Family History Collection  -   Index



The Franck Family

Jacob Franck was born in Hanover, Ontario, in 1864.  His father, Leonard, was a farmer.  He had two sisters and one brother.  In 1889 Jake, as he was known to his friends, came west.  His brother, John, came west in 1895.

Jake’s first place of employment was on the farm of Jim Wilson, north of Killarney, in the area which later became part of the Tisdale district.  Mr. Wilson had come from the same part of Ontario a few years previous.  Jake went from there to the Methven district where he worked for a farmer, Mr. McFadden, for two or three years.  He returned to the Tisdale district and bought a farm, N.W. 10-4-16, from W. J. Shaw.

In January 1901, he married Agnes Jane Stephens, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Stephens.  Their social life at that time consisted mainly of surprise parties held in hommes.  Games and dancing were the main source of entertainment.  Stephen Stephens was well-known as a square-dance caller in those days.

In 1910 Mr. and Mrs. Franck moved to the Glendenning district, leaving his brother John on the Tisdale farm.  John farmed there until his death in 1933.  He never married.  Jake and Mrs. Franck farmed on S.E. 1-14-16, formerly owned by W.  J. Clements, until 1933 when they retired to live in Killarney.  Jake was good at hewing with an axe.  He hand-hewed all wooden parts used in early machinery.
Mr. Franck died in 1941, and Mrs. Franck in 1948.

Mr. & Mrs. Franck had four sons, John and Henry at Killarney and Harold of Port Arthur, Ontario.  The eldest son died in infancy.
Mrs. Franck came west from Port Hope, Ontario, in infancy with her parents in 1882. They settled on Section 22-4-16 on the bank of Pelican Lake.  She had one sister, Mary, who married Fred Hayne.  All her education was received at home, as there was no school at that time.  Tisdale school was not built 1895.

Many were the stories told of early times.  Mrs. Franck often told of her grandmother, Mrs. John Stephens, walking from her farm home to a little store in the Glendenning valley and carrying her butter and eggs for trade.  This was a distance of eight or nine miles.
Mr. and Mrs. Franck were interested in Sunday School and church work.   Mrs. Franck was superintendent of the Sunday School and Glendenning School for a number of years.