San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1291-1292
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 11/16/2009
GEORGE H. DIETZ
A druggist whose exceptionally fine scientific training and wide, valuable experience have enabled him to render a great service to the community in which he lives and thrives is George H. Dietz, of 19 South San Joaquin Street, Stockton, the same city in which he was born on October 9, 1881, in the same house and room in which his mother was born. This house, at 205 East Lindsay Street, is still standing. Henry Dietz, the father of our subject, was a native of Germany, and he married Miss Edith Fredericks, a native of Stockton. Both are now deceased, having lived useful lives and left behind the best of records as citizens, neighbors, and friends. Three of their children have survived. George H. is the subject of our review. Florence has become the wife of Ed L. Wright; and Linda S. is well known as a music teacher in Stockton.
Henry Dietz came to America when a young man and, having crossed the great plains, passed the greater part of his days in Virginia City, where he conducted a bakery. He was there during the days of the Comstock gold mine excitement, and was a personal friend of the Mackays, the Fairs and the Huntingtons, and was himself a familiar figure in the pioneer days of Nevada. Grandfather Henry Fredericks was also a native of Germany, and crossed the plains to California in pioneer days; he became one of the early settlers of Stockton, and was there a landowner, and teamed to the Southern mines in early days. He also went to the mines in Nevada. One sixteen-horse team he sent out from Stockton loaded with freight for Nevada was never heard from. Later, Mr. Fredericks located in Virginia City and followed draying. He passed away in Stockton.
George H. Dietz pursued the usual courses in the Stockton schools, and when about thirteen started to earn his living. He entered the employ of the Holden Drug Company, one of the pioneer drug companies of California, established in Stockton far back in 1849, commencing work for a wage of only two dollars a week, and working twelve hours a day, seven days in the week. In 1906 he started in business for himself in a small way, in a store on Market Street, and later he moved to his present store at 19 South San Joaquin Street. As the inventor of the Dietz "Euca-Menth" cough drop he has become especially well known. He put them on the market in 1918, and started to make them in five-pound lots, putting them up in paper bags. Today he has a factory devoted to the manufacture of the same, and he makes 500 pounds a day, the sale having been extended all over the world. He also makes the "Keep Kool Kamfor Kream," which has proven very popular. He has the best prescription trade in Stockton, being endorsed by eighteen of the leading doctors of this city. This record of success is all the more interesting because Mr. Dietz is a self-made man, who has risen to his present position unaided and through his own industrious, honest efforts.
On March 7, 1915, at Stockton, Mr. Dietz was married to Miss Lillian A. Blanchard, a native of Stockton, and their union has been blessed with the birth of three children. George Robert is the eldest, and then there are twin sisters, Janis Lillian and June Edith. Mr. Dietz has been a member of Stockton Lodge No. 11, I.O.O.F., since 1904.
History of
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
With A
Biographical Review
of
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present
HISTORY BY
George H. Tinkham
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1923
San Joaquin County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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