Marcella Brinkmeyer, daughter of Henry and Ina (Muzik) Brinkmeyer, was born in Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona Territory, on July 3, 1897. Henry Brinkmeyer was a baker and prominent businessman in Prescott. At the time of Marcella’s birth, the family was living in her father’s hotel, the Brinkmeyer Hotel, on N. Montezuma Street.

It is rumored that friends convinced Henry that it was unseemly to be raising a family in such close proximity to the carryings-on of Whiskey Row, so Henry bought a lot in Fleury’s Addition, in an area that was considered to be far from town at the end of the streetcar line. The impressive 20th century transitional home at 605 W. Gurley Street was completed in 1899 and remains a famous Prescott landmark.

Marcella attended Prescott schools and graduated from the University of California with honors in 1918. She enlisted in the Cadet Nurses Corps, but the World War I armistice was signed before she was called to duty. So she returned to Berkeley and earned a teacher’s certificate.

She taught elementary school in Clarkdale, Arizona and served as a substitute high school teacher there until she moved to Phoenix where she taught at Creighton School for a year.  Then she moved to Prescott and taught at the junior high school for a while before moving to Prescott Senior High School and teaching history and economics until her retirement in 1938.

Dixon Fagerberg, Jr. recalls in his book, Meeting the Four O’Clock Train, "Just as ours was one of the last Latin classes taught at Prescott High School, our senior class course in economics was the first. It was ably taught by Marcella Brinkmeyer. The subject intrigued me, and it became my major in college."

Marcella was a member of the Golden Rule Chapter No. 1, Order of Eastern Star and Delta Zeta social sorority. She was also a member of the Methodist Church. In 1977, the Prescott High School class of 1927 voted her “favorite teacher” at their 50th class reunion. “Marcella was always fond of the students in that class,” recalled her sister Caroline.

Marcella and her younger sister Caroline, who is also represented in the Territorial Women’s Memorial Rose Garden, lived in the family house built by their father all of their adult lives.

Marcella died in the Prescott Community Hospital on February 9, 1963. Services were held in the Ruffner Funeral Home with the Reverend Joseph McShane and members of the Golden Rule Chapter No.1, O.E.S. officiating. She was interred at the Mountain View Mausoleum.

Donor: Janet W. Hilton, July 2004
Photo Located: RGC-MS-39, Box B, F-Brinkmeyer, Marcella
Updated: 4/13/2015; D. Sue Kissel