Frederick Banting was a small-town Canadian doctor in the early 1920s. He was just starting out in practice and didn’t even have enough patients to afford to get married.

His life changed when he discovered insulin in 1921-22. For his discovery, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1923 and was knighted Sir Frederick Banting in 1934. He was able to marry in 1924.

The lives of millions of people with diabetes changed even more. They lived. Before Banting’s discovery, for many people a diagnosis of diabetes was a death sentence.

Banting was born in 1891 on a farm in Alliston, Ontario, Canada, in 1891, which made him 30 when he discovered insulin. The farm is 85 kilometers (53 miles) north of Toronto.

It’s still a working farm, growing potatoes. But there’s nothing there to honor Banting.

In the last couple of weeks several people from Toronto have called and written me about the Banting homestead.

“Being from Toronto, my husband and I take the time to go to country,” Linda writes. “We checked out the Alliston area and found that Frederick Banting was born there. We went to check out the property and home, thinking it was a museum and were horrified to see its condition. The property and homestead was bequeathed to the Ontario Historical Society for future generations to enjoy but that has not happened. The homestead may not survive the winter.”

Frederick Banting’s nephew, Edward Banting, was the last family member to own and work the Alliston farm where Frederick was born and grew up. In 1999 Edward donated the 100-acre Banting Homestead to the Ontario Historical Society. Despite a $15,000 annual income the historical society receives by renting the Banting property to a local potato farmer, they have apparently not even minimally maintained the Banting farmhouse and outbuildings.

With Canadian understatement, Bob Banting told me when he called a few days ago from Toronto that his cousin Edward wanted to be sure that the Banting Homestead would be preserved, but “it hasn’t worked out very well.” Bob can’t even visit the farm where his great uncle discovered insulin. “I got a letter that threatens me with a lawsuit if I go on the property.”

Bob says that Edward’s records show that he turned down a $4.4 million offer to sell the farm, because he wanted it to be protected and he trusted the historical society to expedite his wishes. The crux of the problem is a missing codicil to the will that gave the homestead to the historical society, Bob says. And now the historical society claims the legal right to sell the property.

“The OHS may have the legal right to sell the homestead,” Bob says, “but they do not have moral right to run counter to their mandate.” Now the Banting family want it returned to them.

The Banting family is close to establishing The Sir Frederick Banting Legacy Foundation. They hope that the historical society will turn the Banting homestead over to the Foundation to take care of.