Thomas Rickel was a merchant and a rancher in the Flagstaff, Arizona, area. He was a very strict Catholic and it has been told that one sunday the local priest announced during church that he would be visiting families to obtain contributions for buildling a new church. When he met with Thomas, he requested $1000. Thomas, being a strong willed German, told the good Father that not even he told him what to contribute. So Thomas wrote out a check for a thousand dollars and told the priest that he had intended to donate $10,000, but since the he had been told what to donate instead of being asked, a thousand would be all that he would give.

One story about Thomas was that when his ranch foreman heard that Thomas was going to bring sheep onto the ranch, the foreman told Thomas that he would kill him before he would allow him to bring sheep onto the range and the foreman quit. One day, as the story goes, Thomas was in a barber shop setting in the barber chair when the foreman walked by and noticed Thomas. The foreman thought he would take advantage of the situation. The foreman raised his gun to shoot. But, Thomas had seen the foreman and beat him to the draw, shot, and killed the foreman. Thomas ran both sheep and cattle on his ranch.

Another story about Thomas was when the town of Flagstaff started to put in sidewalks. The city workers were going along in front of each house contructing sidewalks. When they reached Thomas's home, his prize roses right where the sidewalk need to go, so they proceeded to dig up the roses. Thomas saw this and went out with rifle in hand threatening to shoot anyone that touched his roses. For the next few days, he sat on his porch with his rifle making sure no one touched his roses. During this time the mayor, the police and others tried to convince him to allow them to build the sidewalk. They finally built the sidewalk - around the roses.

Courtesy of Bryce Wayne Rickel

Residences

1864 - Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio 1870 - Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio 1880 - Riverside, Hamilton, Ohio 1904 - Flagstaff, Coconino, Arizona