The Rural Voice, 1993-09, Page 17n one of Nellie
Johnston's photo
albums of the 1976
International
Plowing Match held
in Bruce County, there are
a number of pictures of
her husband Earl, now
deceased, wearing the
medal he was given as
that year's Mayor of
Tented City. In all the
photos, his face is creased
by a winning grin while
the regal chain of office
with its golden hued pins
settled on an emerald
band, rests comfortably
on his shoulders. In
many of the photos,
Nellie is perched beside
him, beaming for the
camera. Turn a page and
there's another picture,
this time of Nellie alone.
But the honest smile of
the earlier photos has been
replaced with an almost
bashful grin as Nellie
poses, prophetically, with
the medal draped on her
softer, rounded shoulders.
Now, nearly 17 years
later, Nellie still wears the
same apologetic smile as
she talks about being
installed as the first Lady
Mayor of the 1993
International Plowing
Match and Farm Mach-
inery Show and Country
Living Exposition. "They
asked me to be Mayor but
I told them it was a man's
job," says the 74 -year-old
widow.
"As you can see, she's
not into women's libera-
tion," jokes her son Campbell who's
sitting with his mother at the kitchen
table following lunch at the home
farm where Nellie has lived alone
since Earl died in 1989.
Nellie contends that she never
actually agreed to be the Lady Mayor
and when it was announced, she
refuted the title by telling plowing
match organizers that she hadn't
consented to the honour. They
defended their decision by saying that
neither had she declined the position.
And so, this unlikely candidate is
THE JOHNSTONS
BREAK GROUND
Nellie Johnston becomes the first woman
Mayor of the Tented City, continuing a
family tradition started by her husband as
the Johnston family hosts its second IPM.
By Lisa Boonstoppel-Port
The reluctant Mayor, Nellie Johnston, shows her chain of office.
breaking ground in plowing match
tradition as the first woman mayor.
But secretly, Nellie seems to be
pleased with the honour. When
pressed, she says "I guess it's
exciting" with a heartfelt laugh.
Banishing the male leadership role
isn't the only "first" for the Johnston
clan. Earl was in fact the first Mayor
of Tented City, a position that has
become a tradition over the years.
The Johnstons are also the only
family which has hosted the annual
plowing match twice, first in 1976
and now in 1993 which
marks the 80th
anniversary of the
international event.
Nellie remembers Alf
Brunton, the chairman
of the 1976 match,
telling Earl that he'd
had his eye on their
corner field as the
perfect place to host a
plowing match. "I was
a director on the
Formosa Mutual
Insurance Company
and I would drive by
that site a couple of
times a month, and I
always said that if the
plowing match ever
came to Bruce, that's
where it should be,"
recalls Brunton, who's
now an advisor on this
year's plowing match
committee. "It's a
good piece of land —
well drained and
situated in a good spot
since it's just off a
provincial highway
without being too close
to one that it will
disrupt traffic." The
field is ideal. It's a
broad expanse of
relatively flat land
located two and a half
miles west of
Walkerton at the
junction of the Elora
Road and County Road
Two. Take the first
sideroad left off the
county road and you'll
see a cluster of farms,
comprised mainly of
the three Johnston
farms which encompass over 500
acres.
This year's chairman, Jack
Cumming, had the same thoughts
when the executive committee began
looking for a site several years ago as
part of the bidding process required
by the Ontario Plowmen's
Association to host a match. In fact,
the committee never even looked at
any other sites before approaching
the Johnstons to see if they'd be
willing to be the host farmers. "We
knew we'd probably be able to find
SEPTEMBER 1993 13