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When the nearby Town of Alliston suffered a devastating fire, in 1891 (the year that William and Margaret Banting moved into the Homestead), over 30 acres of the downtown was destroyed. "My dad remembered the fire," Marie (Banting) Shields recalls. "He used to tell us about it. He went back and they stood on the hill and watched Alliston burn. They [the kids] probably had strict orders, they were not to go to the town and get in the road. You don't need a bunch of kids going…"8
The Great Fire had special importance for the Wesleyan Methodist Church, which the family attended. |
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