MAPLETON – For more than seven decades, Eileen Downey has lived and worked on her Mapleton farm.
She’s a long-term Wellington Federation of Agriculture (WFA) member, was a 4-H Homemaking Club instructor for over 25 years, is an executive member of the Catholic Women’s League and a member of the Women’s Institute.
On Nov. 1, Downey was presented with WFA’s Community Person of the Year Award in recognition of her volunteerism and contributions to agriculture. WFA president Barclay Nap presented Downey with the award, along with a plaque and water colour painting, during the annual banquet in Elora.
About 30 of Downey’s family members attended the banquet, her daughter Barbara Downey told the Advertiser. They were all “very proud of my mother for being such a stalwart and hardworking matriarch,” she said.
Downey said she felt “surprised and honoured” to be chosen for the award. “Oh dear, it’s very nice,” she said.
Since receiving the award, Downey said many people have called to congratulate her.
She has also received certificates and letters of congratulations from Perth-Wellington MP John Nater and MPP Matthew Rae, Warden Andy Lennox on behalf of the County of Wellington and Mapleton Mayor Gregg Davidson on behalf of the township.
Downey said all the recognition felt “pretty special that they were remembering me – that I was a farmer for so many years.”
It was the first time the WFA has presented a Community Person of the Year Award.
Nap said the WFA decided to introduce the annual award as an opportunity to highlight and thank people who “have advanced agriculture and made it what it is in Wellington.
“Your multi-generational devotion to family farming has been admirable, passionate and relentless,” Davidson said to Downey during a Mapleton council meeting on Nov. 12.
Davidson described Downey’s volunteer work as “quite an impressive display of unselfish dedication and give-back to friends, neighbours and youth.”
But to Downey, her extensive volunteer work is simply a nice way to meet people in the community “and see what they are doing and how they are doing.
“My neighbours are very good, friendly people, and they are at a beck and call if I need them. My one neighbour brings my paper in, they check in on me, just say ‘hello’ or ‘how are you doing,’” she said.
Going out in the community to volunteer is better than staying home, she said, and “you come home feeling better.”
Nap said Downey was nominated by her daughter, son, and granddaughter-in-law who wrote letters to the WFA outlining Downey’s involvement in agriculture throughout her life.
Downey said they asked her a lot of questions to collect information for these letters, but she didn’t know the reason behind all the questions until Nap called to tell her she was selected for the award.
She was born in the 1930s, grew up on her parents’ farm along with four siblings, in Tralee, just south of Listowel.
Her family had one milk cow and a flock of chickens, and sold eggs and baked goods in Listowel, Nap said.
“They made their own butter and cheese and had a large garden to feed everyone,” he added.
“Eileen’s mother would often say she didn’t know where the next quarter would come from – not dollar, but quarter, so I guess times were tough, but they made do and they worked hard,” Nap told the Community News, based on the letters submitted by Downey’s daughters.
Eileen married Carl Downey in 1952, and in 1953 the newlyweds bought a 100-acre farm between Alma and Drayton from Carl’s father.
When they purchased the farm it had no running water and no electricity, Nap said, so they “had to do everything by candlelight.”
“They erected a small windmill that helped with the running water,” he noted.
The Downeys started with dairy cows – “separated the cream and sold that cream to a creamery in Arthur,” Nap said. “In 1978 they got into hogs.”
Carl worked in construction so he was away from the farm during the day, and Eileen took care of the “plowing, seeding, and whatever needed to be done.
“She would place her children at one corner of the field and their German shepherd named Rex would look after them,” Nap said.
“Ever since then I’ve been farming here,” Downey said. “And I still make a lot of the decisions about what we are going to plant.”
Crops on the farm have included oats, barley, flax, winter wheat and soy beans, Nap said.
This season, fall wheat will grown on the farm, she said, and once spring comes, soy beans will be planted, Downey said.
After Carl’s passing in 2001, Eileen said the Grand River Conservation Authority planted 1,100 Norway spruce trees on the farm in his memory, leading from the house to the back of the farm.
“I still enjoy [farming] and try to keep up with what’s happening,” she said.
“She keeps the lawn trimmed and does her own marketing of the field crops,” Nap added.
Downey still lives on the farm and though she is the only one living there, she said her family, particularly her daughter, are nearby.
“I don’t mind it here at all,” she said, noting she can still drive so she’s still able to make living on the farm work.
“I don’t know how long I will be able to stay here, but I haven’t decided anything different” she said.
Downey has five children, 12 grandchildren, 41 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren.
