Ernestine "Minnie" W. Brach (1854-1938) was born in Germany and died in Burlington, Iowa. Her family migrated to Burlington in 1866. Brach is the older sister of Emil J. Brach, who in 1904 founded Brach's Candy in Chicago, Illinois. At the time of his death in 1947, the business was the largest candy factory in the United States and, as of 2025, is currently owned by the Ferrara Candy Company. Brach was first introduced to Christian Science when one of her sisters was healed. She then received Christian Science treatment through prayer herself. Brach studied Christian Science with Mary Baker Eddy's students: Isabella A. Beecher in November 1886, Joseph A. Adams in 1887, and at some point with Mary Hinds Philbrick. Although she also intended to study with Eddy, there is no record of her doing so. In 1889 she became a member of The Christian Science Dispensary Association. She joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 30, 1893. Brach was listed in the directory of The Christian Science Journal as a Christian Science practitioner in Chicago from 1896 to 1904 and in Burlington from 1905 to 1937.

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