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December 1979 PML News
STREET WAS NAMED FOR GROVELAND BREWER
By Jean McClish
(This is the first of a series of articles on the history of local names)
Many of the roads of Pine Mountain Lake are names for the area's early day citizens, and Mueller Drive is among the notable:
Eugene Mueller (pronounced Muller) owned and operated a brewery just east of Groveland on the road to Second Garrote. The brewery was one of the first in the State when Ferdinand Staehler began operating there in 1853.
Eugene Mueller came from his native Bavaria to Groveland (then called Garrote) in 1858. A young man in his early 20's, he worked for Staehler and then bought out the enterprise in 1865.
Mueller beer and porter were widely known. The brewery was a favorite stopping place for travelers. Mueller set up tables in the yard under the trees and wayfarers stopped there to eat their lunch and wash it down with the refreshing beverage.
Pack mules carried the brew to neighboring camps and over the mountains to Bodie. Local ranchers and merchants frequented Mueller's and often took home pails of the stuff in their wagons. These ranchers planted barley and sold it to Mueller.
Plagued by rheumatism in his later years, Mueller died in 1906, leaving his widow with several daughters, the oldest of which was 18, and a nine year old son.
Many of the Muellers rest in the Oak Flat Cemetery on the hill between Big Oak Flat and Groveland: Eugene and his wife Pauline, son Eugene junior and daughter Clara Porath, and Eugene's mother Louise who was buried there in 1879. | 
