Flushing toilets is not a matter of course. Just ask Lucas and Adam Brandenburg from Brandenburg Plumbing in Burnet. The brothers are two in a long line of family members who have made a living in the company since indoor plumbing installation became mainstream in the early 20th century.
Last February, Adam and Lucas bought the company from their parents, Troy and Terry, who live in Silver Creek. The couple founded Brandenburg Plumbing in 1997 at the urging of Terry’s father, Raymond Wiesbrook, a plumber who in turn learned the trade from his own father, Edward E. Wiesbrook of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, one of the country’s first professional plumbers.
When Lucas and Adam’s great-grandfather, Edward, became a plumber, he married and moved from Chicago to Glen Ellyn, a resort town 30 miles outside the Windy City. There he started his own plumbing business, which became an important part of the community’s history, with tales of the Ku Klux Klan, hidden Catholic masses and Al Capone.
“My grandfather installed all of the plumbing for the Maryknoll seminar for free,” Terry said. “The name of his plumbing company was engraved on the drains and toilet paper holders: EE Wiesbrook Plumbing and Heating. Fifty years later I go to school there and when I go to the bathroom my family’s name is written on the toilet paper holder!”
The history behind the seminary and the church is part of the Wiesbrook and Brandenburg traditions. The Wiesbrooks were Catholics in a city with a strong Ku Klux Klan presence and a dislike of the denomination. According to the story, the KKK halted the sale of land intended for the Catholic Church and the seminary.
Wiesbrook bought the property under the guise of moving his business there. Instead, he gave the land to the Church. The KKK reportedly burned a cross on the property when the church was being built.
While awaiting sanctuary, local Catholics met for Mass in a room Edward had rented from a KKK member above the bank. Wiesbrook told them he used it for card games.
“He was known as a player, so nobody thought that there was a lot of people gathering at his apartment on Sunday morning,” Terry said.
“Yeah, pretend you’re a player so you can go to church,” Adam said, laughing.
This advertisement for EE Wiesbrook Plumbing and Heating was projected onto the screen before the films began at the Glen Ellyn, Illinois theater. It was also a billboard near the plumber’s office and was destroyed because some felt it was too scandalous to display publicly. Image courtesy
Laughter is a big part of being in Brandenburg, a big family that includes Adam and Lucas and three other sons. For those who don’t know, visit the company’s website at brandenburgplumbing.com and it becomes obvious. Visit the site’s history page for the story of Wiesbrook’s most famous client, Al Capone, who owned several resort properties in Glen Ellyn. In an era when many customers paid with chickens and other barter, Capone always paid on time and in cash.
“Due to a change in corporate policy, Brandenburg Plumbing no longer serves violent gangsters,” reads a tongue-in-cheek statement on the website.
The company’s online presence, social media and marketing are the responsibility of Adam, son #3. He has a degree in filmmaking, one from the University of Texas, and owns a wedding photography and videography company, the he operates from his apartment on the Upper West Side in New York City.
Professionally, he also follows in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, who designed promotional films that were shown on the screen at the local cinema before the cinema began. One of them was so innovative that it was considered a scandal. Depicted was a woman under a running shower looking over her bare shoulder.
Lucas, son #2, is the man in the trenches who leads a crew of five plumbers and three apprentices. He lives in Burnet with his wife Mandy, a drama teacher at Burnet High School, and their four-year-old daughter Robyn. When he was in fourth grade, he began working with his father after school and during the holidays. The family had just moved to Burnet to start their business.
“Dad got a big job plumbing for Judge (DC “Chester”) Kincheloe (Burnet County),” Lucas said. “He really needed the work and couldn’t afford a helper at the time, but there I was. I was just the right size to crawl around in all the small spaces.”
He had a great time at the job, partly, he admitted, because the judge’s wife, Winnie, fed him “bottled Cokes and cotton candy.” He worked for his father throughout school, but after graduating from BHS in 2006, he decided to do something different with his life. He earned a business degree from Trinity University in San Antonio before the plumbing industry drew him back.
“I graduated from Trinity on a Friday and was at work with my dad that Monday,” he said.
Lucas loves the plumbing business because of the people he meets and the satisfaction that comes from a job well done. Customers included industry giants such as the inventor of disposable diapers, film producers and even a few stars.
“You’d think you’d never talk to people like that, but you do,” Lucas said. “You go into their house, you change their toilet, they talk to their plumber.”
More importantly, plumbers see the results of their work immediately.
“You take something that’s ugly, leaky and doesn’t work and at the end of the day it’s beautiful and wonderful and the customers are so happy,” he said. “It feels good. You get a lot of positive feedback and you really help people. The guys talk about it all the time. They love helping people with things. That’s their whole reason for working.”
The people of Brandenburg found their way to the highland lakes via the military. Troy was in the Air Force, Terry in the Army. They were stationed in Germany, where Lucas was born, and then at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, where Troy’s father-in-law convinced him to become a plumber.
Burnet caught their attention as a potential place to base themselves while on vacation.
“We realized the plumbing was so terrible we were like, ‘They need us!'” Terry said. “We loved the area and thought there would be a good market here.”
It has also proven to be an ideal place to raise a large, fun and growing family.
suzanne@thepicayune.com
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