The Walchs of Hopwood Street, Liverpool

My brother Jim e-mailed me his homework assignment. He was the only one to respond. But that's not unusual in the family that doesn't cotton to other you know, they had two guys molls a with a people’s expectations. And homework falls in that category. Jim is a possible exception, and perhaps the most conscientious of my siblings. If you recall the assignment was to come up with the name for a bunch of Brach's. His entry is a Rack of Brachs. I like that. It'll allow future generations to pronounce the name properly: Brach rhymes with rack.


The only thing I could think of was a Box of Brachs, in reference to the candy company of the same name. Family members have always wondered if we are related to the “Palace of Sweets” Brachs. Belle (Hodder) Brach, the wife of my Great Granduncle Lou, was perhaps the first in the family to actively pursue that question. Maxine (Brach) Talbert, a granddaughter of Lou Brach, related the following story to me.


When Lou Brach was working for the Grand Trunk Railroad in Chicago in the early 1900s, his wife Belle called upon the founder and president of the company, Emil Brach, at his headquarters in Chicago. Emil, a candy man at heart, graciously escorted them into his office. While the boys sampled candy, Belle and Emil traded family information looking for a connection.
Emil J. Brach was born in 1859 in Schoenwald, Germany. He immigrated with his family at an early age to Des Moines, Iowa. As a young man he ventured off to Chicago, where in 1904 he opened his “Palace of Sweets.” Emil soon outgrew that store and moved to Des Plaines Street on the west side of Chicago in 1906. The fledgling candy company quickly grew to become one of the largest candy companies in America. Emil continued to work in the business until the day of his death in 1947.


After his discussion with Belle, Emil could not say for certain that he was related. But, he reasoned that because both Brach families came from the same part of West Prussia, near Strasbough; that both families used many of the same given names for their children; and, that the Brach name itself was so rare, that the families must be related. In fact, he thought the likelihood was so great that he asked the children to call him “Uncle Jolly” and, now that they were family, to be sure to visit him again.


The following Christmas the family received a package from the Brach candy company. It contained a large box of their finest assorted chocolates. The accompanied greeting was signed “Uncle Jolly.” Every year until his death the family received a box of chocolates at Christmas from Uncle Jolly.


It's of interest to note that Emil agreed that the original German pronunciation was closer to Brack then the pronunciation his company now officially uses – Brach, rhyming with sock. But in most areas of Wayne County, Illinois, where our Brachs settled they still call the candy ‘Brack.’