|
Research
Museum
Policies
History Overview
Tasks
Genealogy
Wine History
Historic Buildings
Business Histories
Pomo and Wappo Tribes
Resources
Artifact Of The Month
Photo Of The Month
Photos
Documents
Newspapers
Maps
Oral Histories
|
Return to Oral Histories
Family Background
I was born Frederick Milton Brandt to Gussie and Fred Brandt on January
31, 1923. I was raised by an iron-fisted German task master who worked
seven days a week, year around, except for time out for hunting season,
when it could be worked into a busy schedule. Times were tough, but Dad
lived for the future and taught me that money wasn't everything, accomplishments
in life were. He married Ellen Augusta “Gussie” Lambert in 1914. Gussie
was a member of the Charles Lee Lambert family that had settled in Dry Creek
Valley from Virginia in 1852.
My dad was born the second of three sons to Bertha and Frederick Otto
Brandt. F.O., my grandfather, came from a settlement called Pomarania,
which is now Poland. The F.O. Brandt family decided to move to California
where F.O's brother August had already settled. The family arrived in 1888
or 1889. The F.O. Brandt Brewery and Bottling Works was in full swing sometime
in the 1890s.
Brandt Brewery and Bottling Works
My dad was taken out of school upon completing the third grade and put
to work in the brewery and bottling works. There were many menial chores
such as washing bottles, replacing gaskets in the pop bottles and on the
lightning stoppers that sealed the beer bottles prior to the clincher caps
we see today. The manufacture of ice had become such an important function
of the company by 1908, that its name was changed to Healdsburg Bottling
and Ice Works.
Original Home site of Fitch's Sotoyome Rancho
Dad was helped by family with seed money to buy the property we still
live on [Brandt Road off of Bailhache Avenue]. This was purchased from
the Bailhache Estate. This parcel was the last of the Original Sotoyome
Rancho, the home site that Captain Henry Fitch established. This was to
be his future home on this vast Rancho. The parcel was 27 acres along with
the old Fitch Bailache Home. The original plan in 1911 was to develop the
Old Home into a resort on the Russian River.
Childhood Interests and Influences
In my boyhood days, I used to love to roam the hills and mountains east
of our property, usually by myself. This terrain was owned by John Minaglia.
There were approximately 380 acres owned by John Sr. They had Pomo Indian
help who had a large campsite on their property. I used to hike with Old
Emil Bachman, a brother-in-law to John Sr. He taught me how to graft one
variety of prune to another, or bud new wood. I learned many species and
varieties of trees, plants, etc.
The mountain area was where I really learned interesting facts of nature
from Emil Bachman and from many of the Indian children who occupied Minaglia's
property. And there was “Old Indian Mary” who lived with her husband Henry-he
was part Mexican. She did the old fashioned basket weaving. She was blind,
but she and Henry still ground their corn in old mortars. Henry carved
a lot. I had an unusual opportunity to learn all of these skills that were
their life. They lived in a little one-room cabin by a small lake that
filled during the winter months. A live spring trickled by their front door.
Baskets hung on the walls. Indian Mary liked to have someone visit, especially
young people interested in her skills. Henry used to work for the Minaglia
Ranch, but was too old to work anymore.
World War II Service to Country and a Bride
By the age of 30 I had completed three years service in the Uncle Sam's
Navy during World War II, including one year of duty in the South Pacific
with Carrier Aircraft Service Units, aka C.A.S.U., or Fleet Air Base Units.
I saw the results of progressive march up the Solomon chain of islands,
visiting five islands of which three were history-making strongholds of
the Japanese Empire. The last one bought me a ticket back to the States
and 5 1/2 months of hospital time recovering from a coral infection that
slowly healed with the change of climate. This also set the stage for Mary
and I to marry in 1944.
By 1945, I was out of the service and returned to my family's chosen
line of work which consisted of prune farming, commercial farm and ranch
work along with crop spraying, dusting, prune dehydrating and some commercial
cattle. The diversification made a full, year-round schedule to follow.
Life-Changing Polio
July 17, 1953 terminated my life as I had known it for 30 years. I
was returning the stockyards in South San Francisco where I had delivered
the cattle earlier in the morning. I didn't feel well when I left the
coast earlier, but thought it was a touch of the flu. It was a struggle
to get back to Healdsburg after falling down once when getting out of the
truck in Petaluma for a cold drink. I checked with our family doctor. He
was very concerned about what was taking place and suggested that I stay
isolated from my four children.
Early Monday morning he moved me into isolation in the County Hospital
where there were a number of polio patients. This began 5 1/2 months of
painstakingly slow progress to get back to any type of normal lifestyle,
which never did return, as I knew it. My faithful wife Mary was at my bedside
every day with encouragement of getting back home.
Support of the Community
In those days children weren't allowed in the hospital, so now and then
it was a quick glimpse from a second story window. After several months
I had built enough seniority to rate a window bed. The local TV man, Herb
Solem, kept telling Mary he would hook up a TV if they let him on the hospital
roof to put up an antennae. The next thing I knew, Herb showed up with
a first-class black and white TV set. This improved my stay 100%. I was
allowed to go home for Christmas in 1953, but had to go back to the hospital
for stages of transplants so I would be able to use crutches.
All our finances had been wiped out. We sold off all our equipment.
The crop failure of 1953 along with the bottom dropping out of the livestock
market brought about a forced sale and loss of leases in the cattle operation.
In the fall of 1953, unknown to me, a group of friends had organized a benefit
dinner attended by some 200 local men. This was planned and organized by
my lifelong friend Lee Engelke. This was sort of a kick off for many other
benefits for other local citizens throughout the years. I was one of many,
and chaired some, to help repay what I thought was one of the greatest
contributions of friendship anyone could imagine.
Founding Brandt Insurance, April 1962
Things were not easy getting started since mostly all contacts had to
be made by phone until the local citizens became acquainted with my new
line of business. Local competition was well established with older and
more experienced brokers. No one was interested in selling their Book of
Business, so this had to be developed piece by piece. It wasn't too long
to wait, both Jack and Joe graduated from college and took an immediate interest
in insurance. This brought in an entirely new age of clientele which soon
dried up the local agents' Books of Business. Long hours and hard work,
Jack and Joe surged ahead to build one of the North County's largest producing
agencies.
Positive Outlook
Although I have been physically handicapped since 1953, I haven't really
taken time to worry about it. I firmly believe that when the
“Good Lord”
gave me 30 years of a healthy body, he also gave me the ambition to use
it to the fullest, and the results have been quite gratifying-especially
experiences I can relive over and over. |
