Brown County MN Archives Biographies.....Brandt, Ernst 1838 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 22, 2014, 7:38 pm

Source: See Below
Author: L. A. Fritsche

JUDGE ERNST BRANDT.

    Judge Ernst Brandt, former judge of probate for Brown county, former county
commissioner and for twenty-two years editor of the newspaper Fortschritt, at
New Ulm, now living retired from the more active duties of life in that city, is
a native of Germany, having been born in Roga, by Friedland,
Mecklenberg-Strelitz, October 1, 1838, son of Carl Christian and Wilhelmina
(Plath) Brandt, both natives of Friedland, who were the parents of four
children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second in order of birth,
the others having been Charles C., Fritz and Wilhelmina.

    Carl Christian Brandt was the youngest of the four children born to his
parents, Julius Brandt and wife, the others having been August, Eda and Theresa.
Julius Brandt was a school master and took an active part in local church work
in his native land. Both he and his wife died in Germany. Carl C. Brandt was
carefully reared and received an excellent education, for some time in his young
manhood having been a school teacher in his native land. He was trained to the
millwright's craft and became a very proficient artisan in that form of
industry. He married in the Fatherland Wilhelmina Plath, youngest of the three
children born to her parents, the others having been Hans, who died in New Ulm,
this county, and Herman, who is now living, at the age of eighty-four years, in
Yakima, Washington.

    In the year 1852 Carl C. Brandt and his family came to the United States,
locating at Cleveland, Ohio, where they remained until 1856, in which year they
came to Minnesota, locating in Brown county, thus being among the pioneers of
this county. Carl C. Brandt homesteaded a quarter of a section of land in Sigel
township and there established his home, quickly becoming recognized as one of
the leading pioneers of the county. He had brought a complete set of
millwright's tools with him from Cleveland and shortly after settling here
erected on his farm the first grist-mill ever constructed in the state of
Minnesota, This mill was operated by wind power and its great wings for many
years were familiar objects in the landscape there. The stone for the buhrs of
the mill was taken from the bed of Cottonwood river and for years this
substantial old mill faithfully performed its office of grinding the corn of the
neighbors for miles about in that vicinity. In addition to his extensive farming
and milling operations Carl C. Brandt was active in promoting the general
interests of the new community and took a prominent part in civic affairs. He
was for years a member of the school board in Sigel township and served the
county for some time in the capacity of county commissioner. When well past
middle age he and his wife moved from the farm and located in New Ulm, where
they spent the remainder of their lives in the comfortable frame house they
erected on the site now occupied by the residence of Doctor Fritsche. Mrs.
Brandt died at the age of sixty-eight, her husband surviving for some years, he
being eighty-one years of age at the time of his death.

     Ernst Brandt was about nineteen years old when he came to Brown county with
his parents in 1856 and he at once entered actively into the pioneer life of the
community. At that time the section of the county in which the family settled,
had not been organized as a township and he was later largely instrumental in
setting up a proper township organization. In the fall of 1860 he married,
continuing to make his home on his father's farm, and was living there when the
Indian insurrection broke out in 1862. When it came time to organize the
township the privilege of giving a name to the new civic unit was accorded him
and he promptly named it Sigel, in honor of Gen. Franz Sigel, of Civil War fame.
In 1870 he and his family left the farm and moved into New Ulm, in order to gain
better educational facilities for the children. For five years after locating in
New Ulm Mr. Brandt was the editor and publisher of the New Ulm Review. He then
took charge of the New Ulm Fortschritt and for twenty-two years was the editor
and publisher of that paper. In the meantime he had been elected judge of
probate for Brown county and for twelve years served very efficiently in that
important capacity. He then was elected justice of the peace and was
continuously re-elected to that office until he declined longer to accept the
nomination after a service of twenty-five years, since which time he has been
living quietly retired from the more active duties of life, he and his wife
enjoying, in their tranquil old age many evidences of the esteem and affection
in which they are held by the entire community, their children, grandchildren
and great-grandchildren all contributing to make enjoyable the pleasant and
quiet "evening time" of their lives.

    On September 16, 1860, in Jefferson county, Missouri, Ernst Brandt was
united in marriage to Eliza Vendlandt, who was born in Carlferde, Braunschweich,
Germany, January 23, 1840, daughter of William and Caroline (Lipke) Vendlandt,
who came to the United States in 1853 and for a time made their home in
Cleveland, Ohio, later moving to St. Louis, later moving onto a farm in
Jefferson county, Missouri, whither Mr. Brandt went to claim the bride whose
heart he had won during the time they both lived in Cleveland. Later William
Vendlandt and his wife moved hack to St. Louis, where they spent the remainder
of their lives, the former being above seventy years of age at the time of his
death and the latter seventy-three. They were the parents of eight children who
grew to maturity, those besides Mrs. Brandt having been William, Mary, August,
Lena, Friedericka, Antonia and Wilhelmina. The elder William Vendlandt was the
youngest of the three sons born to his parents, Christopher Vendlandt and wife,
the others having been Friederich and August, and his wife was the youngest of
the four children born to her parents, the others having been Dorothea, Conrad
and Alvena.

     To Ernst and Eliza (Vendlandt) Brandt seven children have been born, as
follow: Charles, who died in infancy at St. Paul, whither his parents had fled
at the time of the Indian outbreak in 1862; Ernst, who died unmarried in 1908;
August, who died unmarried in 1901; Robert, who married Olga Schleuder and died
in 1912, leaving a daughter, Elvira, who, after her graduation from the
Springfield high school, took a course in the State Normal School and is now
teaching; Agnes, who died at the age of fourteen; Eliza, who died at the age of
twelve, and Wilhelmina, who married Hugo O. Schleuder, a jeweler and optician of
New Ulm, and has seven children, Victor, Walter, Ernst, Lessing, Hugo, Loma and
Altha. Judge Brandt is the only surviving charter member of the New Ulm
Turnverein, in the affairs of which he ever has taken a warm interest. He is a
member of Charity Lodge No. 98, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and has
occupied every chair in the blue lodge and been a representative of his local
lodge in the Minnesota grand lodge a number of times. He formerly was a
Republican, but voted for the Democratic electors during Mr. Bryan's races for
the presidency. In addition to his service on the probate bench and in the
office of justice of the peace, Judge Brandt also has served the county as a
county commissioner and in former days was very active in extending the benefits
of education hereabout by his efforts in behalf of the general elevation of
educational standards throughout this part of the state.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY MINNESOTA
ITS PEOPLE, INDUSTRIES AND INSTITUTIONS

L. A. FRITSCHE. M. D.
Editor

With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records
of Many of the Old Families

VOLUME II
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana


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