THOMAS FRANCIS BRAASCH

Thomas F. Braasch, age 82, a resident of 4200 Calumet Ave., Manitowoc, died
Saturday morning, September 5, 1998, at the Manitowoc Health Care Center.
Private family funeral services were held Wednesday, September 9, 1998, at Jens
Family Funeral Home, Manitowoc. Rev. Roy Myers officiated, with burial in
Evergreen Cemetery, Manitowoc.
He was born December 20, 1915, in Manitowoc, son of the late Ulrich and Mary
Turtle Braasch. He attended local schools, graduating from Lincoln High School
with the Class of 1933. He worked for a airplane factory in Menominee, Mich.,
later in Seattle, Wash., and then moving back to Manitowoc, working for the
Manitowoc Engineering Company, where he retired due to health conditions.
Survivors include two sisters, Esther Donovan, Rock Away Beach, Mo., Nina Brunner,
Manitowoc. Also surviving are nieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends.
Preceded in death by his parents; one brother, Ulrich; four sisters, Frances
Braasch, Cynthia Nelson, Elizabeth Bedwell, and Ruth Bentley.
Herald Times Reporter, September 9, 1998 P. A 2
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BOYS WHO SET OUT TO SEE WORLD, BACK IN DAY,
HUNGRY AND PENITENT JUDGE IS TOLD
With tears streaming down his face, a manly looking little youth
of 12 summers told county Judge John Chloupek this morning that
he had lost all desire to roam and likewise all desire to ride a
bicycle. He was Tommy Braasch, 908 So. Twentieth street, who with
Gilbert Meisner, 14 year old Manitowoc Route 1 boy, left the home
of their parents at 7 o’clock Monday night on a tour ‘of the world.’
Hungry, foot and back sore, the two were picked up at 10 o’clock
last night by Sheriff Beduhn and Deputy Charles Ladwig as they were
wearily trudging their way along Highway 141 about eight miles north
of the city at 10 o’clock last night. According to the story sobbed
out by young Braasch, he and the Meisner boy, on a purloined bicycle,
left the city, bound for the north. That night they reached Francis
Creek and spent the night in the garage building of the church.
Bright and early Tuesday morning they started for Green Bay, arriving
there about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Meisner doing all the
peddling up and down the hills, with Braasch uncomfortably squirming
on the handle-bars. They spent the day in Green Bay but the pangs of
hunger drove them homeward and they started the return trek to
Manitowoc. Frequently drawing up their belts, as Tommy says “I tell
you Judge, we had to pull our belts up pretty often” the youthful
adventurers started for home but at Denmark were too tired to continue
much father. They saw a woman and told her of their hunger and she gave
each of them a piece of pie. Re-enforced physically and spiritually,
the homeward ride was resumed and continued until they were picked up
by the sheriff and brought to the city and their parents notified.
Nothing to eat except apples they could pick up along the way and the
one piece of pie in almost twenty-four hours after they left home is
nothing for a growing boy according to young Braasch and he will never
again roam, he said. And he never wants to sit on a bicycle. “I’m so
sore from sitting on the handle bars Judge,” he said this morning.
Braasch was taken to his home by his mother but Meisner was being
detained until it could be learned where he secured a gun and a
revolver which he had when he left Manitowoc. The revolver was still
in his possession when he was brought to the city. The boys slept the
sleep of the just last night and today were none the worse for their
experiences but are sadder and wiser boys. “They’re just regular boys,”
Judge Chloupek said this morning after the story had been told.
Manitowoc Herald News, Wednesday, August 29, 1928 Page 5