36 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



PROPHET OF THE PRAIRIE PROVINCES 

 9. Honorable Duncan McLean Marshall, Minister for Agri- 

 culture in the province of Alberta, was bom in a one-room log 

 shanty in the township of Elderslie, Bruce Co., Ontario, Sept. 2rl, 

 1873. His father, John Marshall, was one of the pioneers of the 

 region. The public school on an adjoining farm provided his 

 first education, but he was later sent to the Walkerton High 

 School, an4 the Owen Sound Collegiate Institute. On Jan. 1, 

 1890, he embarked on a career of public school teaching in his 

 native township. The years preceding an4 following this period 

 were ones of very great depression for Ontario farmers, and he, 

 like a number of other farm boys, found teaching school a 

 quicker way of earning a little cash than any other available. 

 Nevertheless he was continuously engaged in farm work on Sat- 

 urdays and holidays, devoting especial attention to the livestock 

 of his father's farm. John Marshall had early entered into the 

 cattle business, both as feeder and as drover, selling on the 

 Buffalo and Toronto markets, hence it was natural that his son 

 should display something of the same bent. At fourteen years 

 he acquired his first interest in purebred Shorthorns, purchasing 

 several on his own account. Hence when the lean years of 

 farming arrived, Mr. Marshall never lost his determination to 

 be a breeder of highest class livestock. 



During his term of service as a teacher he did organization 

 work for a farmers' association and political party in eastern 

 Canada known as the Patrons of Industry. He proved to be the 

 most successful agent in spreading the influence of this farmers' 

 movement throughout Ontario, although then but a youth of 

 sixteen years. From this initial adventure in political campaign- 

 ing up to the present, he has proved to be a powerful influence 

 in Dominion affairs, and has received invitations to deliver poli- 

 tical addresses both in Canada and the United States. 



