The Charles Edmond and Margaret Fraser Flatt Family of Tantallon, SK

TANTALLON, Saskatchewan

(taken from "What's in a Name?: The Story Behind Saskatchewan Place Names" by E. T. Russell)

"Tantallon was named for Tantallon Castle in Scotland, the homeland of the famous Douglas family of the district.  At the age of 12 James Moffat Douglas came to Canada with his family and settled near Cranbray, Upper Canada.  He was educated at the University of Toronto, Knox College, and Princeton Theology Seminary.  Ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1867 he served in Ontario, India, Manitoba and finally at Moosomin, Saskatchewan.

Tantallon Castle in Scotland

Farm Home of Senator James Moffat Douglas (c.1900)

On his retirement from the active ministry in 1893 he devoted himself to farming at Tantallon.  He entered politics and became a leading spokesman for the Patrons of Industry, the first important agrarian protest movement on the Prairies and in 1896 he was elected to the House of Commons for Assiniboia East.  He played an important part in presenting the case of the farmers against the CPR and the elevator companies.  Their protest led to the establishment of the first federal Royal Commission on the grain trade in 1899 and the passage of the Manitoba Grain Act in 1900.  Douglas was elected in 1900 and appointed to the Senate in 1906.  He was buried in Tantallon on August 19, 1920." (p. 306)
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DR. C. E. FLATT and family (some of the information below is taken from TALES OF TANTALLON 1906-1973) published by the Tantallon History Committee in 1973 and re-printed in 1983)

"Dr. C. E. Flatt came to Tantallon in 1903 from Campbellville, Ontario where he was the local doctor for several years after graduating from Queen's College, (which became Queen's University in 1912).  Mrs. Margaret Fraser Flatt was a graduate nurse from Toronto University. (p. 34 "The Nursing Profession": )While raising her family she would often go with her husband to assist him, then stay with the patient as long as necessary during recovery.  In 1911, tragedy hit a Tantallon family -- a terrible outbreak of Scarlet Fever struck the home with many taking sick right away.  The parents and newborn baby were removed to a tent west of Tantallon.  Margaret, a courageous and dedicated nurse, went in to care for the family.  Six children passed away within a few days, ranging from one month to 19 years.  "This is a nurse that the nursing profession can be very proud of".  During the flu epidemic of 1918, Margaret made the circuit of every patient in Spy Hill, taking temperatures and giving nursing advice, at no charge.

 Dr. Flatt practiced in the District, first with the construction gangs building the Grand Trunk Railway, before settling in Tantallon, where the family's first home was an apartment in the Paynter Block. (p. 57: a memory about Dr. Flatt from Jim Cozens:) "One day in the summer of 1911, Charlie Coburn came to town to get Dr. Flatt, he never gave the doctor a chance to change his clothes (he had been working in the yard.  Charlie said, "Come on," and he drove through town in good old western style, on the dead gallop.  The baby was a boy."

The children in the Flatt family were:

Marjory Flatt-  March 29, 1892 - August 8, 1895 Marjorie's death certificate states her cause of death as cholera.  There was an outbreak of that in Ontario at the time.  I write about this HERE.

Jean Fraser Flatt, M.A.- October 12, 1893- February 19, 1976; a teacher with the Saskatoon Technical Institute, poet, and a longtime librarian with the Victoria BC Public Library, until retirement.

Charles Donald Flatt- January 26, 1898- August 1980; served in World War I, worked after the War in Saskatchewan, and moved to Kamloops to retire.

Mary Lavina Flatt-  September 26, 1899- 1987; attended Normal School in Saskatoon; teacher in Drake, SK where she met and married in 1924 to William Ewert Rempel; lived in Campbellville, ON, Tantallon SK; Drake SK; Newton, KS;Cherry Ridge SK; Nipawin SK; birthed 5 children: Joy 1925-; Fraser 1927-2013; Herman 1929-199?; Will; Don; gardened; belonged to the Cherry Ridge Homemaker Club; was a member of the Nipawin United Church and the CCF/NDP parties; crocheted, knit, quilted, baked the best brown bread around, rode horses and swam as a young woman in the Qu'Appelle Valley.  To understand her philosophy, and that of her mother, and sister Jean,  please read Ground for Common Action: Violet McNaughton's Agrarian Feminism and the Origins of the Farm Women's Movement in Canada (PhD thesis of Dr. Georgina M. Taylor,  Carleton University, Ottawa) Bill died in 1978.  They enjoyed 54 years of marriage.  Mary died in Saskatoon City Hospital, 1987, following surgery to remove a bowel tumor.

Samuel Flatt- October 21, 1901 -May 9, 1973; Sam was two years old when we arrived in Tantallon.   He married Mary Margaret Brown of  the "Big Jack" Brown family of Tantallon (19- ) He lived there until 1919, and lived in British Columbia.  During this time he became a military cadet and instructor, as indicated by the certificate below:

 In 1923 when he returned to the farm in the Qu'Appelle Valley.  In 1928 he and his wife and family moved to New Westminster, BC, and later to Burnaby, where he lived at the time of his death.

He served in the Armed Forces in Europe in World War II and was decorated for his service in 1954.  Their eldest son, Benny, 1922-1942, training to go overseas, was killed when the plane he was in had a mid-air collision over Calgary.

Sam worked for "the Dominion Government, Department of Public Works" for 18 years, until his retirement.  He and Margaret had a family of 4 boys and a girl, celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary in August 1968 with 3 living children, 20 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren at that time.

Sam was a gregarious, jolly fellow in my (Cynthia's) recollection.  He grew dahlias in his later years and had a garden party in the summer in their back yard in Burnaby that we attended twice.  He had fond recollections of his wartime comrades and wrote a book about the experience.
               

**See Dr. C. E. Flatt mentioned in "The Canadian Practitioner" 1992 re a deodenum ulcer discourse.
***See Dr. C.E. Flatt mentioned in "Canada Lancet, Volume 36" published by Lancet Publishing Company, 1903, page 672, states "Dr. C.E. Flatt, after practicing his profession at Campbellville for twelve years, has left for Assiniboia.  His friends and neighbours of Nassagahweya joined in a hearty send-off.  The village hall was crowded to the door.  Mr. James Menzies read the farewell address, after which the doctor was presented with a purse of $185.  The Chosen Friends of which the doctor was a member handed him an umbrella..."

Thomas Moran 2x Matted 24x20 Black Ornate Framed Art Print 'Tantallon Castle, North Berwick, Scotland'
by ArtDirect $99.99

Here is a story about my Great-Grandparents Flatt at a formative time in their young marriage:   Cholera in North America: How It Showed Up in My Family Tree