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A Brief Biographical Account of Lewis J. Walsh, Alice (Pyne) Walsh, and Their Children 1839-1972
Lewis J. Walsh was born in Ireland perhaps on July 31, 1839. He was named after his father.
Lewis had at least two brothers, both younger, Patrick Walsh (Abt 1842-1885) and William Walsh (Abt 1848-1895).
It is not known where in Ireland Lewis was born and raised. One can only imagine the hardships he endured as an Irish Catholic growing up during the Irish potato famine of the 1840s and the mass emigrations of Irish that followed.
Lewis and his brothers immigrated to America. Lewis arrived in about 1861.
Soon after arriving in America, Lewis enlisted to fight in the American Civil War for the Union Army. It is thought he joined the Irish Brigade of New York, which was comprised of Irish immigrants like Lewis. Lewis was granted US citizenship because of his service in the Civil War. Fortunately, Lewis was not wounded in battle.
After being discharged from the US army, Lewis resided in Brooklyn, NY. Brooklyn was its own city then and was considered to be part of Long Island.
Lewis and his brothers lived in Greenpoint, which is on the northwestern tip of Brooklyn (17th Ward) beside the East River. At that time, Greenpoint had a major shipbuilding industry. Lewis obtained employment as a cooper. He made the barrels that were filled with all sorts of goods and loaded on ships bound for all parts of the country and world. Greenpoint had a large population of Irish immigrants.
In about 1866 Lewis married Annie Rielly (Abt 1844-1876), an Irish immigrant who hailed from County Cavan. Lewis was about 27, and Annie was about 22.
Lewis and Annie had five children, all born roughly two years apart: Mary Ellen (1867-unknown), Caroline ‘Carrie’ (1869-unknown), Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ (1871-unknown), Lewis Walsh (1873-1876), and Annie Walsh (1875-1876).
Mary Ellen was born on April 2, 1867 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Her baptism sponsors were William Walsh and Lizzie Rielly.
The following year they moved to Philadelphia, PA, which is where Carrie was born on July 20, 1869. Her baptism sponsors were Matthew Fitzgerald and his wife. By the middle of 1971, they had returned to Brooklyn.
Lizzie was born on August 3, 1871 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Her baptism sponsors were James Casson and Susie Mullen.
Lewis Jr. was born on March 7, 1873 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. His baptism sponsors were Patrick Walsh and Bridget Mulvany. Sadly, Lewis died in December 1876. He was just three years old. He was buried on December 24th in Calvary Cemetery, Woodside, Queens, NY.
Annie was born on July 15, 1875 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Her baptism sponsors were John Doran and Ellen McKeeffary. It is presumed that Annie, too, died in infancy.
Tragically, on May 18, 1876, Lewis' wife Annie died. She was just 32 years old. She was buried at Calvary Cemetery.
In 1880 Lewis, now a 40-year-old widow was living with his three daughters Mary, age 13, Carrie, age 11, and Lizzie, age 9 in Greenpoint. The girls were all attending school. Such was the situation for Lewis when he married Alice Pyne.
Alice Pyne was born in Ireland about May 1848, the daughter of John and Catherine (Green) Pyne. It is thought that she had at least three brothers, Thomas, William, and John Pyne and a sister Catherine (Pyne) Downey, all of whom immigrated to America, probably sometime in the 1860s. She and her brothers soon ended up in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Thomas, William, and John were all coopers. In 1875 William and his family was living on the same street as Lewis Walsh.
Lewis and Alice both endured many hardships and tragedies as lower class Irish immigrants living in the latter half of the nineteenth century in Brooklyn. Besides losing a wife and two infant children, Lewis' brothers Patrick and William died in their 40s as did their wives. It is thought that Lewis had at least two nieces and a nephew who died in infancy as well. Likewise, Alice's brother, John died at the age of 28 of pneumonia but not before he had buried at least two infant sons. John’s wife Lizzie only lived to age 34. Another nephew of Alice's died in infancy a year after John's death. All of these relatives are buried in Calvary Cemetery in unmarked graves.
