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Below is a family biography included in the Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania published in 1904 by T. S. Benham & Company and The Lewis Publishing Company; Elwood Roberts, Editor.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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REV. J. EUGENE DIETTERICH, the well known pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran church, of Whitemarsh township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, is a native of Columbia county, same state, where he was born December 4, 1858. He is the son of Henry (deceased) and Tamar (Evans) Dietterich. The father was also a minister of the gospel.

Rev. Mr. Dietterich was educated at Susquehanna University, and at Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, where he graduated in 1886. He then took a course in the Theological Seminary at Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, under his father. He was called to a charge at Friesburg, New Jersey, where he remained four years, and had a very successful pastorate. The manner in which the congregation prospered, and the large increase in the membership of the church, bore ample testimony to the success of his ministerial labors. Rev. Mr. Dietterich organized and conducted a mission at Bridgeton, New Jersey, which under his pastorate developed into a flourishing congregation. He remained in that position until 1895, when he received a call to Whitemarsh township, where he has ever since been located as the pastor of a flourishing congregation. He has built up the membership very much, and established the church’s finances on a sound basis. His people love and respect him very much. During 1903 he organized a church at Oreland, Pennsylvania, which is now in a flourishing condition, and has a membership of twenty-nine.

While in Bridgeton, New Jersey, Mr. Dietterich was a member of the board of directors of the Children’s Aid Society, of the state, and president of the County Sunday School Association. He is the originator of the idea of decorating the graves of the sailors of the United States naval service who died and were buried at sea. He began the movement while he was filling a pastorate in the state of New Jersey, and since then the custom has gained a world-wide interest. On every Decoration Day the people gather at the seaside and strew flowers on the waters in memory of the heroic dead. Rev. Mr. Dietterich is a member of the Junior order of United American Mechanics.

Mr. Dietterich married September 22, 1887, Miss Margaret L. Dimm, daughter of Prof. J. R. Dimm, D. D., president of Susquehanna University. They have two children: Charles D., born on November 7, 1888, and Margaret E., born November 25, 1892. Mrs. Dietterich is a very superior and gifted woman, and aids her husband very greatly in church work. Her father, Dr. Dimm, was at one time pastor of St. Peter’s Lutheran church at Barn Hill. After resigning that charge he became pastor of the Messiah Lutheran church, at Sixteenth and Jefferson streets, Philadelphia. He subsequently purchased the Female Seminary at Lutherville, a suburb of Baltimore, which he conducted successfully for a number of years. Resigning this position, he became the president of the Missionary Institute (now Susquehanna University), in which he is now senior professor.

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This family biography is one of more than 1,000 biographies included in the Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania published in 1904 by T. S. Benham & Company and The Lewis Publishing Company.  For the complete description, click here: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

View additional Montgomery County, Pennsylvania family biographies here: Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Biographies

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