Ryan and Dunn Family Memory Page

RYAN and DUNN FAMILY MEMORIES

Recollections by Margaret (Peg) Catherine Ryan (Mrs. P.L. Gilbert) (Daughter of Edward J “Ned” and Bridget Dunn Ryan)

As transcribed by her granddaughter Margaret Burns Wilhauk, who wrote: “Strangely, I picked up a tiny notebook while sorting and filing the piles of papers on my desk and found that it was some info that my grandmother Gilbert (1884-1973) had written re: her recollections of her family”

The following are handwritten notes by Margaret Ryan Gilbert:

On Timothy and Margaret Dunn

My grandparents (Timothy and Margaret Dunn) came from Ireland in a sailing boat. It took them 3 months. They settled in St. Joseph MO. My Grandmother died 9/27/1849 shortly after they arrived in St. Joe. My mother (Bridget Dunn) was only two years old. She never remembered her mother.

On Margaret Ryan Dunn’s Siblings

My grandmother Margaret Ryan Dunn (had) one sister; Alice Ryan and (a) brother; Patrick Ryan.

On Alice Ryan

Alice married Redmond Cleary but she died shortly after she married.

On Patrick Ryan

Patrick (Ryan) married Catherine Cleary. Their children were Timothy, Mary and Bridget. Uncle Patrick lived in Catawissa, Mo. He was the Postmaster and had a large General Store.

On Mary and Bridget Ryan

Uncle Patrick's daughters: Mary became Mrs Patrick Kennedy. Bridget married Patrick Groom. Their children were William, Joseph and Claudia.

Claudia (Groom) married Robert Carroll, mother of Mary Ellen, who married John McDonough and Margaret who married Harold (Hal) Haley.

On Marriage of Margaret Ryan to Percy Leon Gilbert

Claudia was my (Margaret Ryan) Maid of Honor when I married Percy Leon Gilbert, June 19, 1907 at St. Theresa's church in St. Louis. My brother Tim Ryan (our great-uncle Tim) was our Best Man.

We had a supper at my mother and dad's home for close relatives and a reception for about 200 people, friends and relatives.

On Edward “Ned” Ryan

When my father, Ned Ryan was a boy 20 years old he left home and joined the Pony Express Wagon Train that took food to Denver. Dad was in a cook wagon and there learned to cook. One of the reasons he went west was for his health. I think he may have had TB. (Marge: E-Gods -- a cook with TB) Apparently he didn't have it, but when he came back to St. Louis both his parents had died.

On Margaret Ryan Carroll

The only ones we (our Ryans) knew were Aunt Mag who married Mike Carroll. They had a large family who almost all died of TB, except Bridget (Bid) and Lizzy. (Marge: I knew them). They never married.

On Mary Ryan Quinn

Aunt Mary married Phil Quinn. Their children were Dennnis, Nora and Kate

On Alice Ryan Woods (and family)

Dad (Ned Ryan) had a sister Alice I never knew. She was married to a man named Woods. She had 2 girls, one was Nell and the other was Bridget. She married a man named Henry Nostrum, a Swede. They had a large family. They lived in Cherryville, Mo in a mining town. My mother Bridget loved the whole family. They later moved to Colorado to another mining town. The father and mother died in Colo. The older daughter a widow had 2 children. She later married in Colo.(see below: first marriage to Jim Consodine) She and her (second) husband and children came to St. Louis in 1904, The year of the World's fair and stayed with us a couple of weeks. The daughter in Colo. married a man named Robinson.

{Marge: At that point in the notes Gram wrote in (Jim Consodine) and (Margaret Nostrum). I'm not sure in what context she included those names}

Many thanks to Margaret (Marge) Wilhauk for sharing these wonderful memories

For more memories from Marge Wilhauk see her memories of the Dunn Family