Seefeld Family
1 linear feet
A2009-004
1890-1945 (unknown)
Shortly before the Civil war Joachim Seefeld, a native of Pomerania, brought his wife and three children to Wisconsin. Settling in the southeastern corner of the state, he prospered as a truck and dairy farmer supplying the large German community in nearby Milwaukee. In 1876 he sold the farm and moved to Milwaukee to open a wholesale produce business. By 1885, Joachim had retired and the successful business was being carried forward by his eldest son, Charles Friedrich and two of his sons.
In the 1890's Charles and his brothers became interested in the Lone Star State. In the first nine years of the new century they purchased 227 acres in Bexar county, 2,852 acres in what became Jim Wells County and assorted small parcels of urban and suburban real estate in San Antonio and Waco. Charles Friedrich sent two of his sons to Texas to live and work the land. This collection relates the business and personal activities of one branch of the Seefeld family that resided four miles south of Alice, Texas on what was known as the Palo Verde Ranch. The members of this family were Walter Seefeld, his wife Sophia, and their children Marie, Evelyn, Carl and Elizabeth.
The ranch which totaled 2,852 acres, shared a fence line with part of the much larger King Ranch and consisted of a beef and dairy operation and farming plots intended for lease or sale to absentee investors in Wisconsin under a Co-Operative Farming Plan. Eventually the business plan was expanded to include the incorporation of the Diamond S Oil Company which sold its shares to South Texas and Wisconsin investors and drilled the first oil well in Jim Wells County. The agricultural side failed due to lack of water and investors and the oil well blew out and was abandoned. Walter Seefeld lost his Palo Verde Ranch after mortgaging it for the oil investment. The family moved to Houston in 1925 and at the age of 50, Walter had to seek employment as a manual laborer. The Seefeld's expectations in agriculture and oil were just premature and just optimistic enough to be ruinous. Petroleum and gas in abundant quantities were struck in Jim Wells County in 1928 and within sight of the Diamond S. Derrick which had been abandoned three years earlier.
This history was taken from "The Texas Myth in Reality: The Seefeld Family as Entrepreneurs," by James P. Baughman, Southwestern Historical Quarterly (July, 1971), pp.41-53.
The Seefeld Family Papers are comprised of business papers related to oil, gas, and truck farming in Alice, Texas. The Seefelds were also involved in cotton farming and hog raising in the 1920s. They formed the Diamond S Oil Company in 1920. Included in the collection are personal and family letters mostly relating to the businesses. Financial ledgers, notebooks, and accounts make up the bulk of the papers. A copy of the article "The Texas Myth in Reality: The Seefeld Family as Entrepreneurs" by James P. Baughman, Southwestern Historical Quarterly (July, 1971) pp. 41-53, is also included in the collection.
Arranged in Folders
South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Open for Research
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Seefeld Family Papers, A2009-004.XXXX, South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
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A2009-004 – Gift of James Baughman, grandson of Walter F. Seefeld and son of Marie Seefeld Baughman
Collection processed and Finding Aid written by Lori Atkins in 2015. Matthew Tallant encoded finding aid to an EAD document in 2016.