She Left County Limerick as a Child and Died on North Fourth Street
Mrs. William Ryan crossed the Atlantic at seven, buried her first husband in Walla Walla in 1871, married again, and raised six children. Her funeral leaves the family home at 115 North Fourth on Friday afternoon.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The funeral of the late Mrs. William Ryan, who died Tuesday evening at the family residence, 115 North Fourth street, will occur from the family residence at 2:30 Friday afternoon. Mass will be observed at St. Patrick's church Friday morning at 9 o'clock.
Mrs. Ryan, whose maiden name was Madigan, was born in County Limerick, Ireland, February 12, 1842, and emigrated with her parents to New York City in 1849. She was married in that city in 1860 to Hugh Morgan, who died in this city in 1871. Three children were born to them — Mamie (Mrs. James Hunter), James and Frank — of which the two first named survive.
In 1874 Mrs. Morgan was married to William Ryan in this city. Four children were the result of this marriage. They are Annie (Mrs. Jack Lawler), William, Kate and Lawrence.
Deceased was a sister of James Madigan, a well known pioneer of Walla Walla, who was for years in the government service.
“Born in County Limerick, Ireland, February 12, 1842, and emigrated with her parents to New York City in 1849.”
A single paragraph of 1903 type carries an entire migration: Famine-era Ireland, a childhood passage through New York, a widowhood on the far side of the continent, a second marriage, six children. Women like Mrs. Ryan are usually counted in this archive only as somebody's wife or mother, but the names crowding this notice are a map of who built Walla Walla — and of the Irish and Catholic networks that held it together.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.