Page 6 - Sept 2023 News On 7

HAZZARD'S HISTORY NOTES

by Grant Ketcheson
THE FRANKS FAMILY TRAGEDY

The stories of a community and its triumphs and tragedies are carved in stone, hidden away in its cemeteries. Hazzard's
Cemetery is no exception. One of the saddest of these sad tales is that of Ella Franks, dead at only sixteen years of age.

In 1895 Michael Franks, whose father had emigrated from Bavaria, married Margaret (Maggie) Moore from Madoc
Township. Two years later, their first child, Ella, was born. For a number of years, the Frank(s) family was on a farm in Tudor
Township. We know this from an S.S.#2, Tudor Township, 1906 School Leaving Certificate issued to “Ella Frank.” It states
that she was “a diligent student- excellent conduct.” The Franks family then moved to a farm located along what later
became highway 62, south of Eldorado.. The 1911 census lists them at that location. The Franks household consisted of
Michael and Maggie, eleven-year-old Ella, infant Allan and their adopted son, Eddie.

On September 20, 1913, Michael and Maggie went north to visit family, leaving Eddie and Ella at home. Eddie went out
hunting, returning with some pears that a neighbour had given him to share with his sister. During the next few minutes a
terrible accident occurred, resulting in the gunshot death of Ella. Initially, newspaper articles were calling the affair
“murder.” This was refuted by Mr. and Mrs. Franks. They were quick to point out that the two were as close as any brother
and sister and this was just a tragic incident. One can not even imagine the grief and agony suffered by the Franks family
nor the torment endured by Eddie, now a panic-stricken teenager, hiding out in the bush. Some three weeks later, the body
of Eddie was discovered by a neighbour, in an abandoned mine hole within a mile of the farm.

Somehow the family persevered on the farm and three years later, Michael and Maggie had Stanley, a brother for Allan. The
family carried on farming on that farm for another thirty years.

One hundred and ten years after that fateful day, we have to rely on newspaper archives for the details, none of which can
truly describe the horror of September 20, 1913. Today, most have never heard the tragic story of Ella Franks. The one-time
Franks farm is now home to Woodland North Lavender Farm.

A Franks family plot in Hazzard's Cemetery is the final resting place of Ella, her parents, and her brother, John Edward
“Eddie” Franks.