One of Oakland's first big farmers, Thomas Edward
Meredith Banting — an uncle of Sir Frederick Banting of insulin fame —
moved to the Sourisburg district from Newton Robinson, Ontario, in 1887.
The Sourisbourg district already contained many of his im-mediate
family, including his father, Benjamin, a member of the Anglo-Irish
gentry forced to flee Ireland during the great potato famine. So Thomas
apparently did not have too much trouble getting settled. When the
C.P.R. branch line crossed Oakland in 1892, a siding was laid near his
home. The elevator at Banting Siding and the large brick house he had
built in the 1890's were among the landmarks of the countryside.
The farm was about three and a half miles east of Methven on section
27. He became breeder of registered Clydesdale horses, Shorthorn
cattle and Tamworth swine.
Thomas Banting had a Methodist's determination to prosper and enjoyed
doing things in a big way. As they said in the heyday of the big
harvesting crews, he was one of those who had "one gang going, one gang
coming and one gang working".
Banting home & nearby elevator
An inventive streak was part of his somewhat aristocratic nature. He
tried to make economical fuel from a rig that rolled moistened straw
into "wood", was one of the first Canadian farmers to experi琺ent with
a cement-floored barn, and pioneered the "automatic" method of watering
cattle indoors.
Mr. Banting was accidentally killed in 1914 and Mrs. Banting died in
1926. They are both buried in the Methven Cemetery.
Adapted from The Prairie WASP, page 190
Oakland Echoes page 160
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