THE WALSH SISTERS FOR ST. PATRICK'S DAY

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left to right

Hannah Walsh, Julia Walsh Algoe and Elizabeth Ann Walsh Fecht
Hannah's name in some records was Johanna.In an era when any kind of deformity or disability was viewed with superstition and shame, Aunt Hannah was viewed as undesirable for suiters. She lived out her adult life with her sister Elizabeth and is buried in Saint Brendan Cemetery in Mexico, Missouri. Julia Walsh Algoe was a half-sister to Hannah and Elizabeth. She was the child of her father Patrick Walsh's second marriage.

All three of these women were strong Roman Catholics, and shared an intense loyalty to their Irish heritage.

HANNAH WALSH

Dorothy (Fecht) Fetterhoff recalls her Aunt Hannah as being "a very stern and perhaps unhappy person." Some family records indicate that Hannah had some problem with her mouth; perhaps the result of a stroke. But, this is unlikely since the damage appears at an early age.
Hannah appears to have gone to Montana to establish her own homestead about the same time Harry and Ann (Fecht) Candy, John (Jack) and William T. Fecht did. Bill Fecht mentions Hannah's homestead in his autobiography.
It was the custom of the time for unmarried or widowed women to live with married family members. And, Hannah lived with her sister Elizabeth (Walsh) and her husband William Charles Fecht. Widows customarily lived with one of their children.
Hannah Walsh is buried in Saint Brendan Cemetery, Mexico, Missouri.
Photos courtesy of Dr. Dan Sullivan 2008

HANNAH WALSH

Hannah (Johannah) Walsh

Walsh Sisters Hannah Walsh, Julia Walsh Algoe, and Elizabeth Ann Walsh Fecht
Hannah Walsh is the second and last child of Ann (Finn) and Patrick Walsh. She was born on the 12th of August, 1862 at Bridgeton, Missouri and died on 4 December, 1926. Not a great deal is known by your author about the life of Hannah Walsh other than the fact that she was quite young when her mother Brigid Ann (Finn) Walsh died. Her father Patrick remarried and family stories have it that the two older girls Elizabeth Ann (Walsh) Fecht and her sister Hannah were not treated as they should have been.
Photos are courtesy of Dr. Dan Sullivan