|
James M.T. Weir
|
|
Contact
Community |
James Muir Tanner Weir (1881-1975) was Deputy Reeve on Scarborough Council during the '20s. In his field one day, he was handed some cash by someone who wanted a Council vote to go a certain way. Jim Weir threw the money to the ground and scowled "Pick up your money and get off my land". Perhaps it was being so busy with local community matters that kept Jim from entering many ploughing matches... My Dad was only in one ploughing match. It was held on the southeast corner of Sheppard and Markham Road at Malvern in the early '20s. Dad had heard that Frank Brown, a neighbour, was entering a match so he decided to enter it just to beat him. As it turned out, he did. He won first prize and so he said he was going to quit entering matches. He really just went on a bet. He won a new Fleury walking plough for first prize, worth about $21 or so. Dad's Uncle Frank Weir used to judge ploughing at one time. When he heard of Dad entering a match, Uncle Frank sort of grunted "Umph, him plough?!" I really don't know if Uncle Frank had ever seen Dad plough. Dad was on Scarborough Council during this period. This match, held on the former Purdie farm, was the 1921 East York Ploughing match. Frank Weir, one of Ontario's leading ploughmen of the period, probably preferred the politics of agriculture to the politics of the land re-development that was then impressing upon parts of southwest Scarborough.
|