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.

PAGE FROM MARGARET BOST FECHT'S BIBLE

This is a leaf from the back of a German Catholic Bible that belonged to Margaret Bost Fecht. The notations may not have been made by her, but appear to be accurate.
It was given to Gerald Fecht by Lucile Sullivan Branch.

FIRST AMERICAN FAMILY

This photograph contains the images of most of the members of first Fecht family in America.
L to R - top
William Charles, John Christopher, Matthew Gere, and Joseph Fecht
seated
Mary Fecht Dawson, Elizabeth Fecht Campbell, Margaret Fecht Bost Sullivan, Margaret Bost Fecht, and Dora Fecht Sullivan
Missing from the picture is Jacob Fecht, his oldest son Jacob (both killed in Pennsylvania coal mine accidents) and
Katherine Fecht Leger Robbins.
I do not have an original of this picture. If we can locate it, it may have the studio and town that it was done in.

LULU LEGER ROBBINS AND MARGARET BOST FECHT

Lulu Duncan and her grandmother
Divorce was unheard of, in the early years of our family in America. In the coal mining towns of Pennsylvania our Fecht and Bost women sometimes found themselves subject to arranged marriages, especially where survival seemed at stake. After a coal mining accident took the life of our ancestor Jacob Fecht (and his oldest boy Jacob a few days later) it appears that two of the girls in the family were "married off" to older coal miners. Margaret Fecht married a first cousin whose name was Bost, and Katherine married a man named Christian Leger. Both Katherine and Margaret left their husbands. Margaret went to Mexico, Missouri with her brother William Charles Fecht and secured an annulment from the Catholic Church, and remarried Eugene Sullivan.
Katherine, it appears simply ran away to Kansas with a man named Robbins. She left two of her children in Pennsylvania but brought here daughter Lulu with her. Lulu was raised by her Grandmother Margaret Bost Fecht in Mexico, Missouri.

LULU MATILDA LEGER ROBBINS (f-483)
born: 6 November, 1879
in Robbins Station, __________ Co., Pennsylvania
mother: Katherine (FECHT) (f-167)
father: Christian LEGER (f-205)
married: 20 October 1901 to Wallace J. DUNCAN (f-484)
in Mexico, Audrain County, Missouri
died: 28 February, 1963 in __________________
buried: _________ in _______ Cemetery,
in ______ Co., ______________

MARGARET BOST FECHT

MARGARET BOST FECHT
Our universal grandmother, Margaret Bost Fecht was the wife of Jacob Fecht. She was born in Germany and came to America on the ship Admiral. On the voyage she gave birth to her oldest child Elizabeth Fecht Campbell. Margaret struggled with the English language.
Margaret died and is buried in Saint Brendan Cemetery, Mexico, Missouri.