Frederick Louis Brill |
| Posted 2025-02-09 by Pat R |
| Arizona Republican (Phoenix, Arizona) Thursday, April 6, 1911, p. 9 END OF CAREER OF FREDERICK L. BRILL Died Yesterday Morning At His Home Here Pioneer of the Earlier Times in Both California and Arizona In the death of Frederick L. Brill early yesterday morning, there passed from life one of Arizona's earliest pioneers, one of the few remaining settlers who cast his lot in the gold fields along the Hassayampa in 1865, and who has been a resident of this city for the last twenty-six years. Death occurred at the family home in the northeastern part of the city, in a subdivision of it that bears his name. He was 79 years old and his demise followed the complications and weaknesses due to advanced age. His funeral will be held Friday morning at 8:15 o'clock in the Catholic church. The life story of the deceased was filled with varied and interesting experiences, even before he came to Arizona over forty-five years ago and since that time it has been fraught with all the changes incident to the conquering of primitive nature and the recalcitrant savages that infested the hillsides and deserts of a wonderful land then but little known and still less understood. The vicissitudes and dangers of that life can be but little appreciated now, but they included almost the entire lack of creature comforts and constant vigilance lest life itself might pay the forfeit of venturesome ambition. In the first years of his residence in Arizona when the region through which the historic Hassayampa wends its way, was a frequent battlefield between the fearless whites and the thieving and murderous redskins. Mr. Brill was often a witness of, or concerned in these fierce encounters. He survived those days of peril, as much through good fortune perhaps as anything else, and the bones of scores who then shared his campfires or the shelter of his insecure habitation, have rested for a generation in their final sepulchre. Frederick L. Brill was born in Prussia in December 1832, and was a son of Henry and Vina Brill. He received a good education in the German schools, finishing in a college at Lipstadt. At the age of 17 the spirit of adventure and hope of fortune in the western world impelled him to take passage in a sailing vessel the destination of which was New Orleans. In that city he spent six months acquiring a knowledge of cigar making, then moved further west stopping in San Antonio, Texas, where he engaged in the mercantile business and the manufacture of cigars. But the call of the west still echoed in his ears, and the most direct route was via the isthmus. Opportunities were also reported from Nicaragua so he set out for that country, only to decide that he preferred to live in a more northern clime. He crossed the isthmus and took passage on a boat for San Francisco, suffering an attack of yellow fever en route. He arrived in San Francisco in 1852, during the height of the gold excitement and went to Mariposa county where he engaged in placer mining and also kept a boarding house for a year and a half. Southern California next attracted his attention and he journeyed to San Diego county where the next ten years were spent. During one year of this time he was a deputy sheriff and also served the county as supervisor and trustee. He had some mercantile experience in San Diego also but the greater part of the time he spent in the cattle business having taken up a large tract of government land. In 1865, just at the close of the war and almost coincident with the gold discoveries along the Hassayampa, when the government was engaged in warfare with the hostile Indians, he secured beef contracts for furnishing the army posts and set out for the still newer field of adventure. As a nucleus of his herds, for meat in those days could not be shipped in, he brought some seven or eight hundred cattle with him from southern California, driving them across the desert, until he finally reached the Hassayampa river. There he settled on that little tract of land that has ever since been known as Brill's ranch, a few miles south of Wickenburg and gradually added to his acreage until he had a large holding. The ranch house overlooked the river bed and is withing a stone's throw of the present line of the S.F.P. & P. railroad. Here Mr. Brill cleared the benches along the river and planted various farm crops, also planting an orchard, the first one in Arizona, so far as there is record. Though he had many fruits the apple trees predominated, and later the ranch became quite famous for its apples. The most serious drawback to his fortune in the cattle business was the thievery of the Indians who stole and slaughtered his stock to such an extent that he almost retired from the business and devoted most of his time to raising of fruit, and potatoes, which he could better protect with a rifle, and marketing his products in Prescott and Fort Whipple. At that time there was no Phoenix and the few inhabitants in this vicinity were known as the Salt River settlement, of Yavapai county. One of Mr. Brill's first business ventures also was to associate himself with Henry Wickenburg in the development of the Vulture Mine, but he sold out before the property had been long operated. Wickenburg continued to be Mr. Brill's home until 1885 when he acquired a considerable acreage north of this city and moved to Phoenix. His home at the corner of Seventh street and the McDowell road has long been a historic landmark in the valley. When it was first built it was regarded as a ranch house, and indeed it was, for with a wide surrounding acreage, for many years Mr. Brill was engaged in the pasturing and fattening of cattle. But as the city grew a portion of his property was platted and became what is now known as Brill's addition. Mr. Brill was married in 1877 to Isabella Rourke by whom he had three children, Cora, Frederick and Louise. The first named is now Mrs. Alfred Franklin of this city. He was later married to Laura Copeland a native of San Francisco, who survives him. [source: Newspapers.com] |
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