Nowlan-Dietrich House
1105 N. Kansas Ave., Hastings, NEThe historical significance of this house is derived from its association with Charles Henry Dietrich, Governor of Nebraska, U.S. Senator, and Hastings banker; and its association with his wife, Margretta Shaw Stewart Dietrich, prominent in the state suffragette movement and in a number of campaigns and organizations for women's and children's rights. The house was their home throughout their marriage; he purchased and remodeled it for his bride in 1909 and they resided there until his death in 1924. The residence's exterior retains with few exceptions the appearance and elements of the Dietrich period of occupation.
C. H. Dietrich (1853-1924) was born in Aurora, Illinois, to German immigrant parents who fled the country because of his father's socialist opinions. In the adventurous spirit, he was to continue all his life, Dietrich ran away from home at the age of ten, returning after a year to complete a final year of school before leaving again to support himself at various jobs in Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, San Antonio, St. Joseph, and the Black Hills. In 1878 he married Elizabeth Slaker of Aurora, Illinois, and moved permanently to Hastings where he was a partner in a general merchandising store and then a hardware store before organizing the very successful loan and insurance office of Dietrich & Slaker in 1881. He assisted in establishing the German National Bank in 1887 and served as its president until 1905. Dietrich was active in the commercial and agricultural development of Hastings and Adams County as president of the Board of Trade and promoter for the Northwestern and Missouri Pacific railroads to build through the town. He was one of the first to experiment with the growing of timothy, clover, alfalfa, and sugar beets in the county.
A personal tragedy occurred in 1887 with the death of his young wife and baby. His daughter, Gertrude, was educated in European boarding schools and at Bryn Mawr College. He consequently lived in hotels and lodgings and there is no known residence associated with him from the early period of his life.
Dietrich's political career, although brief and turbulent, was not without its effect on Nebraskans. His first candidacy was the bitterly-contested governor's race of 1900, in which he defeated the incumbent by 861 votes. In the shortest governorship in Nebraska history (Jan. 3 - May 1, 1901), he resigned after being appointed by the Nebraska Senate to fill an unexpired term in the U.S. Senate. His achievements there included support of the famous Kinkaid Act (see Moses P. Kinkaid Building, O'Neill, NRHP); the sponsorship of the Newland Reclamation Act for irrigation projects; and promotion of the American sugar beet industry. A well-timed smear campaign cost him the nomination of his party for re-election and he returned to Hastings.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.