1

The family had strong connections to the nearby Town of Alliston. Margaret (Grant) Banting, mother of Sir Frederick, was the first white girl born there.

2

Victoria Street, Alliston.
1930
Alliston, Ontario

3

Marie (Banting) Shields and Robert Douglas Banting recall her connections to the town. Marie was the daughter of Thompson Banting and Lena Knight:

Marie: Yes, my great-uncle, he owned the Graham & Knight bank, he was the Knight part of it. He was my grandfather's brother.

Bob: That was sort of a private bank.

M: It was one of the last private banks. It closed during World War II or at the end of it, because the government passed a law -- the farmers had to borrow a lot of money, the depression first and then the war - and the government passed a law that the banks had to forgive farmers their debts. That was the end of that.

B: Your mother had some very strong roots in Alliston.

M: She was born in Alliston. My grandfather, he was a bricklayer, he built a lot of the schools, country schools.

4

Intersection of Victoria and Paris Streets.
1940
Alliston, Ontario

5

Marie (Banting) Shields, Thompson's daughter, recalls the allure of the nearby town of Alliston:

"I had a coat with the long little buttons on, and my dad would be the farmer in the big clumsy hat. And he was trying to button the coat when my grandfather walked into the house. And I was so upset because we were going to go drive out to town and get him. So I was quite young. I'd be a preschooler. But I was so upset because I didn't get my trip to town, 'cause my grandfather walked out."

6

Downtown Alliston after the Great Fire of 1891.
1891
Alliston, Ontario

7

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.