The Franklin and Donna Fischer House Sunny View Farm Address: 1126 Hall Road, Olney, TX Original Owners: Otto and Ottillie Deitrich

Otto and Ottillie Dietrich became the owners of the South and West ends of the Stell Survey in 1901 and built a house soon after.

In 1913, they deeded five acres off the Southwest Corner (bordered by Hall Road and FM 2178 today) of the tract to St. Luke’s Lutheran Church which had organized in 1897 and built a wooden building on what was known then as Terrapin Road and Cotton Wood Road.

In a previous story about C.W. Junker’s house on Hall Road, I mentioned that Mr. Junker had a reputation as being a house mover and I believe that he moved that building to the 5-acre site. Donna Fischer assured me there is a picture of a white frame building adjacent to the 1926 church which was a brick building and that it was not the parsonage. Pastor P.J. Klenk and his wife maintained a parochial school in the church from the early twenties until the outbreak of World War II in 1942. (St. Luke’s in 1967 built a new building in the 1300 block of West Oak in Olney).

In 1921, Otto and wife deeded the West 150 acres except the 5 acres to the church to Edwin O. and Hulda (Kunkel) Deitrich. Donna is uncertain about houses built on the property but the present house with the adjacent barn with the big Sunny View Farm sign where Ed and Hulda raised their three girls – Louella, Leola (Boots), and Marlene. They opened up the attic portion to provide more room and the brick was added at some point.

In the mid 30s Ed entered the grocery business on Main Street by buying the Duckworth Grocery in the 100 block of West Main. Mr. Duckworth was also the owner of the Nehi bottling company (one of two in Olney with the other being the Dr. Pepper plant) and also of considerable ranching property in Archer County near the R.H. Farmer Ranch. Ed named his grocery the Sunny View Grocery and he had plenty of competition in the same block with C.H. Parker Grocery in the next building to the West (the present Hamilton Street Church of Christ fellowship hall being the present owner of that building) and Strealy’s White House Market directly across the street and Evans Grocery in the middle of the block to the East and a scattering of grocery sellers around town. The larger stores provided employment to many high school boys after school and Saturdays as sackers and carrying the purchases to the head-in parked cars of the customers. Of note is that Blue Laws kept the grocery stores closed on Sundays.

Donna is unsure of when the Sunny View store closed but she thought it might have been in the 1950s. In 1974 after Ed’s passing Hulda as executrix of the estate executed the deed of the house to Don Terry who had married Louella Deitrich. Don’s father reared his family in the Swastika oil field and after Don returned from serving in World War II he cast his lot in oil well drilling and oil production. In 1984 Donna (Terry) and Franklin Fischer became the owners and as their predecessors did, they added to the house with an addition to the East.

If you have any relevant information you would like to add or subtract from this article, please contact Clifton Key at 940-564-2979.