James M.T. Weir
Home ] Up ]

Beatriz (Bea) McCowan, Broker
Homelife BEST-SELLER Realty Inc., Scarborough

Email.gif (489 bytes)    www.beamccowan.com
Managing Editor, D.B. McCowan, P.Eng.

Buying a Home

Celtic Studies

Community Studies: Publications

Educational Resource

Historic Sites in Scarborough Heights

Links for Toronto Links

mccowan.org

New This Month: Dec/07

Real Estate in Toronto: Just Sold!

SATEC Fiftieth

Scarborough Heights Record

Search This Site

Table of Contents

Technological Design for a Sustainable Society

Toronto Real Estate

Trees: A Great Resource

World History

 

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.

Neil Weir, July 13/93

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 prefered the politics of agriculture to the politics of the land re-development that was then eating up much of southwest Scarborough.

From Fairs and Frolics: Scottish Communities at Work and Play
Scarboro Heights Record V7 #1

 

Privacy Statement