By the 1860's the initial land-clearing/setting-up-home phase of pioneer settlement was largely complete in Downie Township in Upper Canada. The Agriculture and Personal Census of 1861 creates a portrait of an establishing community with solid farms, a range of denominational churches, tuition-free public schools and a growing urban society able to pay for farm produce. John McEwan who had married into the Ballantyne clan in 1847 as a 28 year old Scottish moulder, now owned 150 acres of land, at least a third of which was cleared and on which he grew a variety of crops. He was the father of growing family ranging in age from Robert who was 12, Alex (age 9 ), Janet (age 7), Mary (age 4), and Johnnie who was a baby. It is very likely that John owned several Ayshire cows, a breed which originated in Scotland and had been steadily developed in Canada West. The milk from the cows would be churned by Agnes into butter for home consumption. On some farms the milk was also used to produce cheese. Of course, there was a ready market for any excess butter or cheese in the growing urban centre of Stratford. There are family stories of Fordyce Murray (Agnes McEwan's younger sister) regularly walking from Avonton to Stratford, a distance of about 12 kl. to sell her butter at the Stratford market. Already, in Oxford county to the south there were examples of two farm women with herds of cows who were producing cheese on a relatively large scale for sell in the surrounding urban centres of London or Woodstock. The huge British market was also a potential export market for cheese.
