George Redpath Barrie
Inducted In
1972
George Redpath Barrie was a distinguished agriculturist whose farm was awarded the bronze medal by the Agricultural and Arts Association in 1887 and was designated a demonstration farm for six years by the Dominion Department of Agriculture.
Born in North Dumfries Township, he was educated at the log schoolhouse, Dumfries Station. Barrie was a noted livestock breeder and cattle feeder and pioneered the feeding of cattle in loose pens. He was the first producer of registered seed grain in Waterloo County.
Secretary-Treasurer of the Grange from 1880-1886, he was a leader in the Farmers’ Institute. It was on his farm, at a Farmers’ Institute open meeting in 1903 that the first Women’s Institute in South Waterloo was formed.
Barrie served North Dumfries Council for seventeen years, was deputy reeve from 1889 to 1891, reeve from 1892 to 1894 and was president of the South Waterloo Agricultural Society.