Download Mr. Renee DeWilde of 155 Blake Street Barrie

Mr. Renee DeWilde of 155 Blake Street Barrie
1st Person to grow Tobacco in Simcoe County
28 November 1972
* means unsure of spelling
Mr. DeWilde was born in Belgium. He came to Canada in 1924. Renee came to Simcoe
County in 1940 and that was when he started growing tobacco and then moved to Barrie in 1950.
His first years in Canada he went and worked growing tobacco for about 6 weeks and went to do
that for 2 years before starting to grow it himself in Elven County* he grew burly tobacco with his
father. They grew 2 crops in Elven County and then in 1929 he went to Belhigh* to grow crops with
an older man that could not drive his own car and did not know much about tobacco so he hired
Renee to grow it for him. Renee worked for this man for a year. Renee was married in 1930. So he
grew tobacco in Belhive* for about 9 years and then in 1939 a friend of his moved to Wasaga Beach
and then when visiting told Renee that there was nice land in Wasaga Beach and Renee took his
advice and looked for tobacco land there in 1939. Renee had trouble finding it and stopped at a
hotel in Creemore and a man explained the family land in the area to him.
Before going back home Renee and two others bought a farm, the other two sold there’s
but Renee moved in to the farm in 1940. Renee knew the land was good because it was light sandy
land but was worried about the climate. He went all the way to Midhurst and Angus to learn about
the climate and got year round temperatures. The Midhurst findings were bad but the Angus ones
were good so he bought the farm. 1939 the tobacco price went down as well which scared the other
two off. Renee says he did not grow too much tobacco the first year only about nine acres. He spent
all his money on the farm so he had to go to Creemore to the Bank of Montreal because he did not
have enough money to build a farmhouse. The man at the bank tried to talk him out of getting into
tobacco but Renee did not listen. The nine acre crop became split amongst the three of them
because the other two that sold their farms helped Renee. Renee had to ship his crop to a new
tobacco company because they were not part of the marketing board so could not ship it to certain
companies. Renee still got a good price for the tobacco the first year and the first year there were no
problems. However, it took three years for that company to pay Renee for the tobacco. The
company was new and had to process and sell the tobacco before they could pay Renee. Renee
needed that money and in the meantime he grew some potatoes and had cattle. He grew tobacco on
a small scale for 4 years and did not have a frost killing crop until 1946 and it killed about a third of
his crop and was on September 4. He was growing Virginia Tobacco.
In 1945 lots of people became coming in because they heard about Renee growing tobacco
there. The first crop he sold the company really liked his tobacco and somebody told Renee they
really liked it and had people from Montreal to come and look at it. Alan Blaire did a study about
growing tobacco. At one time there were over 100 tobacco farmers in Simcoe County. Renee says
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today there is less. The first farm he had in New Lowel had 230 acres and 72 acres of tobacco and
after a few years he had to cut the acres he was growing tobacco on down. Some farmers were
growing 45 acres and it was cut in half. The land on the farm was becoming more and more
valuable. It was difficult for Renee to find experienced help. They would go to other areas to farm
first, Renee had two boys come up from North Caroline to help him farm. The people that generally
came would be from up north or Quebec but once they made some money or had experience they
would usually leave. It did not take them very long to learn. Used to have to bend down to get the
bottom leaves when harvesting tobacco and would hurt legs and back. Now there are machines that
allow them to do it without that strain. Renee has seen high school students do it. The first few
leaves that come off are from the bottom and called sand leaves. Harvest bottoms few leaves first
week and then a few from a bit higher up the following week and so on. There are usually over 20
leaves per plant and can harvest about 4 or 5 leaves at a time in the fall. One grower would only
grow one strain of tobacco. However, they would grow different varieties of the same strain.
