Mini Monticello

Brinkmann and Crew having some fun in the snow!

How far back can we go? How about 160 years! This is Carsten Brinkmann’s Great Grandfather, Carsten Sierck and wife, Tobeaka.

Atlantic City Souvenir - 1908

Following the Moose Head...

Our quest for the moose head has led us to some interesting discoveries. In case your not familiar, the Brinkmann family had a huge taxidermy moose head hanging in the ballroom on the wall to the right of the fireplace. You could say the vibe was a sportsman’s lounge with complete with dark green walls, Georgia Pine floors, and American Chestnut beams and trim. The head was partially surrounded by a large custom made bookshelf. The world traveler he was, Walter Brinkmann had shot the moose while on expedition in Canada, and had it mounted for display in the home. There was even a picture of Walter in a canoe with the Native Guide and the freshly severed moose head! Talk about provenance!

As the years went by the moose head was relocated into the back “den” as Maggie Brinkmann called it. She had also added the wallpaper and painted the trim. “The place needed doin” she said about moving into the house in 1987 when she married Walter’s son, Carsten. After only four years, Carsten died of heart complications and widowed Maggie lived in the home alone for another 25 years. With no other Brinkmanns to claim the family’s treasures, she sold off some stuff now and then, keeping the moose head of course. The young man who came to cut the grass wanted it. He had worked out a deal with Maggie where sometimes he would get paid in money but sometimes he would get family heirlooms as payment. As a collector, he hoped this would one day pay off. He was mostly into the old silver gelatin prints and family photo albums. Maggie’s gardener kept these documents safe for many years.

We got a tip off that the moose head had been bought during the estate sale, and then sold again. The current caretaker, who is also a neighbor and local business owner, has had a number of inquiries on it since mounting it at their house, including one from us. They have chosen to keep it for now, but who knows where it will end up? We communicate regularly with our new neighbors, and they have introduced us to a very special person. As it turns out they were old friends with none other than the gardener!

The young man is now an older man but has kept safe all these years, a good portion of the Brinkmann family photos. He knew his target audience and quickly mentioned to us his vast collection. We are happy to share that we have had access and acquired some really amazing documents. Over the next few months you will see a lot of “new” old things about the Brinkmann family.

Domino Sugars and Mini Monticello - What is the Connection?

 Carsten Sierck was born 1819 in Prussia (Germany), migrated to America and was naturalized at the age of 25 in 1844. He married Tobeaka, also from Prussia, and they had five children, Carsten William, Theodore, Anna, Henry, and Marie Louise. They lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, but he worked in Brooklyn, New York.

  He was a merchant, a sugar man. Dominated by mostly German families, sugar refinement in America was huge business in the 1800′s, and many small companies showed large profits during this era. The huge profits were partly due to the low tariffs on the importation of sugar, as well as the implementation of sugar in a large portion of processed foods. Carsten Sierck teamed up with John Moller in 1847 to form the Moller & Sierck Company. Their factory was located at the corner of Kent & Division Ave in Brooklyn New York, which at the time was a hot spot for multiple sugar refineries. They specialized in the manufacturing and sale of refined sugars with initial capital stock worth $210,000. One of the smaller sugar companies of the time, at peak production in 1868 they could produce 450,000 lbs or 1400 barrels of sugar every day. In the 1860 U.S. Census, Carsten Sierck reported annual earnings of $100,000, which in today’s money is equal to about $3,100,000.00. By the late 1880′s Carsten had fallen ill, and his son Carsten William had taken over the family business. He died in 1887, which coincidentally was a pivotal year for their industry.

  During the late 1880′s there was intense competition in sugar refining, and many smaller companies were combined to be more efficient. In 1887 Moller & Sierck merged with the largest sugar company in the country controlled by the Havenmeyers. By the end of that same year their factory was closed down and 17 of the nation’s 23 sugar companies had combined to form the American Sugar Refining Company. Controversially, Secretary and Treasurer Carsten William Sierck continued to show profits even after his family’s factory was closed down by the board of trustees. This was viewed as a violation of corporate charters in an attempt to monopolize the supply of sugar.

  Led by Henry Osborne Havenmeyer, the conglomeration of sugar companies came to be known as “The Sugar Trust”. ASR produced 75% of the nation’s refined sugar, and played a major part of the birth of big business in America. Subsequently this monopoly was under great scrutiny, and they faced a number of trials all they way up to the Supreme Court concerning violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. In 1891, “The Sugar Trust” was ruled illegal and had to go through some hoops to stay mostly intact. ASR was one of the original 12 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and in 1900, after a few more acquisitions, became known as today’s familiar “Domino Sugar”. The famous Domino Sugar factory in Brooklyn was blocks away from the Moller & Sierck factory.


