Tenting with the Doctor: c. 1905

This is the house of Dr. George Devey Farmer, in Ancaster, Ontario, taken about 1905. In the photo are Dr Farmer, his wife (and first cousin) Eleanor Shelton Farmer, and two of their four children - George Richard Devey Farmer and Margaret Alice Devey Farmer - sitting on Balaam the donkey. To the right is Collinson, with the dogs.

The house was built about 1873 for Dr. Richardson, and still stands at 343 Wilson Street, Ancaster, although shorn of its veranda and fountain.

The Farmer family (Dr. Farmer's grandfather) arrived in Ancaster in the 1850s, having arrived in Canada twenty years before, from Brockton House, near Shifnal, Shropshire. All their possessions were loaded into a chartered 430 ton sailing ship - the Kingston, out of Liverpool. They included 42 packing cases of furniture, all of their animals, and many of their tenants. There were 45 people in addition to the family. The voyage took 51 days.

Dr Farmer served in World War I in the Wentworth Medical Corps, and served the village and rural area for many years as doctor. He owned the first automobile in Ancaster, a Pope, from 1902. View full size.