 Harold Adams Innis was born in 1894 on a small livestock and dairy farm near the community of Otterville in southwestern Ontario 's Oxford County . As a boy he loved the rhythms and routines of farm life and he never <unk> his rural origins . His mother , Mary Adams Innis , had named him ' Herald ' , hoping he would become a minister in the strict evangelical Baptist faith that she and her husband William shared . At the time , the Baptist Church was an important part of life in rural areas . It gave isolated families a sense of community and embodied the values of <unk> and independence . Its far @-@ flung congregations were not ruled by a centralized , bureaucratic authority . Innis became an agnostic in later life , but never lost his interest in religion . According to his friend and biographer Donald Creighton , Innis 's character was moulded by the Church : 
