Seaforth 150: The community shone in 1966 when it hosted the IPM
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
Huron County has a long and storied history with the International Plowing Match - the province’s largest and most prestigious plowing match and rural expo.
Not only has the county hosted the match several times over the past 80 years, but its residents have made their presence felt in a number of ways, from triumphing in the fields to being crowned Ontario’s Queen of the Furrow on the stage. There was a time when 10 per cent of the match’s competitors would come from Huron County, so it’s no surprise that the county has a unique relationship with the match.
When a Seaforth-area farm played host to the match in 1966, the county had hosted just once before, and it was in 1946 near Port Albert in an all-encompassing celebration that has been dubbed “The Victory Match”, as it was the first International Plowing Match (IPM) to be held in Ontario since they were put on hold during World War II.
(“The Match That Never Was”, as it’s known locally, was supposed to be held in 1942 equidistant between Seaforth and Clinton, with over 100,000 people expected. The Commercial Hotel in Seaforth was chosen as the match’s headquarters. However, in April of 1942, fuel rationing was introduced to aid the war effort and the match was cancelled. It wouldn’t be held again until the Port Albert match of 1946.)
Twenty years after first hosting the Victory Match, Huron County won the right to host the IPM again on Oct. 11-14, 1966 at Seaforth. The organizing committee had plans for the biggest and best match ever, but as in Port Albert, Mother Nature had other ideas.
Gordon McGavin of Walton and Larry Snider of Exeter were co- chairs of the organizing committee. James M. Scott’s farm, just west of Seaforth on Highway 8 was to be the site of the tented city. Right from the beginning the weather seemed determined to ruin the event. The Huron Expositor in Seaforth reported that intermittent driving rain, hail and high winds struck on both of the first two days. Plowing went ahead, but other activities were cancelled.
With the site a mucky mess, tractors were on standby throughout the grounds to haul out vehicles that became mired in the mud. Few cars used the parking fields.
Because of the weather, it was decided to extend the match until Saturday to give more people a chance to attend. It seemed like a good move when Friday dawned sunny and the streets of the tented city began to dry out. Once again the hopes of the host committee were crushed Saturday morning when the rain started early and wiped out the gains made with Friday’s dry weather.
It became a plowing match legend because, for years later, the Scott family was plowing up rubber boots that had been sucked off the feet of match visitors.
On the bright side, Amy Stewart of Seaforth, was crowned Ontario Queen of the Furrow. She was the daughter of Ken Stewart, Warden of Huron County and Reeve of McKillop Township, the host municipality.
Amy Beccario (née Stewart) became the first-ever Huron County woman to win the IPM Queen of the Furrow crown.
Beccario holds a special place on the list as she won the Queen competition on home turf, a feat that has yet to be repeated, although Huron’s Brooklyn Hendriks won the first-ever provincial Princess competition in Walton in 2017.
Beccario won in 1966 and was Queen for 1967. In 1966, the International Plowing Match was held at the Scott family farm near Seaforth and has earned the nickname the Mud Match.
Beccario was the daughter of past Huron County Warden Ken Stewart and his wife Clarissa. She was coached in plowing by Bob Fotheringham and bested eight contestants for the title. She was 19 years old at the time.
Recollections of Beccario, who passed away in 2009, were featured in a special 50th anniversary book produced in 2011 by the Ontario Plowmen’s Association. According to the write-up that was submitted by her family, she remembered the grandeur of the site.
“The tented city covered about 60 acres and had four streets, three avenues and about 300 exhibitor tents,” she said. “It was very memorable for visitors and plowmen alike.”
The match started in the middle of a rainstorm on Tuesday, Oct. 11 and ended the same way on Oct. 15.
“For the visitors, the gooey sea of mud provided a massive challenge,” she said. “Rubber boots were brought in by the truckload. Despite all this, the crowds came and attendance reached 70,000. It was a success in many ways. And, everyone who attended tracked home souvenirs of our rich Huron County soil!”
She said, in the write-up, that the plowing conditions were nearly ideal despite the rain.
After being Queen, Beccario went on to become a secondary school teacher in the Niagara Peninsula. She married David Beccario and had two children, Brian and Sarah.
Since Beccario’s 1966/1967 reign, three more Huron County women have won the title: Lynne Godkin (née Dodds) in 1984/1985, Melissa Veldman (née Sparling) in 2010/2011 and Maranda Klaver, the county’s most recent provincial queen, who reigned in 2022/2023. When Klaver - who also happens to be from the Seaforth area - won, it was the first time since 2019 that the match had been held, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For its part, Huron County has gone on to host the match three more times. There was the Money Match near Wingham in 1978, the Sunshine Match in 1999 near Dashwood and then the 100th IPM in Walton in 2017, a match that also had its own wrestling match with Mother Nature.