Frederick Louis Brill

Bio

F. L. BRILL. The career of the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this sketch is but another evidence of what can be accomplished by those of- foreign birth who seek a home and fortune on the free soil of America. He possesses the push, energy and enterprise for which his countrymen are noted, and as a natural consequence he has been successful in the accumulation of means, and has won a reputation for honesty and fair dealing that is in every respect justly merited. Mr. Brill was born in Prussia, Germany, December, 1832, to the marriage of Henry and Vina Brill, both of whom were natives of the old country, where they passed their entire lives. The father was a prominent manufacturer. Of the four children born to this worthy couple three besides our subject survive at the present time—Emerick, Mina and Magna. F. L. Brill grew to manhood in Bilstein, Prussia, attended the public schools of that place, and subsequently took a collegiate course at Lipstadt, where he graduated when about eighteen years old.

In 1849 he left the parental roof and took passage on a vessel bound for the United States, where he expected to make his fortune. After a stormy voyage of several weeks' duration he landed in New Orleans, and amid strange faces and new surroundings he began the battle of life. He could speak but little English, and as he had but a few hundred dollars he thought it best to learn a trade. For six months he was actively engaged in learning the cigar makers trade in New Orleans and then went to San Antonio, Tex., where he started a cigar factory of his own. This he conducted very successfully for two years and then left that city with about $2,000 as a result of his enterprise. In 1852 he was seized with the gold fever and with others made his way to California, going by way of the Isthmus, and landed at San Juan, where he was seized with a different kind of fever—the yellow fever, or Panama fever— which caused him to embark for San Francisco as soon as possible. The fever broke out on board the vessel and our subject did not recover from the effects of it for seven months. He remained but a short time in San Francisco and then went to the southern mines of California, Mariposa County, where he was engaged in placer mining and where he kept a boarding-house for about eighteen months. Not meeting with the success he had anticipated, he abandoned his business there and went to San Diego, where he first embarked in merchandise, but subsequently was engaged in stock raising. He took up land and carried on the cattle business in San Diego for ten years, and while in that city held the office of city trustee and supervisor for one term. He was also deputy sheriff for one year. In the spring of 1865 he came to Arizona, having the government contract to supply the posts with beef, and brought with him the first drove of cattle. Through the influence of his partner he acquired an interest in the Vulture gold mine, which had been discovered but a short time before. He took up a ranch on the Hassayampa River, three miles south of Wickenburg, then a thriving settlement, and set out an orchard there, which was the first on record in Arizona. He could raise all kinds of fruit, but made a specialty of apples. The Indians were so thievish and hostile that he could keep no stock and so gave his entire attention to fruit for about fifteen years. At the same time he worked the Vulture mine, but finally sold his interest in this and gave all his time to fruit raising. He supplied Prescott and Fort Whipple with fruits and potatoes and made a trip to those points once a week. After going out of the fruit business he again engaged in stock raising, and as a fine stream of water ran through his place and as he had succeeded in buying out his neighbors, he was able to control the water, and as a consequence he was very successful in his cattle business. In 1885 he moved to Phoenix and began to raise alfalfa to fatten cattle, and as this met with excellent results, he made considerable money. Others soon followed his example, and as a result of this he is still engaged in the business and hundreds of others are now following his footsteps. Mr. Brill now owns three fine ranches, one of which joins the city of Phoenix and is very valuable. A part of it has been sold off in town lots. He deals quite extensively in cattle and now owns about 1,200 head. Mr. Brill owns a good home just outside the city limits and also considerable valuable city property. It is hardly necessary to add that Mr. Brill has made a success of life. Coming to this country a young "green" German, as he remarked, he has steadily climbed the ladder of success and can now enjoy the fruits of his early labors. For a number of years he was justice of the peace of Wickenburg and witnessed many fights between the Indians and white men.

He had some narrow escapes himself. At one time he had all his stock stolen by the Indians. Mr. Brill is an interesting conversationalist and can relate many thrilling pioneer stories. He was married in 1877 to Miss Isabella Rourke, by whom he has three children—Frederick, Louis and Cora. His second wife was Miss Laura Copeland of San Francisco, and he and family hold membership in the Catholic Church. Politically he is a Republican.