  Marie Louise Sierck (b. 1857), Carsten’s youngest child, married a migrant named August Helmuth Brinkmann. They settled in Baltimore and had three boys, August Jr., William, and Walter. She was very progressive for the times, being owner of all the Brinkmann family properties and making most of the family’s financial decisions. She funded and designed products for her husband’s company, The Brinkmann Corset and Novelty Works Company. Though unverified, at a younger age she also contributed to her family’s sugar business, as many sources have credited her as the inventor of Domino sugar tablets. The pressed sugar tablets were featured in ads from as early as 1910, and were an instant success due to the ease of use and transport. Though it is unclear when the family departed from the sugar industry, there is no doubt the Sierck family certainly played a important role in making Domino the largest name in sugar.

 Of course the connection here is Marie Louise. She is the one who commissioned the construction and helped design Mini Monticello for her son Walter Brinkmann to raise his family.

Note: The Baltimore Domino sugar plant was not built until 1922, so it is unlikely the Sierck family had any business there.

Thank you for visiting!

The Number 9 Trolley Line of Catonsville

An old photo taken from our front yard, the photographer was Edward Miller, a Philadelphia streetcar driver, who would take pictures of streetcars wherever he went. He traveled around the mid-Atlantic cities during the 1950s capturing street cars with contextual backgrounds to give a better feel for the viewer. A large part of his collection is available online at http://collections.digitalmaryland.org/cdm/search/collection/btpe

The history of the #9 streetcar trolley line is full of twists and turns. Politics, funding, and lack of progression, stifled the dream master plan and subsequently the streetcar system ended up a truncated version of what it was supposed to be. But those things did not stop its popularity and usage from the locals who used it to get from Ellicott City to Baltimore City as well as points between. The cars themselves were double ended, they could be driven from either end and even the seats could flip to face the other direction. This meant there was no need for a “loop” at the end of the track, as they could just put the trolley in “reverse” and go back the other way without turning around. This was more cost efficient and used far less land to build the track system. As buses became the new form of public transportation in the early 1950s, the electric powered, beautifully hand made wooden trolleys were gradually phased out until all that remained was the #9 streetcar route. The #9 trolley line remained active until 1955, when the tracks were removed, and the street widened.

This picture was taken at the top of a rise looking West downhill towards Catonsville Junction, Rolling Rd, and what is now the 7-11. The picture was taken directly in front of Mini Monticello, and on the left you can see the front yard as well as a hedgerow of dogwood bushes that are no longer there. The trolley stop directly in front of the house was replaced by a bus stop that remained active until February 21, 2017. The small sidewalk waiting area still remains.

Sources:

Spring For Real This Time!

Springtime Gardening! 

Happy Spring!

Mini Monticello -1962

When The Boys Come Home

Stunt Pilot, Carsten Brinkmann

Carsten Sierck Brinkmann, son of Walter and Edna Brinkmann was born Dec 9th, 1916 inside his parents home. As a youth he loved sports and nature, excelling at Badminton and Water-Skiing. According to the 1940 U.S. Census, at the age of 23, he was living at his parents home and working as a tire salesman. It wasn’t until World War II, he found his true calling in life. He joined the Navy and became a pilot from 1942-1946. After the war he did construction work for a few years, but he knew his favorite place was in the open skies. It didn’t take long before he became a flight instructor, first independently, then for Frederick Aviation, an aircraft sales and service company at Fredrick Airport in Maryland. He became an avid stunt pilot and spent every moment he could in the air. Organizing and participating in air shows, he was member of several pilot organizations including the Quiet Birdmen and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

His life was simple, in that he lived to fly, never having kids or getting married until the age of 67. In 1955, when his father died, he was given the family home and he remained there for the rest of his life. He never made changes to the home, never got into fancy cars, or many other hobbies for that matter; he stuck to what he loved and was great at. He finally married, Margaret Pray, another Catonsville native, in 1987, whom he had known since he was a child. They enjoyed only four sweet years together before his passing. He died of heart failure on March 1st, 1991 at the age of 74 in his home. He was still teaching stunt flying at the time of his death. After his death, Fredrick Airport renamed one of their terminals after him.