Frankburg, Alberta Ward

1904-1937

In August 2007 I took a “short cut” from Calgary to Lethbridge.  As I turned on Highway 23 to Vulcan I saw the sign that I was looking for.  “Frankburg Pioneer Mormon Cemetery”.  I was  nine miles east of High River on the way to Vulcan but…what was this Historic Mormon Cemetery?

The sign described an early Mormon Settlement that had flourished… where nothing but wheat is today.

Thanks to the book A History of the Mormon Church in Canada – I have pieced together the story of the Frankburg Alberta Ward.  (Reference pages 134, 135 and 140)

-July 10, 1904 sixty church members from Brant, Blackie, Vulcan, Cluny Gleichen and High River gathered in a special meeting with the brethren of the Alberta Stake.  A branch was organized in Frankburg.  The meeting took place in the store and home of JCF Van Camp.  Christopher H. Frank was sustained as Branch President with Christopher Emanuel Frank and John C. Robbins as Counselors. 

-1906 A dependent Sunday School was formed at Brant, two miles south and five miles east of Frankburg where five families lived.

-1910 – Frankburg was organized into a ward with Christopher E. Frank as Bishop.  Bishop Frank’s father, Christopher H. Frank was made a Patriarch. 

-The Frankburg Hall was built by Albert McPhee (son in law to Patriarch Frank).  This building was used for funerals, dances, auxiliary and worship services in the area.

-At one time there were nearly 400 members in the Frankburg Ward. 

-At one time Calgary (now six stakes) was a dependent branch on the Frankburg Ward.

The Great Depression hit all of Alberta hard.  The Orton Ward (25 miles west of Lethbridge) and the Frankburg Ward (60 miles south east of Calgary) were most seriously effected.  “Economic conditions worsened when hordes of grasshoppers devoured acres of crops each day, during drought years; or black clouds of dust turned daylight to dark and swept over the land like black blizzards. 

All but three families of the Frankburg membership of 180 lost their farms and in 1937 the Ward was disorganized.  Some of the Frankburg families went to Calgary.  Eight families moved to the irrigated are of Rosemary where there was a ward.  (Five families from Orton went to Rosemary under similar arrangements)

In August 2007 the pictures and story of the Frankburg Saints came to life as I read the signs and walked around the cemetery.  This was not one of those abandoned cemeteries that are found throughout the prairies.  It has been well maintained.  Two of the grave stones Thomas L. Hatch (1884-1918) and Sylvester H. Hatch (1892-1926) had the 1997 Pioneer Sesquisentennial stamp on their graves.

As you look at the pictures of the Frankburg cemetery – please email me – with any more information on these early Alberta Pioneers.