WILD OATS O U R I N C R E D I B L E
Meet the 'Lusty Plowman' who made Tillsonburg famous
Y ou might think Stompin’ Tom Connors is the one who made Tillsonburg synonymous with hard work. After all, his twangy ode to Tillsonburg’s tobacco harvest was a huge hit when it was released in 1971. Nevertheless, Connors was far from the first to represent Tillsonburg as the home of hard work. Enter the “The Lusty Plowman”—a bonnie lad with a lusty appetite who couldn’t possibly tend his fields unless powered by a hearty breakfast of Tillson’s Pan-Dried Oats. “Long before tobacco, Tillsonburg was famous for its oatmeal,” explains Patricia Phelps, curator of Annandale National Historic Site. “At one point, Tillsonburg was even nicknamed ‘the Pan-Dried Town.’” According to family lore, E.D. Tillson frequently suffered from bowel ailments as a lingering side effect from his bout with typhoid fever. His doctors suggested that eating a bowl of oatmeal every morning would help his
condition. There was just one problem—Tillson didn’t like oatmeal. “The old-fashioned kiln process let the smoke and fumes into the oats, adding an unpleasant flavour to the oatmeal,” says Phelps. “So ever the entrepreneur, E.D. set his sights on developing an improved drying method. The result was a patented new process that gave the oats a nutty flavor. He also designed new milling equipment to remove the dreaded hulls, seeds and ‘foreign matter’ found in other products.” The Canadian public loved Tillson’s creation. In fact, Tillson’s Oats soon became the number one cereal in Canada. The product was even shipped internationally to places like Norway, the Canary Islands, and South America. However, by the early 1900s, American companies including Post and Kellogg’s were beginning to experiment with
19
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online