Film, Albert "Abbie" and Margaret (Briggs)
Images and notes by Paul McNulty
#113 McNulty Collection
Albert "Abbie" Film passed away in New York in 1978, but he left behind with his family a collection of pictures that gives a historical view of the Hanna Basin area in the early 1900's. Thanks to Mr. Film's grandson, Paul McNulty, the Albert Film pictures are now shared with all those with an interest in Hanna history! Not all of Mr. Film's pictures are shared here, but all the pictures are available for viewing at the Hanna Basin Museum.
Abbie Film was an interesting man with a strong connection to the Hanna Basin. He was born November 16, 1890 in New York, but looking for adventure he left Troy, New York and traveled out west when he was about 16 years old. He ended up in Hanna about 1906. At age 21 he married Hanna resident Margaret Briggs, age 18, in Rock Springs on November 30, 1911. Margaret Briggs was the daughter of Alexander and Anna Briggs. She was born on April 26, 1893 in Carbon. Margaret's father, Alexander, was killed in the 1908 explosion of the No. 1 mine. He was superintendent of the Hanna mines at the time of his death.
Abbie and Margaret moved from Hanna to New York in about 1915, but made several trips back to the Hanna over the years.
Abbie and Margaret moved from Hanna to New York in about 1915, but made several trips back to the Hanna over the years.
Paul McNulty, Abbie Film's grandson, wrote about his grandfather:
Albert "Abbie" Film took a number of pictures of Hanna, its people, and the surrounding area. He developed the pictures onto postcard stock.
When I was a kid, I used to sit in my grandfather's living room and look at the photographs and listen to his stories of Hanna. He told me about his friend "Ogee" the Indian Sherifff. Ogee tracked down two robbers who hid out with a sheep herd in the prairie and brought them back dead. On horses....Bloated. Dead.
Another story he told me was how he worked in the store (Coal company store?) and that the mule drivers for the mine would come into the store and spit tobacco juice onto the display cases. They (my grandfather and the staff) would have to clean it off. After some time and a verbal go around my grandfather Abbie, the staff decided they would confront the drivers. My grandfather Abbie said they were a bad bunch. The next time, after one of them spit on the display case, my grandfather told them not to do it again, so of course they did. Abbie told me that he got into a fight with the mule driver and that they clinched up together and fell through one of the glass display cases. The glass cut a big slit in his wrist (he showed me the scar). Yep, there was the scar. He also said that two of the guys behind the counter had shotguns, loaded, for backup just in case things got really bad. He said the mule drivers never gave them a hard time or spit on the display cases again. Not sure but I think that the mule drivers went deep into the mine on the RR type tracks and brought out the coal in small carts to the surface.
I am sending these pictures in the hope that you will find some of your family and will find some good memories of Hanna and the Wyoming area. I hope you will find some of your relatives in these pictures, if not..... I Just hope you will have some fun with the pictures. (Paul McNulty, May 2015)
Note: No Hanna Cemetery records found.