Dairyman.
Born at Walkerton, Ontario in 1873, he came to Manitoba in 1896, moving to Pilot Mound and then relocating to Shoal Lake the same year. He was manager of Shoal Lake Creamery, the first plant in Manitoba to install equipment for pasteurizing cream to make butter. A leading prize-winner in Canadian butter exhibitions, he won the silver cup at Toronto for four years, had the highest average scoring butter at the Royal Winter Fair for three years, and was a winner of the sweepstake at the Provincial Exhibition in Brandon for seven consecutive years. He pioneered the packing of butter in hermetically sealed containers, shipping them to Yukon beginning in 1897. In 1935, he became a life member of the Manitoba Dairy Association.
On 26 April 1905, he married Ida Maud Brydon (1880-1951) at Shoal Lake and they had five children: Cora Agnes Nesbitt (1906-?), Ina Elizabeth Nesbitt (1907-?), Walter Stanley Nesbitt (1909-?), Bertha May Nesbitt (1910-?, wife of Donald James Gillespie), Gordon Brydon Nesbitt (1917-?), and John Murray “Jack” Nesbitt. He served as Chair of the Shoal Lake Hospital board (1929-1946) and sat on its council for eight years. Starting in 1922, he assumed responsibility for the wildlife sanctuary at Shoal Lake.
He died at Shoal Lake on 26 November 1948 and was buried in the Shoal Lake Cemetery. He was inducted posthumously into the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame (1991).
Marriage registration [John Rogers Nesbitt, Ida Maud Bryden], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Birth registrations [Cora Agnes Nesbitt, Ina Elizabeth Nesbitt, Walter Stanley Nesbitt, Bertha May Nesbitt, Gordon Brydon Nesbitt], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Death registration [John Roger Nesbitt], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“J. R. Nesbitt, 75, leader in west dairying dies,” Winnipeg Tribune, 27 November 1948. [Manitoba Legislative Library, Biographical Scrapbook B10, page 60]
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Sarah Ramsden and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 5 November 2024
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