Adam Bruch, 1825–1874

Adam Bruch was twenty-eight years old, a joiner (carpenter), when he left Prussia on the ship SS Diana out of Bremen and came to the United States with the intention of settling in St. Louis. He arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 31 May 1852.

Adam moved to St. Louis, where, three years later, he married Caroline Lehde at St. Joseph’s Church, now the Shrine of St. Joseph. The sacramental record states that Adam Bruch was the son of Henry Bruch and Christina Muller and that he married Caroline Lehde, daughter of Henry Lehde and Elizabeth Boch, on 5 June 1855. Caroline was not Catholic so the couple received a dispensation to marry.

On 12 March 1856, Adam and Caroline welcomed the first of their six children, Johann Georg. Sons Georg, on 2 April 1858; Hermann, on 16 June 1860; and Anton Joseph, on 8 August 1862, soon followed.

On 1 July 1863, a Civil War draft registration described Adam as a cabinet maker from Germany, who was living at 114 North 13th Street. There is, however, no evidence that he ever served in the Civil War.

Then, sadly, during the summer of 1864, both two-year-old Anton Joseph, on 11 June, and seven-year-old Georg, on 23 July, passed away. Caroline, meanwhile, was pregnant with her fifth child that summer, giving birth on 5 October to Anna Elizabeth.

By 1867, Adam had gone into business with a man named Frederic Barth, with whom he owned Bruch and Barth Wood and Coal Yard, at 1218 North 9th Street. The family moved from North 13th Street to 1226 North 9th Street to be near the wood and coal yard.

In 1870, Adam’s youngest child, Frederich William, was born. Then, Adam seems to have lost the Wood and Coal Yard. The 1871 city directory lists him as living at 1118 Cass Avenue in a boardinghouse. The following year, Adam was living at 1113 Cass, working in a saloon.

On 1 August 1873, three-year-old Frederich William died. Caroline followed him in death two days later, passing away on 3 August 1873. Sadly, Adam was not in good health either, suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. He passed away at forty-nine years of age on 23 April 1874 and was buried the next day in Holy Trinity Cemetery. Today, however, he may be buried in an unmarked grave, somewhere in Calvary Cemetery, his remains having allegedly been moved there when Holy Trinity Cemetery was closed in 1909.

Adam Bruch survived his wife and three of his children but unfortunately left the three remaining children orphans. Johann was eighteen, Henry fourteen, and little Anna only ten. There is no evidence that the children stayed together after Adam’s death, but they did maintain their relationship. Henry was a witness to Johann’s marriage to Mary Angela Bucher in 1881 and Anna became godmother to Johann’s daughter Cecelia in 1885.

Adam and Caroline, who had converted to Catholicism in 1859, remained life-long members of St. Joseph’s Church on 11th and Biddle. Each of their children was baptized in that church, Johann was married there, and Adam, Caroline, Anton, Georg, and Frederick were buried from there.

Written by Janet Clark Bagley
May 2024

© 2024, St. Louis Genealogical Society

Last Modified: 15-Jul-2024 11:18