Frank Eaton Ellis family fonds

Frank Eaton Ellis was born on August 22nd, 1889 in Truro, Nova Scotia, where the Ellis family homestead had been in operation since the British takeover from the Acadians. He first attended the public school at Truro, and later the Truro Academy. After, he attended the Nova Scotia Agricultural College for two years before working on the farm belonging to Mr. and Mrs. George Bishop in South Oxford. Six months later, Ellis entered his third year at the Ontario Agricultural College, where he studied the fields of farming and journalism. He was also active in sports at the College and was centre of the basketball team and a scrimmage on the second rugby line.

Following graduation he married Mary Myrtle Morse on September 11th, 1912 and would eventually have two children: Orminston and Marion. He worked for twelve years as an editor of a farm magazine known as the “Farm and Dairy” in Peterborough until 1922, when Ellis set up farming operations outside of the City of Woodstock in North Oxford Township. Known as Dunburn Farm, the business originally produced both cattle and poultry, though by 1924, Ellis switched to primarily poultry operations. Over the years, he pioneered Canada’s poultry industry and was affectionately noted as “The Dean of Oxford County’s commercial poultrymen” in the centennial book published by the Oxford Count Federation of Agriculture. At the age of 80 he was awarded a plaque by Prof. J. Ross Cavers at the 16th Annual Banquet of the Ontario Hatcheries Association in 1969, as one of Canada’s best authorities on poultry. In 1974 he received the OAC Centennial medal for outstanding service to the college and to agriculture.

Over the years he contributed to the realm of farm journalism as an associate editor of the Family Herald and through articles to the Canadian Poultry Review and the Farmers Advocate. He also served as president of the Oxford Federation of Agriculture from 1951-1953 and was a founding President of the Ontario Hatcheries Association through which he was a pioneer proponent of the Hatchery Approval Policy.

Actively involved in the church, Frank Ellis served many years as the Sunday School Superintendent of Knox Presbyterian Church in Woodstock and was an active layman in the congregation. He was also a member of the Gideons and the Victoria Club. Frank E. Ellis passed away on August 11th, 1976 and was interned at St. George’s Anglican Church in Loweville.