Renee grew on concession 4 lot 22 and 23, his first farm was 230 acres and 72acres of that
was tobacco and the man he sold it to did not do very well on it. That man did not pay taxes to
Renee so what happened was instead of taking away the entire farm for the man not paying taxes
Renee took some of the acres of land from the man back as a way for the man to pay him back. This
allowed for the man to continue farming and have his own land to continue making a living. Price
would be based on price by a pound and that price would also change based on the quality of the
tobacco. Ranges from 30 to 75 cents. Tobacco always had to be shipped down to the tobacco
markets because the buyers would not come up anymore. Before the marketing board the buyers
would come up to buy it but that stopped. Would usually end up with about 8 grades of tobacco.
Would have some different darks, some reds, a few different greens, and some scraps. Once the
farmers made the grades they would thresh and bail it. The companies would let them know how
many bails they wanted and then the farmers would ship the number of bails directly to the factory.
The factories he shipped to were in Delhigh*. Now they charge about $11 a pound to ship to
Delhigh.
Renee says there were a lot of hard times in the start and that one year in Angus his tobacco
was all planted and was being cultivated and then after a few days of cultivating the wind came along
and blew the whole crop up. The tobacco plants were small and the sand blew against the plants and
it burned the plants and made Renee lose almost his whole crop. There was no wind insurance for
farmers that year and it was too late for Renee to replant and he did not think he would have a crop
that year but after a few weeks the crop looked like it was coming along again and the plants had
healed. Another time he went to the bank and when he'd come home he had lost the entire crop to
hail and was the only season that he did not have hail insurance. The only thing that other farmers
did not like about Renee as a tobacco farmer in the area was the high wages that he was offering for
workers. He came into Lowell* and all the people were very welcoming and it was just competitive
nature of other farmers wanting the same workers that Renee was able to offer the higher wages of
at least a dollar an hour higher than other farmers offered and that amount grew each year that
Renee was able to offer workers.
In the area most people did not pay much attention to tobacco farmers. At first it started in
small scale and boomed in 1945. A man from Toronto Globe and Mail came and put up a big write
up in the paper about the tobacco farming in Simcoe County and how the tobacco industry was
booming. Renee has a copy of the newspaper and the interviewer advises him to take it to the
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Simcoe County Museum to be photocopied so there will be a copy on record. Renee lost his copy
for a while but a woman that used to live next to him saw his name in the article and mailed him a
copy of it a few years ago and that gave Renee a new copy of the original article. Renee adds that the
tobacco farms are leaving Simcoe County rather quickly and he does not like that because he worked
hard in the area and had a lot of memories of the tobacco industry and finds it sad. Renee says the
tobacco farms were good for the industry and the farms became very built up and highly taxed by
the government and had to leave the area. The first 7-8 years that he was growing tobacco he did
not have irrigation and then had to put one in. In Angus there was a good river near his field. When
Mr. DeWilde mentioned lot numbers he says his farm he was thinking of his second farm which was
on the first road west of New Lowel turning south to the left about a quarter mile which would
make him lot 3 or 4 on concession 3. It has a pioneer tobacco farm indication on it. It was on the
left-hand side as you turned south. Decided that it was lot 4.
The article from the Globe and Mail was trying to be added to the archives. It was from July
31, 1946 and is titled Sands produce Gold in Camp Borden Region. It's about the tobacco farming
industry in the area. There's gold in the sands around camp Borden tobacco gold and the rush hasn't
started yet. Renee DeWilde was the first to start farming tobacco six years ago. Two other farmers
came after Renee to have three farms on the area for a few thousand dollars. Today there are 21
tobacco farms. Farms that changed hands after the war for $4000 are now worth up to $40000.
Renee was the sole pioneer and has thus earned the name Pioneer Tobacco Farm on the side of his
barn. Renee hasn't had a bad crop since starting but the big threat was frost but it had not hit him
yet. Curly Despher* was another Belgian man that became a tobacco farmer just like Renee.
Banner image from the Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library Local History Collection depicting cars
lining Holland Street East. ID Number 3696. http://www.ibidnet.ca/details.php?IDnum=3696
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