I found another bicentennial birthday for today’s post. It just so happens that this birthday boy has had a portion of his story told on this blog before. A few days ago, Fred Eggers wrote a wonderful article about the East Perry Community Fair, and he is also the author of the story about Carl Bracher, today’s highlighted character. I am going to add some documents that were not included in Fred’s article. He did not put these items in his story because his purpose was to tell the story of quite a few Perry County characters who chose to migrate to Bates County, Missouri shortly after the Civil War. Fred wrote the story on the date when Carl Bracher died. I share it today on his very special birthday.
Carl Christian Peter Bracher was born on September 17, 1825 in Gera, Germany. He came with his family to America with the Gruber Group aboard the ship, Johann Georg, which arrived in November of 1839. We see the Bracher family on that ship’s passenger list below.
Many of the Gruber Group immigrants settled in the Uniontown area, but the Bracher’s settled near Altenburg. In a post I wrote a few days ago about Charles Frentzel, another member of the Gruber Group, I mentioned that I would soon find some bicentennial birthday celebrants who would be part of the first confirmation classes in Perry County. It turns out that Carl Bracher was one of those. His name was included in another post, Confirmation Classes of 1840, which listed the members of the first confirmation class of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg.
Carl is found in the 1850 census at the age of 24. His father was a weaver in the Brazeau Township, while Carl is called a farmer.
Carl Bracher married Johanna Braeuner on February 3, 1853 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg. I am not going to go into detail about Johanna’s life, but I can tell you that she must have arrived with her Braeuner family not long before she got married. We can view the church marriage record for this couple below.
The last census in which we find the Bracher’s living in Perry County was the one taken in 1860. Carl was farming.
Fred tells more about the rest of the story about the Bracher’s after they relocated to Prairie City, Missouri and why they moved to that area. However, I will also share this death certificate that says Carl died of pneumonia in 1912 at the age of 86.
The Bracher’s were actively involved in the establishment of a new Lutheran church in Prairie City, a congregation that recently celebrated their 150th anniversary.
I now have written several other posts about people who had connections to the Perry County area who moved to Bates County. Other than Bracher and Braeuner, you can read about names such as Fleischer, Edlinger, and Leimer. You can find those posts by doing a search on this blog using the term, “Prairie City”.