Remembering our past – Florence and Alvin Mullen

Times Contributor

 

After Florence (Jeffers) and Alvin Mullen were married on June 13, 1942, they lived their first four years together at the Mullen Farm, before moving to the Jeffers Farm until 1953. Then, they rented and lived on the David McBean farm, nine miles north of Gleichen, before eventually purchasing it in 1957, and they farmed here for the next 38.5 years. Both sets of grandparents originated in Northern Ireland. Before coming to Canada, Irish immigrants were world-renowned for raising racehorses, and both of these families continued this profession after moving to Alberta.

Florence was born in the Gleichen Hospital in 1924, while Alvin was born in Bassano in 1921. Alvin had two sisters who befriended Florence and eventually introduced her to Alvin, while she was attending the High School Dormitory in Cluny. Much reference has been given to me in previous interviews, about students attending Normal School. This was a school where students entered a teaching career, and Florence had decided when she was about five years old that she wanted to be a teacher! At the beginning of WW2, many male teachers left to serve in the Canadian Armed Forces, and student teachers were used to fill their places. Florence was now 18 years old, not yet graduated as a teacher from Normal School, but she was suddenly uprooted and moved to Peavine School near Sangudo, Alberta. This school is near Barrhead, and this was where she started her teaching career, far from family and friends. The Provincial Government paid teachers $1 per teaching day, but Florence was excluded from this because she was still classified as a student teacher!

That fall she returned to the Cluny Area, and started teaching at Makepeace School, and got paid.

In the early days, following their marriage, Florence and Alvin were part of the Makepeace Orchestra, which played to audiences within a 60 mile radius of Makepeace. Florence played the piano, while Alvin played the banjo, Ed Schaffer played the drums, and Alvin Sandquist played the saxophone. They were always in great demand. Florence and Alvin’s farm included growing grain, thoroughbred racehorses and purebred Herefords. They had two sons, Lorne (Elaine) and Bruce (Verna), as well as five grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. After 60 years of marriage, Alvin passed away in 2002 at the age of 81. Florence and Alvin had no daughters, but Lorne and Bruce continued their Irish profession of raising thoroughbred racehorses, so it fell to Florence to become a barrel racer. She still has her saddle mounted in the basement of her home, beside a number of winning trophies. 

As an avid curler, Florence has participated in the Alberta Senior’s Winter Games for four years. She and Alvin served on the Gleichen United Church Board for 25 years, and Florence was a member of UCW in Gleichen, then in Strathmore after they retired here in 1990. They both enjoyed square dancing with Strathmore’s Wheatland Whirlers in the late 1980’s.

As previously indicated, most of their married lives were spent on their farm north of Gleichen. This thriving community of 2,600 was known as Siding #14, following the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in mid-July 1883. However the population dropped drastically in summer 1963, after Highway 1 was built north of town.

Florence advises the biggest changes she has seen since retiring here in 1990, is the population growth and all the new stores.