1944

               

                

           

Class 16,-championship team; Murray Budd, Ingersoll

W.W.Murray was an engineer from New Brunswick (winner in class 14).He bought and sold horses for the railroad; he had access to the best wagon horses in the country; the railroad crossing on the 8th Line (Line 45) and the spur line through Zorra Station and Embro to Lakeside was constructed with horses and box scrapers. He married a daughter of Alex Murray of Lot 10 Conc.7, West Zorra (8th Line) (Maggie Duncan Murray or Maggie "D")

Another W.W.Murray (William Wallace Murray) farmed at Lot 7 Conc. 8 East side on the 8th Line.He was known as "Billy Sailor" Murray because he was a sailor. He entertained by doing a step dance on a horses back.This history was related by Gordon Marshall, of Golspie, who loaned his Cockshutt tractor to Ken Howard to compete in the 1944 Oxford county plowing match.

Gordon purchased this tractor from Russell Garner in 1942. Tractors were hard to come by during the war years.

Mr. J.A. Carroll, superintendent of OPA, attended and complimented the officers and directors on the success of the match. Mr. Green re-iterated this and stated the match was one of the best in the province. The treasury had a balance of $172.74                                                                                     
At the annual meeting Dec. 2nd 1944, President Grenzebach thanked all the directors and others who had made the event an outstanding success, all of which required a good deal of time on the part of those responsible. He stated he had been at plowing matches where everything was done in a day, but this was not so in this case. The event required the energetic efforts of all the officers and committees to put it across.                                                                                                                                      
Grenzebach reported on his attendance at the provincial annual meeting in Toronto, still held during the war years. The main speaker was Dr. Bennett, in charge of conservation work in the United States. He reported that 100 million acres in the USA had gone out of use because of soil erosion and another 100 million were going if nothing were done. Dr.Bennett showed some very excellent slides illustrating land that at one time had grown excellent crops, and which now, due to wind and soil erosion was useless for this purpose. In 1944 annual meeting the OPA passed a resolution promoting aggressive soil conservation. Grenzebach,in commenting on our own county of Oxford, said it was only a little over 100 years old and was already showing signs of erosion, and it was time that a definite program be started on this line of work.

Harper Hammond moved up as president; E.V. Kennedy, Oxford Centre was nominated vice president; G.R. Green stayed secretary; Leslie Curry remained treasurer, Fred Curry and Frank Jackson were auditors. Murray McBeth replaced Ralph Swartout as director for Dereham. Lorne Richardson and Dick Marriage became new directors.