The Rural Voice, 2002-02, Page 37News
Harold and June Woodhouse (centre) receive their Agricultural Heritage
Award from Karl Chittka (left), president of the Grey County Federation of
Agriculture, and Don McCausland, mayor of Grey Highlands.
shopping. They would take a five -
gallon pail of cream that they could
sell for $10. For five or six dollars
they could buy their week's supply of
groceries, and June points out that $6
could buy a lot of groceries. The
movie cost 45 cents each. They
would spend a dollar on gas, and still
have money left over.
The Woodhouses have worked
and raised their family on the farm on
Concession 1 in Euphrasia Township
that Harold's father acquired in 1931
and like most young couples of that
era they had very little. June's father
gave her a Jersey cow and from that
cow, and one Harold bought for her,
she raised all her heifers and built up
her milking herd. Harold had the
dual-purpose Shorthorns that they
also milked along with some
Holsteins, and from time to time an
Ayrshire, Angus and Hereford. They
were milking 22 cows by hand before
acquiring a milking machine. June
was recognized as the milker in the
family and with Harold's help they
shipped cream for 47 years.
A few years after being married
Harold acquired his first registered
Clydesdales, which were to become,
as he put it, "the love of my life". For
almost 50 years he raised, showed
and sold many champions. He has
many ribbons to show for his
achievements including the
Couple recalls when
pail of cream bought
a week's groceries
By Greg Brown
Since they began farming together
52 years ago; Harold and June
Woodhouse have seen many changes
in farming and rural living. Add to
that the years they helped on their
parents' farms, they have probably
witnessed more changes in the rural
way of life than any other generation.
Before he was married, Harold
recalls picking apples (something
everyone in the Beaver Valley did at
one time) for 25 cents an hour, or $2
for an eight hour day.
June was raised on the farm on the
Old Mail Road that her great-
grandfather received from the Crown,
and when she started working at the
creamery in Meaford she earned $14
a week and paid $7 a week for board.
They remember going to the
Rocklyn Fair as children and paying
a nickel 'Tor a hot dog (that was
before the days of hamburgers), a
nickel for a pop and a nickel for a
candy bar, so they could have all
kinds of fun for 15 cents.
After being married they
continued the Saturday -night
tradition of going to town for
Champion Stallion at the Toronto
Exhibition and the Reserve Grand
Champion at the Royal Winter Fair.
Harold would .also truck some
Shorthorns to Toronto for his
daughters to show. June recalls him
being away for a week or more at a
time travelling to fairs all around the
province.
They imported a stallion from
Scotland in order to maintain the
high quality of Clydesdales for which
the Woodhouses have earned a
reputation. When not showing their
horses, Harold is at judging, which
sometimes includes a class of mules,
on which he admits he is not an
expert:
Harold talks about how farming is
so different today than in years past.
When reminiscing about his days as a
youngster Harold recalls the steam
engine that came around to do the
threshing. He would help draw water
from the river with a team and
wagon, making sure the steam engine
didn't run out of water. The owner of
the steam engine provided two men,
one on the engine, the other on the
separator, for $1.25 an hour and the
farmer had to provide the firewood
and water.
Harold remembers his father
having the second rubber -tired tractor
in the area. It was a 1938 Fordson
which they bought from Lake's
Garage in Clarksburg. His father
must have been a little skeptical
about the tractor because he
purchased it, and a plow, on the
condition that it could pull the three -
furrow plow up the hill on their farm.
He put the tractor in low gear at the
bottom of the hill and it pulled right
to the top without hesitation, so he
had to buy the tractor. Their family
had the first rubber -tired wagon and
were one of the first to start field
threshing.
The Woodhouses feel the biggest
change they have witnessed is in the
makeup of their community. For
many years they knew all their
neighbours for miles around. People
didn't move. They often lived their
entire life on the same farm, or in the
same area.
More important was the co-
operative spirit that existed among
FEBRUARY 2002 33