In 1880 thirty-two year-old Alice was living with her widowed sister, Catherine Downey and three of her children in Greenpoint and working in the garment industry as a dressmaker.
By 1881 Lewis Walsh and Alice Pyne were married.
Lewis and Alice had these four children together: John Joseph Walsh (1881-1958), William Lewis Walsh (1883-1968), Catherine M. ‘Kittie’ Walsh (1884-1945) and Alice V. ‘Allie’ Walsh (1888-1972).
Lewis and Alice and their four children were all short in stature.
John was born on October 16, 1881 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. His baptism sponsors were Mary (Pyne) Downey and Mr. Bryn.
William was born on January 7, 1883 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. His baptism sponsors were Carrie Walsh and Thomas Pyne.
Kittie was born on September 21, 1884 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Her baptism sponsors were Kittie Downey and Timothy Downey.
Sometime in the mid 1880s Lewis and his family moved to northern Hudson County, New Jersey.
Allie, the last of Lewis and Alice's children, was born on August 4, 1888 in Hudson County. Her baptism sponsors were Carrie Walsh and William Walsh.
By 1895 Lewis and Alice and their four children resided at 74 Herman Ave. in Guttenberg, Hudson County.
Mary, Lizzie, and Carrie were no longer living with their father. It is presumed that they remained in Brooklyn or moved to Queens. Their fates are unknown. It is thought that one of them married a Moore. Children of some of them included: Alice Moore, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Lake, and Mrs. and Mrs. Guy Hamilton, of Queens.
[Above: John Joseph Walsh as a young boy. ca 1886.]
[Above: Alice (Pyne) Walsh with two of her children, John and Allie. ca 1891.]
In 1905 Lewis was 65 years old and still working as a cooper. John was an electrician. William had apprenticed as an electrician for a time, but was now a conductor. Kittie was employed as a stenographer, and Allie was still in school.
Of Alice and Lewis’ four children, John would be the only one to marry. On June 16, 1909 twenty-seven year-old John wed twenty-three year-old Elizabeth McDermott, the daughter of first generation Irish-Americans who was born and raised in nearby Hoboken, at Our Lady of Grace Roman Catholic Church in Hoboken. Elizabeth was taller than John.
Lewis died on May 10, 1910 at their home on Herman Ave. of tubercular pneumonia. He was 70. Lewis was buried with his first wife in Calvary Cemetery (Section 1 West, Range 4, Plot N, Grave 23).
Lewis died just one month before the birth of John's first child, Alice's first grandchild. John and Elizabeth resided with her mother, Mary E. (Courtney) McDermott, and Mary's father, Peter Courtney, at 230 Willow Ave. in Hoboken, NJ, when she gave birth to Edward Lewis Walsh on June 10, 1910. A second child, a girl, Madeleine, was born less than a year later on June 1, 1911 in Hoboken.
[Above: John J. and Elizabeth (McDermott) Walsh with their infant son, Edward Lewis. Labor Day 1910.]
Sadly, John's wife Elizabeth died on February 6, 1912 at the tender age of 26. The cause of death was septicemia (blood poisoning) resulting from a self-induced abortion. The events surrounding her death are unknown, but it is certain that Elizabeth was not ready to have three children in three successive years. John was a widower at the age of 30. He never remarried.
Soon after Lewis's death, Alice, William, Kittie, and Allie, moved to 111 20th St. in nearby West New York.
[Above: The two Alice Walshes, mother and daughter. ca 1911.]
On May 3, 1913, Alice died as the result of a cerebral hemorrhage. She was about 64. Alice was buried in Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City, Hudson County. All four of her children were later buried with her.
Not long after the death of their mother John, William, Kitty, and Alice bought a house at 339 31st St. (later renamed 75th St.) in nearby North Bergen. John’s brother and sisters helped him raise his two children. It was not all that easy for Edward and Madeleine to grow up with them, especially with Allie, who was quite a boss and had a mean disposition as well.