Additional Comments: From:

A Historical and Biographical Record of the Territory of Arizona Published by McFarland & Poole, Chicago, 1896

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.org/az/maricopa/bios/gbs73brill.txt

Fish Farming and Background

Few of the pioneers who entered Arizona Territory in the early 1860s were visionaries. Most were merely seeking gold, or a new start. Frederick Louis Brill, who settled near Wickenburg in 1866 was of the first category. Brill had already made his name as one of the top ranchers and farmers in the Territory by 1870. But it was 10 years later that he did what no other man had even dreamed of: start a fish farm in the middle of the desert. Here is the story of Frederick L. Brill, one of the most successful and exceptional of the men who carved a place in the wilderness of Arizona Territory in its early years. What kind of man would even dream of starting a fish farm in the desert near Wickenburg? One that already was highly successful in business, farming and ranching, one that was extremely thrifty with that precious desert resource, water, and one who was adventurous enough to try just about anything that was enterprising. Such a man was Frederick Brill. Brill had been on his ranch 3 miles outside Wickenburg on the old wagon trail to Phoenix for some 15 years before he had a flourishing fish farm, supplying fresh carp to Chinese restaurant owners in both Prescott and Phoenix. In those 15 years, Brill had suffered losses of valuable stock to Indian, had his herder, Ben Weaver, son of mountainman Pauline Weaver, killed in an Indian raid, and despite it all, had become one of the best known farmers of fruits and vegetables in the Territory.

A German Immigrant - Frederick L. Brill was born in Bilstein, Westphalia, Prussia (Germany) on April 4, 1833. He attended public schools and took a college course at Lippstadt, Germany before leaving for the United States in 1849 at the age of 16. His ship put in at New Orleans, where he got work as a cigar maker. A year later, the young Brill moved to San Antonio, Texas and, having learned the trade, opened his own cigar factory. He was only 17, but extremely industrious and knowledgeable of business. He ran his cigar factory for two years, built up the business, and sold it in 1852. Now, with the money in his pocket, he decided to head for California. He arrived in San Francisco and headed into the placer fields of Mariposa County. He opened a boarding house, taking advantage of the heavy influx of miners into the area. He sold that business in 1855 and moved to San Diego. There Brill went into the cattle business and made a name for himself in the community. Within five years, he became an American citizen.

Into The New Arizona Territory - When Arizona Territory was but two years old, Brill obtained an Army contract to deliver beef to the troops in the Indian infested wilderness, 700 head of beef. He bought a parcel on the Hassayampa River 3 miles toward Phoenix from what was becoming the town of Wickenburg. Taking up the property in 1866, "Fritz" Brill immediately began planting the first large apple and peach orchard in Arizona Territory. Brill was long famous in the Territory for his produce and his beef, his herd estimated at 1,000 head. He also had a dairy farm that supplied the town and nearby mines with milk, butter and cheese. Brill's place had water. The Hassayampa River ran through it, and there were several springs on the property. Bill irrigated with spring water and watered his cattle in the river, which also provided the ranch with an abundance of sandy soil along its banks, soil ideal for raising vegetables and most of all, potatoes. The water from the springs ran through his orchard in ditches he had dug, irrigating the fruit trees through all of the seasons. These ditches ran into a tank, some 20 feet across, which provided a reservoir of water for his cattle when the Hassayampa was dry. Brill's ranch was, as it was later called," A Garden of Allah,"smack in the middle of the Sonoran desert.

Brill's Fish Farm - But few expected the announcement in the Phoenix Herald in the spring of 1881 that the famed pioneer was taking up fish farming in the desert outside Wickenburg. Brill started cautiously. He ordered a number of carp shipped express from California. Most arrived dead, making the cost per live surviving fish $2.50 each. The survivors flourished in Brill's small tank (pond) and he began enlarging the pond, which still is in evidence as a small lake on the old Brill home site outside Wickenburg. Brill’s next order was for 500 fish to be shipped in five large barrels by rail to Maricopa Station from California. The entire lot cost him $150, including shipping. He had the barrels transferred to wagons at Maricopa and freighted them to his Wickenburg ranch, losing only 10 fish on the 80 mile wagon trip. Having expanded his pond to 25 yards across and four feet deep, he dumped the fish in and waited. Within two months Brill reported the carp had doubled in size and had started spawning. He hoped to have a large number of young fish for breeding by Christmas of 1881 and a few months later, in spring of >82, fish for sale for the tables of the Territory. Brill said he should even have enough by then to offer to the Arizona Fish Commission for stocking rivers in the Territory. Brill found ready customers in both Prescott and Phoenix for his fresh fish, particularly Chinese restaurants, which were in abundance at the time. The fish were profitable. The water in the fish breeding pond had already been utilized to irrigate Brill=s fruit trees and water stock. Brill, in an interview with the Phoenix Herald in 1882, said the carp grew readily on scraps from the kitchen and mud and other natural nutrients in the pond. Brill said he found some carp had escaped into one of his irrigation ditches without his knowledge and when he drained the ditch to clean it out, he found ten large carp and a dozen young ones. He said one of the large fish weighed 3.5 pounds and was 17 inches long. This was but eleven months after Brill had received his first shipment of carp. It is certain that Brill was an exceptional man, one who could succeed at cigar manufacturing, fruit and vegetable farming, ranching and even fish farming, a man who could make the desert flourish.

By Bill Roberts, reprinted from The Traveler, January 1997