Like many of Tucson's hardy pioneers of the 1800s, Fritz Contzen put a living together through many adventurous occupations — his included Texas Ranger, military express messenger, international boundary commissioner and discoverer of mines.
Frederick"Fritz" Contzen was born to Philipp and Augusta Contzen at Stormbruch, in the principality of Waldeck, German Confederation , on Feb. 27, 1831.
Contzen was looking for adventure, so in 1850 he joined the Texas Rangers with William A. A."Bigfoot" Wallace as his captain and Peter R. Brady a lieutenant; Brady later moved to Tucson and became Pima County sheriff. In 1856, the two Contzen brothers, traveling on horseback trailed by pack animals along with two Papago Indian guides, headed south to Sonora, Mexico to stock up on supplies. Near Imuris, Sonora, they were attacked by about 35 Apache warriors with firearms. They endured a barrage of bullets, leaving Contzen with a broken leg and Julius with 18 wounds, and likely would have perished if not for a group of Imuris citizens who came to their rescue.
On May 8, 1864, Contzen joined other prominent citizens such as Charlie Meyer , John B."Pie" Allen , Hiram Stevens and M.B. Duffield , and Hill de Armitt at a municipal convention in Tucson. The attendees established a temporary municipal government which consisted of a mayor and five councilmen. The fear of Apache attacks was always on the minds of early pioneers like Contzen, every time they left the safety of a town like Tucson or Tubac or one of a small number of military forts in the Arizona Territory.
On this trip Contzen likely learned of his little brother Heinrich’s success as a professor and noted lecturer on economics at a number of universities in Germany and Switzerland. Heinrich had also founded several newspapers and written several books, mainly on the national economy, among them Grundbau der Nationalökonomie or The Basic Structure of the National Economy.
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