Gloria and Otto Wuthrich
Gloria and Otto Wuthrich
Written by Beth Wade Monday, 07 January 2008
The MKT railroad came through Pflugerville in the early 1900s and went straight through the middle of the Wuthrich’s property. Growing up on the family farm in the 1940s, Otto Wuthrich was warned many times to avoid the tracks, but sometimes the shortcut from school was too much of a temptation, he said.
“When I was a kid, I was really excited about the railroad coming through and watching the trains,” he said. “We had about five or six trains a day and a couple at night. I liked to go in the pasture and watch the steam engines go by and see that fire box. The railroad track was only 300 feet from our house.”
During that time, the Wuthrich family had 240 acres of land in the heart of Pflugerville, but through the years the acreage has dwindled due to land donations for everything from railroad to new portions of Wells Branch Parkway.
“We are going through the struggle now to transition between farming and developer,” Otto said. “It has developed all around us. Until we actually close the rest of the land, we have to maintain the farm.”
Otto took over the farm when his father retired in the ‘80s. Now the farm produces hay. Because of its close proximity to residential areas, the family is limited on what it can grow due to the inability to use pesticides and herbicides.
Gloria came to Pflugerville in 1970 and married Otto in ’72. The couple still lives on the Wuthrich property in a house that is approximately 200 feet from the house where Otto was born in 1942.
The couple has watched the city grow from a population of 300, when everyone knew everyone to today’s population of more than 40,000. Gloria serves on the Greater Pflugerville Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Planning Commission, but is also active with other area groups including the Lions Club and Heritage House.
“Gloria really is more involved than me. She goes [to the city council meetings] and tries to keep up on what’s going on,” Otto said. “Thank goodness, she goes.”
Otto hopes the city’s growth is well-planned because he hates sprawl, he said.
For now, the couple is most concerned with the development of their own land and the quality of its development.
“We want our place to be developed to where we can be proud of it,” Otto said. “We are the last generation owners in it, and we want the rest of our family to be proud of it. Instead of just selling it and whatever the developer wants to do, that’s it. We are a part of the development … I don’t think we are ever going to leave. We are going to be here the rest of our lives.”
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