Person:Walter Farnlacher (1)

Henry A Farnlacher died of the flu on October 26, 1918. He had been a policeman in San Francisco and had probably contracted the flu doing his job. The world was going through an influenza epidemic at this time. Walter Farnlacher and his wife Alma, while on a car trip to look into purchasing real estate south of San Francisco, died in a car accident with a train in Colma, CA. Also in the car was Harry Buckley, Eva Buckley (Harry's wife and Walter's sister) and Emma Farnlacher (mother of Eva and Walter). Harry Buckley was at the wheel. According to newspaper articles Harry tried to race the train to a crossing and lost. Harry was also killed in the wreck. Emma and Eva were seriously injured. That was December 15, 1918. Eva Farnlacher died in February 1920 of pneumonia. So within a short space of less than 18 months all three of Emma's children died. Only Henry had any offspring. That was Harry R. Farnlacher who really did not know his father since Harry was not quite two years old when Henry passed away. -- from Walter Farnlacher, 8-30-1998. Corrected 03/03/2012 Walter H Farnlacher Due to new information passed to me by Cousin Mike Tooley Alaska

If Walter died in a train crash, who is Lt. Walter Farnlacher who "died in the Great War"? Lt. Walter Farnlacher served in the US Army, apparently died in World War I, and was in the Class of 1918 at Lowell High School, San Francisco Unified School District. His name was featured on page 10 of the February 18, 1997 issue of "The Lowell", school newspaper of Lowell H.S.... "Students dedicated the December, 1918 issue of "The Lowell" to the 18 Lowellites who died in the Great War." Also see Web site http://www.thelowell.org/lowell/feb18-97/page10/page10.html -- Jack Farnlacher, 8-27-98.

My response to this is: An error by editors of "The Lowell" newspaper. Walter G Farnlacher was a Lt in the US Army but did not die as a result of any war related issue. I have not tried to correct this error with the newspaper. I am told Lt Walter G Farnlacher's name is also on a plaque in the Lowell Auditorium for this same reason. He was in the US Army during the war but never saw battle as he never left the USA. Walter H Farnlacher, 03/03/2014