Markham Stouffville Review, May 2023

MAY 2023
COMMUNITY 7 MARKHAM STOUFFVILLE REVIEW
Andrew Fuyarchuk, academic and
author, spent some time accumulating inperson
documentation of a few prominent
local families.
Below, he shares the following parts of
a recorded conversation with Donny Miller.
Since the 1800s
The farm has been in the Miller name
since the 1800s.
My great-great-grandfather came up
from Pennsylvania. He owned this land,
but he lived on a farm up the road. This
land was rented out to somebody else.
Then my dad (born 1896), who worked the
farm for his dad, was married in ’23 and
took over the farm. They were Mennonite
background, originally Pennsylvania Dutch.
There’s a lot of Miller’s in Pennsylvania.
The original name is Mueller, and it
changed to Miller. Down in Pennsylvania
there is a town Millerville.
My great-great-grandfather came up on
horseback. Apparently, during the trip up,
my great-great-grandfather carried a flask
for water. My grandson has it now. When
my mother passed away in the little house
down the road, all the grandchildren had
a chance just to go in and take what they
wanted. So they gave it to David to keep it
in the Miller family. I got my grandfather’s
watch. They used to carry pocket watches.
End of School and Changes
I went to Melville Public School and
then Stouffville. I didn’t go to high school
Memories of farming life in Markham
Donny Miller in his barn. Photo courtesy of Kenny B. Wang.
very long. I started high school. That was
toward the end of the war, and the farm
boys could get out early and not have to
write exams. I started grade 10, but my dad
was not very well and was thinking of selling
the farm. He asked if I wanted to help,
so I just quit. I got out the first of April and
came home. That’s as far as I got in grade
10.
My brother liked school. He went right
through. He was a professor at University
of Guelph all his life. My sister liked
school. She was a school teacher in Toronto
all her life.
I just stayed home and farmed. I liked
it and wanted to do it, and my dad gave me
the chance. At that time, farms were probably
going for $25,000. I remember my dad
saying that the neighbour’s farm sold for
$25,000. He had to buy this farm from his
family and paid $12,000 in 1944. Now, this
farm is sold.
I can remember when farmers in Scarborough
moved up into Markham. They
were moving up and paying a pretty good
price. I know a chap that moved up here
from Scarborough—Cam Kennedy and the
Watson’s where the Fairgrounds are. The
Watson’s moved up there in ’53 and bought
that 100 acres and 50 acres between us here
that belonged to it.
Life on the Farm
They used to come around in the wintertime
to thresh. So they would lift the rack
up off the wagon, so you could thrash and
pitch it in. I can just remember the steam
engine coming in the lane. Mr. Raymer
from Markham had a threshing machine.
You see, everybody didn’t own a threshing
machine. There were threshers. And Mr.
Raymer in Markham had one. And he had
an old steam engine that he pulled. He’d
come at night, and they’d set up. He’d be
here early in the morning and light up the
fire and get the steam up. My Mom would
have to feed them breakfast at about 7:00
o’clock. Then a bunch of men would come
and thresh.
My lifestyle hasn’t changed much. The
only thing that has changed is the neighbourhood.
But for farm neighbours there
is only the Lewis’ here as far as that goes.
I rent the farm across the road. The farm
families have all gone and don’t live here
anymore. They have gone into town. Some
of the farmers, like us, went up to Listowel.
My son-in-law and daughter farmed with
me here in partnership for nine years.