Sidney Smith was born October 16, 1823 at Port Hope, Upper Canada, to John David Smith and Augusta Louisa Smith. John David Smith sat in the House of Assembly of Upper Canada of Durham from 1828 to 1830. Sidney Smith was the grandson of Elias Smith. Elias was a successful merchant and trader, who left New York to settle in Upper Canada and who founded Port Hope in 1792. Sidney Smith studied law in the office of his brother, John Shuter Smith, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. Smith married Mary Ann Bennett of Cobourg, Upper Canada, on January 21, 1845. He continued to practice law throughout his life, first in Cobourg and later acted as solicitor for the Commercial Bank of the Midland District, the Bank of Montreal, the Midland Railway of Canada, the town of Cobourg, and then in Peterborough. In 1853 he was elected a municipal councilor for both Cobourg and the township of Hamilton, and was the warden for Northumberland and Durham. In 1854, Smith was elected as a Reformer to the Legislative Assembly for Northumberland West and was re-elected in 1857. From February 2, 1858 until the government's defeat on the Militia Bill in May 1862, Smith was the postmaster general in the cabinet of John A. Macdonald and George-Etienne Cartier and was also a member of the Board of Railway Commissioners. Also in 1858, Smith introduced the Upper Canada Jurors' Act and carried it through the assembly. Smith's most notable accomplishment while in office occurred in 1859 when he concluded arrangements with the United States, Britain, France, Belgium, and Prussia for mail services to Canada and the United States. By 1860, he gained abolition of Sunday labour in the Post Offices of Canada West. Smith was defeated in the general election of 1861 by James Cockburn but he was elected to the Legislative Council for Trent in the same year and was able to retain his portfolio of postmaster general. In 1863, he resigned his seat in the Upper House, sought election to the assembly of the constituency of Victoria, was defeated and resigned from politics permanently. He returned to full-time law practice in Peterborough and also served in the militia as captain of the Peterborough Infantry Company No. 2. In 1866 he was appointed inspector of registry offices for Canada West, and continued in that position for the province of Ontario after Confederation. Sidney Smith died September 27, 1889 in Cobourg, Ontario.
Seth Soper Smith was a lawyer who practiced in Port Hope, Ontario in the early 1900's.
Frederick Arthur Verner was born 26 February 1836 in Hammondsville, Upper Canada and died 16 May 1928 in London, England. He was a painter who specialized in the Canadian West, often depicting Indigenous peoples and bison. He sought to convey an accuracy of his subjects as he portrayed the west as a veritable eden. He was an artist present at the signing of the North West Angle Treaty Lake of the Woods. (Taken from: The Canadian Encyclopedia. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1985.)
William Twist was a resident of Lakefield, Ontario with a long-standing interest in its architecture and history. He was a member of the Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (LACAC) from 1989 to 1995 and Chair of Lakefield's Christ Church Restoration Committee.
Professor Keith Walden was born in Montreal, Quebec. From 1966 to 1970 he was an undergraduate student at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He also received his Master's degree (1971) and Doctorate degree (1981) from Queen's University. Professor Walden joined the History Department of Trent University in 1977. His major historical research interest has been in the area of popular culture, particularly myth and symbolism. Professor Walden served for several years, until August 1990, as an editor of the journal Ontario History, and has published several articles and books. His books include Isaac Brock, man and myth: a study of the militia myth of the War of 1812 in Upper Canada, 1812-1912, 1971; The symbol and myth of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in some British, American and English Canadian popular literature, 1873-1973, 1980; Visions of order, 1982; Becoming modern in Toronto: the Industrial Exhibition and the shaping of a late Victorian culture, 1997; and The papers of Harry Cassidy and Beatrice Pearce: the courtship years, 1917-1925, 2009.
William Piercy was a member of the Royal Air Force during World War II.
Thomas Wesley Poole, physician and journalist, was educated at Victoria University and received his M.D. in 1856. He practised medicine in Norwood, Canada West; but in 1864 he moved to Peterborough, and became the editor of the Peterborough "Weekly Review". Later he went back to the practice of medicine and practised in Lindsay, Ontario. He died in Lindsay on August 27, 1905. T.W. Poole was the author of "A sketch of the early settlement and subsequent progress of the town of Peterborough. 1867"
Deryck M. Schreuder, born in 1942, is a Professor of History who received his Ph.D. from Oxford University. He joined Trent University's History Department in 1970 as an associate professor and he became the Chairman of the Department in 1978. He retained this position until 1981, when he left Trent University. He is the author of several books including "Gladstone and Kruger: Liberal Government and Colonial `Home Rule' 1880-1885", 1969 and "The Scamble for Southern Africa, 1877-1895: The Politics of Partition Reappraised."
Betty Lynn Viney (now Schwab), formerly of Kenora, Ontario, was a student at Trent University from 1965 to 1969. When Viney arrived at Trent’s Catharine Parr Traill College in 1965, the residence rooms were not yet ready; she lived with Professor Sandeman and his family until the rooms were completed. Viney is married to Robert Schwab and lives in Ottawa, Ontario.
