THE FLANNIGANS
by A. J. Bartling
The Flannigan family moved on a homestead in the '20's - Mr. and Mrs. Flannigan, their sons Gordon and Howard. They lived near the Capital School south of Stoney Lake. Mr. Flannigan Sr. passed away in the '30's. The son Gordon only stayed a short time then left and did not return. Mrs. Flannigan and Howard lived on the place for many years until Mrs. Flannigan began to receive old age pension. They then moved to St. Paul.
Not doing any farming they had nothing to stay for, but son Howard would go threshing in the fall with team and pick up a few bucks. One fall he was threshing with Steve Demchuk, and come lunch time, the engine man would climb up and fork off the load while the men had lunch. One day Howard went back out after lunch and forked on a dozen or more stooks, and one horse refused to pull. So Howard went up front, and one of the horses had no collar. The harness was hurting the horse; no wonder it refused to pull the wagon. While Howard was stalled out in the field and did not return the engine man forked in and cleaned up on the ground any loose grain. About that time Howard arrived, and Steve said, "What's the matter?" Howard said some one had stolen the collar off his horse while he had lunch. Steve had found the collar while he was cleaning up. What had happened was the strap and buckle on top of the collar was gone, and the harness was too loose so the horse had its head down eating and the harness slipped off the collar, which then fell to the ground. Howard sure got razzed about that for a long time.
After moving and living in St. Paul for several years, Howard's mother passed away. He lived for a short time in St. Paul and moved to east Edmonton. He never married.
I used to see him once a year at the Elk Point reunion in Edmonton. He still drove his 1952 Pontiac and one day he drove into a service station in Edmonton for gas. The teen-aged daughter of Myrna (McFadyen) Fox's cousin was serving gas, and was putting the hose into the tank at the back. It seems Howard had no brakes, and hit the girl who was stooped over and pushed her up on the car. She died. That was summer, 1976. Howard just seemed to give up after, and passed away in 1977.
