied, "he is out puttering in the shop, but you hang on, I will fetch him'. She then held the phone at armslength and blew a mighty blast upon her trusty police whistle which she wears around her neck. I appeared at her side in an instant, for I know when I hear that whistle, the lady of my house is in no mood to put up with any messin' around!
It developed that the State Library in Madison had a copy, of "Red River Recollections" and Lad had read R. L. Dietz md. Nancy Adeline Raulston - Oct. 31 1865 - in a short family lineage I had written for that Publication. Lad knew from oral family history his great-great-grandfather was Logan Dietz, a veteran of the Confederate Cause. He had decided to not call me but his wife told him the L in R. L. might very well be Logan. When I answered the phone my knowledge of the Dietz family was as I had written in 1973 in The Raulstons of Red River County limited to what my father had told and what Mittie Dietz Gardener, a grand-daughter to Logan, had written to me in letters from Santa Fe.
Jonas Dietz came to Texas in about 1840 and worked for Sam Houston helping to build a stockade for prisoners of war on Galveston Island and was granted a land patent in Lamar County. Jonas had three daughters, Maggie, Hannah and Rebecca, and one son, Richard Logan Dietz. I had also listed the marriage of Logan to Adeline and the names of their children and the descendants of those children. I wrote that Uncle Logan was a fine carpenter and cabinet maker and at about the time he was courting Adeline, he made for her mother, Fannie Ousley Raulston, a pine kitchen safe. That safe sits in our house today (Dec. 1995).
Logan served in the Confederate Army, and he and Adeline were buried in The New Haven Cemetery in Dimple. During our phone conversation I learned the following.
In his research, Lad had discovered a Logan Dietz at age 19 in Lamar County married to a Mary C. Gray. He had Logan's father listed as Jonas with some vague information that Jonas had served in the Texas Revolution and that Jonas had a brother, Amos, buried in the Bogata Cemetery in Red River County. He then related the following family legend to me .
"When Logan marched off to the Civil War from his farm somewhere in Tennessee, he turned for a last loving look at his family and saw his young son and little daughter swinging on the yard gate waving goodbye and their mother who waved from the porch behind them. That was the last time he saw his Tennessee family and it was the last the little Tennessee family ever saw or heard of Logan. When the war ended and Logan returned to his farm he found the place had been pillaged, the buildings burned, and his wife had died from starvation and exposure. The children had been taken to live with relatives by people "going west." This legend had been passed down by the boy left swinging on the gate, James Monroe Dietz, who was Lad's great-grandfather. James Monroe and his younger sister grew up in the Missouri Ozarks near the small town of Webb City, MD, as did his descendants. Lad's parents, Ernest L. Heisten Jr. and Betty Jean (Dietz) Heisten live there today
(Dec. 1995). Lad speculated that Logan, in his search for his children, returned to Lamar County to visit his father and relatives of Mary C. Gray, his deceased wife, who were the logical people to have the children. Imagine his terrible disappointment and grief upon learning his family had not been heard from in Lamar County. He further speculated that Logan met Adeline in his aimless wanderings and married her. When that first conversation ended, Lad was elated but I was not so sure because my father, who enjoyed telling me stories of olden times, never mentioned a prior marriage of Uncle Logan. Lad called me again on Sunday, November 6, to thank me for some papers I had mailed to him and we covered about the same ground concerning Logan. When we were about to hang up, Lad asked me if I knew anyone who might have a photo of Logan. Up to this point I had not remembered that Uncle Logan had a living, breathing grandson right here in Red River County in the Community of Negley. I apologized profusely about the memory lapse and gave him the name and phone number of Wes Braddock. About an hour later Lad called back in a state of high excitement to report that with no prompting whatsoever from Lad, Wes related almost verbatim, the story of the children swinging on the gate and their subsequent disappearance. At this point Lad and I were convinced we had old Logan nailed!
During the week of November 7th 1988 I visited with Wes and Jo Braddock in their home in Negley and borrowed a Black and White photo of Logan and his three boys standing in front of their Carpentry and Blacksmith Shop at 200 South Walnut in Clarksville. That would be where the abandoned Citizens Drive Through Bank is located today (Dec. 1995). I made several Photocopies and returned the original. Lad called on November 13, to say he had scheduled a trip to Texas for November 19 thru 23. Lad arrived at DFW at 11:00 A. M. November 19th, picked up a rental and drove to The Dallas Public Library where he extracted several documents concerning Logan's war record. He arrived at our house at 10:30 A. M. November 20. Soon after his arrival he called his wife to report his progress and told her his hand rested on an ancient pine kitchen safe which Logan had made with his own hands, here on this farm using timber cut from this land, and all the while he was
courting Adeline. Lad and his wife were both ecstatic. Lad departed our house shortly after noon on November 20, 1988 for his first visit with Wes and Jo Braddock. Soon after his arrival there he made three important discoveries.
(1) Jo produced three photographs of Logan, one a studio portrait.
(2) Wes brought out his Mother's family bible in which she (Cumi Dietz Braddock) had written her father (Logan Dietz's) war record as he dictated it to her. In that record Lad discovered the young Logan had been in three major battles and two or three minor skirmishes and had sustained but one wound, a broken finger while trying to do rapid fire with a muzzle loading rifle.
(3) Lad Heisten has the final joint on both small fingers bent so the tips of the fingers point toward the other fingers on the same hand. If the hands are held, palms facing bearer, with the small fingers aligned and touching, the tips of those fingers point away from each other. Lad's Mother has these fingers as does her father and his father. Much to Lad's amazement and great joy, so did Wes Braddock!
Lad spent the night of November 20, with the Braddocks and on the morning of November 21, drove to Paris to search some courthouse records and drove back to Clarksville to look at some census records. He spent the night of November 21 at our house and in the morning of November 22, 1988 I accompanied him to The New Haven Cemetery where I pointed out the graves of Logan and Adeline. The markers were covered with lichen so I produced a block of Styrofoam which makes a good buffer but leaves the letters filled with grit. As he stood on his knees over the graves clearing the letters, Lad looked at me with tears beginning to well and said, "I am sorry, but you cannot know what this means to me". I replied, "You are the great-grandson of the man who started this search 124 years ago! You just this minute finished that long search, of course it's an emotional climax". He studied the stone in silence for a minute then, in a loud, firm voice filled with emotion
said, "Richard Logan Dietz, You Old Warrior, After Your Being Lost For A Century and A Quarter, I HAVE FOUND YOU ! As Lad departed the Braddock home on November 22, 1988, an old Grandfather Clock began tolling the midnight hour, just as it had so long ago, in the home of Nancy Adeline and Richard Logan Dietz. That Folks, Is The TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN! CMR - 12/95
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