Harold R. Scott was appointed Minister of Lands and Forests for Ontario on October 19, 1948. He was made a member of the Executive Council of the province of Ontario the following year.
Margaret Jane Scott (Maggie) was born in 1881 at Fitzroy in Carleton County, Ontario. She and her twin sister Ida were born to Annie Knox and Archibald Scott. She and her sister were educated at the Lindsay Model School and the Toronto Normal School. Both girls were teachers and taught for a time between the Lindsay and Toronto schools. Before the family lived in Omemee, they had resided at Perth, near Ottawa, Ontario. Margaret died in 1905.
John Edward Proctor was a resident of Brighton, Ontario involved in the lumbering trade in 1869. He was responsible for building and equipping the large schooner "E.R.C. Proctor" and the "Minnie Proctor". J.E. also had a grain elevator and dock which were in use until 1895. He also operated sawmills. (Taken from: "Centennial of the Incorporation of the Village of Brighton, 1859-1959." Brighton: Centennial Book Committee, 1959.)
S.C. Shaw was an artist who painted in the Peterborough region in the early 1940's.
Nancy Sherouse (1929-1999) was the daughter of Harry and Vivien Ratcliffe of Toronto. Sherouse joined Trent University in 1969 as assistant to Traill College's first principal. Two years later, she became principal and held that position until 1982 when she became full time director of staff relations (later renamed human resources). After her retirement in 1992, Sherouse served as Chair on the Board of Governors at Five Counties Children's Centre in Peterborough. She received an eminent service award from Trent University in 1992.
Paul S.B. Wilson was born in England in 1939. He held the position of Director of Athletics at Trent University from 1966 until his retirement in 2002, and served as Town Ward for the City of Peterborough from 1985 to 1997. He is a strong and vocal supporter of Trent and the City of Peterborough, and is an athlete and sports leader, widely known for his involvement in rugby and squash. Wilson served on the Board of Governors at Trent University and on several athletic associations at various levels throughout Canada, and is the recipient of Trent's Symons Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Board of Governors Eminent Service Award. He is also an inductee of the Peterborough Sports Hall of Fame.
John Beverley Robinson was the second son of John Beverley Robinson, baronet and chief justice of Upper Canada, and Emma Walker. He was married to Mary Jane Hagerman on June 30, 1847 and together they had three sons and two daughters.
After attending Upper Canada College between 1830 and 1836, Robinson became an aide-de-camp to Sir Francis Bond Head during the rebellion. During the years that followed the rebellion he articled with Christopher Alexander Hagerman, whose daughter he married, and later with the firm of James McGill Strachan and John Hillyard Cameron until he was called to the bar in 1844.
In 1851, 1853-54, and 1856-57, Robinson was an alderman for St. Patrick's Ward, and in 1856 Mayor of Toronto. By 1860, as solicitor for the Canada Agency Association, he had successfully negotiated the sale of 439,000 acres in Haliburton County, almost three times the total sales for all other crown land sales for 1860 combined. In 1862 he became president of the Executive Council in the Conservative government of the Cartier-Macdonald administration, but only for a short few months. He was returned to Parliament for Algoma in 1872 until the dissolution. In 1878 he was elected by a large majority to represent West Toronto, a position he held until he was appointed lieutenant-governor in 1880. During the period from 1864-1880 Robinson also served as city solicitor for Toronto.
Robinson served as lieutenant-governor for Ontario from 1880-1887. He retired in 1887 to his Toronto home, Sleepy Hollow. On June 19, 1896 Robinson was invited to speak to a hostile group of Liberals at Massey Music Hall, where he suffered a sudden stroke and died.
Douglas Pimlott was the first Director of the Environmental Studies Program at Innis College (University of Toronto). He is recognized as the originating force behind the Canadian environmental movement and was a specialist in the habits and habitat of the wolf.
Eva Jean Murphy. Murphy was born 3 November 1905 in Dartford, Ontario. After attending Peterborough Normal School, she taught at Smithfield near Colborne, Ontario. She married Harold Charles Mallory 7 November 1934 and lived on a farm near Grafton, Ontario until her death 24 November 1960. They had one son, Carroll, born 13 November 1936.
Schienger was born in Switzerland and lived in L'Amble, Ontario. For a number of years he taught art at Peterborough Collegiate Institute. He was an associate of the Group of Seven and often painted with them.
Dawn Bell Logan is a retired librarian and author with an enduring interest in Canadian local history. She has published work in newspapers, and the Dictionary of Canadian Biography on Thomas Need. Logan has also authored By the sound of the mill whistle: sawmilling in Stickney, New Brunswick (Carleton County Historical Society, 1999) which was based off a newspaper series Logan wrote for the Hartland Observer called “Sketches of Stickney.” Logan has also written the books In those early years: the Petries, Whitts, and Schaffers, ancestors of Phyllis Adele Logan (Melvin Village, NH : Ian L. Whitmore, [2016]), and Thomas Need : a settler in the backwoods of Upper Canada (self-published, 2022).