1

Frederick Brent (or Brandt) was born Frederick Whendt in Germany (Prussia) December 1, 1827. As a young man, he immigrated to the United States, where his name was changed to Brent by a customs official. In 1854, at Fort Munroe, he enlisted in the United States Army, and by the following year he was living in the Washington Territory. On the "Returns from U.S. Military posts 1800-1916" at the Washington State Library, Corp. Frederick Brent is listed as an enlisted man "casually at post" in September 30, 1856.

2

The Postill Ranch
1897
Duck Lake, Ellison District, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Credits:
Okanagan Historical Society Annual Report 1966 page 76

3

Frederick Brent travelled into the Okanagan Valley in 1858 as an Army scout, travelling as far north as White Lake in the Shuswap area of the Thompson Okanagan in northern British Columbia. He acted as a scout and escort for groups of miners who were heading to the goldfields in Merritt. He took his discharge from the Army at Fort Colville, Washington in 1859 and married Mary Ann Topakeget Ukatemish, a daughter of Chief N'Kwala. After receiving his discharge from the Army in 1859 and having farmed in the Colville area for three years with a partner by the name of Frank Frechet, Frederick and Mary Brent and their son Joseph (born at Fort Colville, November 13, 1862) entered the Okanagan Valley in 1863.

4

The Postill Ranch on Duck Lake
Circa 1910
Duck Lake, Ellison District, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Credits:
Kelowna Public Archives

5

We can only surmise as to why Frederick brought his young family to the Okanagan, but it is interesting to note that Frederick had made acquaintances with Father Pandosy and William Pion while in Colville, and married a daughter of Chief N'Kwala, also an associate of William Pion. William Brent, Frederick's second youngest son, wrote in his "History of the Okanagan" (in the collection of the Greater Vernon Archives), that Frederick "brought all different kinds of seed with him. Harness, plow and implements to till the soil, and stock. This was how he landed in the Okanagan Mission Valley. . . ". In the spring of 1864 Frederick travelled back over the US/Canada boundary and went into partnership with Hiram F. Smith (known as Okanagan Smith), planting fruit trees that they had brought up from Oregon. William recounts, "The weather south of the boundary in summer time was too hot for father so he moved back up to the Okanagan Mission Valley again in 1865 and bought Parsons out."

6

The Postill Ranch on Duck Lake, looking east towards the hills
1900-1910
Duck Lake, Ellison District, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Credits:
Kelowna Public Archives

7

The Parson Brothers had pre-empted property at the south end of Duck Lake in 1857, and in 1865, Frederick Brent purchased, for six hundred dollars, the Parsons property. On that property, utilizing water power from the headwaters of Pion (Mill) Creek, Frederick Brent erected his first flour mill, a small steel grinding mill that he had packed in on horseback from Fort Hope. This small mill ground the wheat into flour, which was then sifted through a fine sieve ingeniously crafted by weaving long horse tail hairs into a fabricated bottom of a wooden bowl. The bowl was shaken, separating the flour from the bran, which was put aside for other uses. "THE BRITISH COLUMBIAN", Wed. Nov. 14, 1866 reported, "The new mill at O'kanagan makes very good flour, which is offered at ten dollars per hundred pounds."

8

Calf roping at the Postill Ranch
Circa 1895
Ellison, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Credits:
Kelowna Public Archives

9

In 1870, Brent sold the Duck Lake property and mill to George W. Simpson. Simpson continued to operate the small mill built by Brent at Duck Lake for two years, then moved that mill further south along Pion (Mill) Creek to new property he purchased from Frederick Brent in 1872.

10

Threshing crew at the Simpson Ranch
Circa 1900
Okanagan Mission Valley, Kelowna, British Columbia

Credits:
Greater Vernon Museum and Archives

11

In 1870, Frederick Brent purchased property from August Calmels and his partner Chapuis (Chapeaux), who had pre-empted land on Pion (Mill) Creek in July 7, 1861. Brent took possession of that land on May 1st, 1870. Brent proceeded to build for his growing family a two storey hand-hewn log house constructed from thirty foot long Ponderosa Pine logs, and a grist mill also of hand-hewn pine logs. Brent's new flour mill was the first stone grinding flour mill to be operated between the Columbia River at Fort Colville in Washington State and the Thompson River at Cache Creek in northern British Columbia.

12

Mill site legal description
Mill Creek, Kelowna, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Credits:
Young Canada Works Project, 1979
City of Kelowna

13

Sketch of mill by John Gervers showing north elevation of the mill building
1951

Credits:
Lorainne McLarty

14

Reverend Everett Fleming standing in front of the Brent homestead
1960-1988
Mill Creek, Kelowna, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Credits:
Okanagan Historical Society, Kelowna Branch