BRENDA WILLENBRINK

Brenda Willenbrink (click on image to enlarge)

Brenda Willenbrink is the grand daughter of Margaret Fecht Sullivan. Brenda is the great grand daughter of Jacob and Margaret (Bost) Fecht.
Brenda was born in Mexico, Missouri. This photo was taken in the summer of 2002 at the Fecht Family Reunion.

MARGARET FECHT BOST SULLIVAN AND DAUGHTER?

(click on image to enlarge)

Our kinsman Dan Sullivan copied this image while visiting the Swartwood Family in Fulton, Missouri. Dan believes the older woman to be "Aunt Maggie" or Margaret Fecht Bost Sullivan.
The upper left corner, above the mule was torn off, so since it did not challenge the integrity of the image, I used photoshop to fill in the missing tree leaves. This was done to keep the damage from distracting the viewer from the images of the women.

MARGARET FECHT BOST SULLIVAN AND KATHERINE FECHT

More on Margaret Fecht (Bost) Sullivan:

The United States _______ census for West Elizabeth, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania indicates that “Maggie” Fecht, age 18 was employed as a domestic servant for one Richard Bickerton. Her parents were listed as being born in Germany and her birth in Pennsylvania in 1862. She was single at the time of the census.

It is not sure, at this time, when Margaret Fecht Bost came to Mexico, Missouri. But, it is apparent that she came with her children and without her husband. Your author, Gerald Fecht’s father recalled that one day, when he was a youth, the “husbands” of Margaret and her sister Katherine Fecht Leger, came looking for their wives in Missouri. Bill Fecht said that his folks were courteous and respectful of the men, but that Margaret refused to return to Pennsylvania, and Katherine was “out-west” in Kansas. As Catholics the two women were not allowed to divorce their husbands, unless they had not been married with a priest as a witness to their vows. Other grounds included the marriage of a first cousin without church “dispensation,” a non-Catholic party in the marriage who would not allow the Catholic partner to practice her or his religion, the refusal of a mate to raise the children as Catholics, etc. Margaret went through a Church court of Inquiry ( Latin - Inquistion) but Katherine appears to have simply ignored her family’s religion and married the man with whom she left Pennsylvania, Lorin Robbins.