Since 1908, we’ve been a family operation….

The Mierisch family

History

Ernst Bruno Mierisch Boettiger was born on May 9th, 1863, in Döbeln, Germany (between the cities of Leipzig and Dresden). Preferring to go by his middle name, Bruno, he held a doctorate in engineering, volcanology, and mining. Bruno emigrated to Nicaragua because he was hired, as many other German engineers and scientists were at the time, by the Nicaraguan government to help in the construction of the national railroad; between Monkey Point, on the Caribbean coast, to the great Lake Nicaragua. The project was begun but eventually abandoned, which led Bruno and other German engineers to work on the construction of the pacific railroad between Masaya and Diriamba.

Bruno made the history books as the first westerner to climb up to Volcan El Hoyo in Leon in 1891. He also surveyed the land between Rio Coco (on the border with Honduras) and Rio Grande of Matagalpa to investigate the gold mines located in the area, with his findings published as “Report on the voyage to the Atlantic in 1892” in the Official Newspaper of Nicaragua in 1897. He’s even credited with taking part in an expedition that first climbed the Momotombo volcano along with other German scientists, Dr. Karl Sapper and Dr. Ernst Rothschuh, on the 9th of May, 1898.

In 1895 Bruno published “Eine Reise durch Nicaragua, vom Managua-See bis nach Cabo Gracias a Dios", where he recalled an 1893 journey of his and the findings during his time working for the Nicaraguan government.

However, at the end of his assignment the Nicaraguan government was only able to compensate him, and many other emigrates they hired, with land. A farm and a gold mine, to be more specific. Bruno named the farm “Sajonia” the Spanish spelling of his home region back in Germany, Saxony. It was located in El Arenal, where our farms Mama Mina & La Huella are in today, between the departments of Matagalpa and Jinotega. It did not have coffee growing on it, that would come later but had other crops growing on the land. One of Bruno’s sons, Wilfrido, later purchased the farms Las Lajas and Los Placeres.

In the early 1900’s, with the presidency of Jose Santos Zelaya, the Nicaraguan government started promoting the cultivation of cash crops for export. Zelaya, whose family came from coffee, gave out incentives for its cultivation and proliferation. Bruno jumped on the chance and planted his first coffee trees in 1908. He benefitted, from the little know fact, that the first mechanical depulper was conceived in Nicaragua.

Fincas Mierisch is now run by his grandson, Dr. Erwin Mierisch Buitrago (3rd generation), and great-great-grandson, Erwin “Wingo” Mierisch Jackman (5th generation).