J. FRANCIS KETCHESON.
 



  J. Francis Ketcheson is a member of one of the oldest and most hon-
orable families in Hastings county, Ontario, where his birth occurred
on the 26th of November, 1876, in the city of Belleville. At the Ketche-
son reunion held on the old homestead in June, 1911, over one thousand
members of the family were registered.  J. Francis Ketcheson, who is
the son of Henry and Elizabeth (Abraham) Ketcheson, is farming near
Wilkie and is conducting an implement business in that town. His par-
ents were born in Ontario and his father farmed in Hastings county until
about 1918, when he retired from active life and is now making his home
in Picton, Prince Edward county.
	In the pursuit of his education J. Francis Ketcheson attended the
public and high schools of Belleville and after putting his textbooks aside
learned cheese making, following that line of work for seven or eight
years. He then became associated with R. J. Graham, a wholesale and
retail commission agent, and remained with him for a number of years.
Subsequently he went to the United States and located in Buffalo, New
York, where he was connected with the Buffalo State Hospital and was
graduated as a trained nurse in 1903. However, because of poor health
he never followed that profession. In 1904 he returned to Canada and
located at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where for a short time he worked
for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. For some seven years thereafter he
operated a homestead twelve miles south of Drinkwater and at the end
of that time sold his stock and implements and went with the Cockshutt
Company in the capacity of traveling collector and traveled out of Regina
for five years. In 1911 he bought a half section of land four miles north
of Wilkie, and improved it, bringing it to a highly cultivated state, and
erected first-class buildings thereon. He did not move onto the farm, how
ever, until 1915, when he resigned his position as traveling collector.
Since that time Mr. Ketcheson has made his home on the farm and it is
one of the show places of the district. In the spring of 1922 he ventured
into the implement business in Wilkie, buying out H. E. Hamilton, Lim-
ited, and he handles the John Deere and Cockshutt lines of farm imple-
ments, and has built up a substantial and representative 
enterprise.
	In September, 1897, Mr. Ketcheson was married to Miss Eudella Sim-
mons. In his political views Mr. Ketcheson is a Liberal and he has firm
belief in the principles of that party as factors in good government. He
served as councillor at Moose Jaw in Local Improvement District, No.130,
for five years and has served on the council of Buffalo Rural Municipality
No.409, for the past eight years. He has been Deputy Reeve for the past
seven years. For some seven years time Mr. Ketcheson was secretary-
treasurer of the Narrow Lake Rural Telephone Company and also inspec-
tor of its lines. For about five years he was secretary of the United Grain
Growers Association and organized a branch in Wilkie, but resigned that
office in 1922. He is secretary~treasurer of the Wilkie Agricultural So-
ciety, which office he has held for the past two years, and he is likewise
secretary of the Wilkie Fair Association. His particular hobby is good
roads and he has devoted a great deal of his time and attention to that
phase of improvement and advancement since becoming connected with
municipal affairs. Fraternally Mr. Ketcheson is identified with the Inde-
pendent Order of Foresters and his religious faith is that of the Presby-
terian church. His success has been attained at the cost of hard work and
close application and as a self-made man he well merits the high regard in
which he is held by his fellowmen.



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