Sadly, John left his mother-in-law, Mary McDermott alone. Mary—who with her father Peter Courtney had raised her only child Elizabeth due to the sudden death of her husband William after just three years of marriage—had to endure the deaths of her young daughter and her father in the same year 1912. Now her only family was her two grandchildren.
Kittie was quite the opposite of Allie. Where Allie was plump, Kittie was petite. Where Allie was domineering, Kittie was quiet and easy going. Kittie was godmother to both her niece and nephew. It is thought that Kittie gave up working after her mother’s death to take care of the house and help raise the children.
[Above L to R: Allie, Kittie, Madeleine, and William Walsh. ca 1915.]
John endured another tragedy in his life when Madeleine died on May 17, 1929 at the age of 17 of kidney ailment, which had forced her to drop out of Union Hill High School after only one year of study. Madeleine was buried with her mother at Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City.
[Above L to R: Edward and Madeleine with their father, John J. Walsh. ca 1925.]
Edward graduated from Union Hill High School in 1928. He found employment in Manhattan at the US Trust Company as a secretary, where he would work for many years. As a young boy, Edward was already as tall as his father. He grew to be six foot two.
[Above: William L. Walsh is flanked by his nephew and niece, Edward and Madeleine. ca 1925.]
[Above: John and Edward Walsh. ca 1929.]
Edward married Mary Agnes Connolly on May 14, 1938 in Union City, Hudson County. Kittie and William attended the wedding, and for whatever reasons, John and Allie did not. Daughter-in-law, Mary, knew John to be a very shy man, and so presumed he had been too shy to attend his son's own wedding. Allie was just plain strange.
[Above: Allie Walsh. ca 1920s. Below: Kittie Walsh. ca 1910s.]
Kittie died on August 20, 1945. She was 60. Edward’s wife Mary fondly remembered Kittie. While they were never that close, they had enjoyed going to the movies from time to time.
John worked many years for Con Edison in New York as an electrician. In 1953 he bought the house next door at 337 75th Street and gave it to son. He was too shy to tell him, so William shared the good news with Edward. Edward and Mary and John's two grandchildren, Edward Jr. and Eileen soon moved next door. John, Allie, and William–or "Unc" as he was known by his nephew’s family–were quiet and kept to themselves. Eileen and Ed Jr. did not interact much with their grandfather and rarely spent time next door. One might say John, William, and Allie were all a bit strange in their latter years.
[Above: Edward L. Walsh, wife Mary, and children, Edward Jr. and Eileen. ca 1952.]
On September 18, 1958 John died. He was 76. Edward was heartbroken, for he had no immediate family left.
William worked a number of jobs in his life. He started out as an electrician’s apprentice and then for a short time was a conductor. In 1910 he operated a candy store in Guttenberg. Later he clerked for the New Jersey Tobacco Company in Jersey City. He died on September 11, 1968 at Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, NJ. He was 85.
Allie was a registered nurse in the North Bergen school system for forty years, retiring in 1960. She died on November 21, 1972 at Hudson Manor Nursing Home in Guttenberg, where she had been living for a short while. She was 84. Allie left the house the she had lived in for more than fifty years to her doctor because he swindled her. Had her nephew Edward still been alive—-he had died suddenly nearly three years ago—she most certainly would have left everything to him. Allie was nasty in her old age, and not fondly regarded by her only living heirs, Ed Jr. and Eileen Walsh, her nephew’s children.
The early lives of Lewis and Alice and of their ancestors are a mystery. Lewis and Alice’s children were quiet and kept to themselves, and it is suspected that Lewis and Alice were much the same way. As such, their stories and the stories of their ancestors are long forgotten and may never be known.
While he was of 100% Irish heritage, Edward always considered himself American and his wife Irish-American because she was the daughter of Irish immigrants. Whether he even knew his paternal grandparents were born in raised in Ireland, making him a second generation Irish-American, is not known. Lewis and Alice were Irish immigrants, yes, but they very much lived the American experience.
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Walsh 
