Verna Burgess was the daughter of Dr. John Burgess and Emma Burgess and was the second oldest of four daughters. Her father operated a drug store and had a medical practice in Lakefield and the girls received their early schooling there, coming to Peterborough to finish high school, and in Verna's case, to attend the Peterborough Normal School. Burgess taught for the Peterborough Board of Education at King Edward and Queen Alexandra Public Schools, and was also associated with the Normal School as a practice and critic teacher. A tobogganing accident confined her to bed for a considerable time, during which she began extramural studies through Queen's University, eventually going to Kingston to complete an Honours B.A. in English and History. Subsequently she finished her M.A. She joined the staff of the Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School where she taught history until her retirement. She was an excellent and inspiring teacher and a public-spirited citizen. She was a member of the original committee set up to study the feasibility of the establishment of Trent University. (Taken from a typewritten note by Fern A. Rahmel, which accompanied the fonds, and from information supplied by Gordon Young. The Rahmel note is located in the Rahmel donor file, Trent University Archives).
Zaccheus Burnham was born February 20, 1777 in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, son of Asa Burnham and Elizabeth Cutler. He was raised in New Hampshire and came to central Upper Canada in 1797, eventually settling in Hamilton Township, Newcastle District. Several of his brothers also settled in the same area.
On February 1, 1801, he married Elizabeth Choate, also of New Hampshire. Together they had six children, five daughters and one son. As soon as Burnham arrived in Upper Canada, he became interested in acquiring land and was eventually to become one of the largest land holders in the Newcastle District (he owned the land on which the village of Ashburnham is situated). He also carried out land surveys with his future son-in-law, land surveyor Richard Birdsall, which allowed Burnham to determine the best plots of land to acquire. As well, payment for land surveys was often in the form of land. By 1831, Burnham had a 1000 acre farm, plus thousands of acres of land scattered throughout the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham, and Peterborough County.
Burnham was also involved in the military. He joined the militia as a private in 1801. In the War of 1812 he was a captain. He remained active in the military as a member of the First Regiment of the Northumberland Militia, and as Colonel, led a large force to Toronto in response to the Rebellion of 1837. Burnham was also involved in many other activities and was a leading member in the community. He became a road commissioner for the Newcastle District in 1811. In 1813, he was appointed as a Justice of the Peace. He was also the Treasurer of the Newcastle District from 1815 to 1851, and he represented the riding of Northumberland and Durham in the House of Assembly from 1817 to 1820. In 1831 he was appointed to the Legislative Council by Lieutenant Governor Sir John Colbourne, and served there until 1841. In July 1839, he was made a Judge for the District court of Newcastle.
Zaccheus Burnham died February 25, 1857, at Cobourg, Upper Canada.
Gertrude Duncan was a school teacher who taught in Coboconk, Ontario from 1924 to 1925.
Peter McLaren Duncan (born ca. 1835] was the son of James Duncan, a blacksmith of Carrying Place, Canada West, and Catharine McLaren of Brighton, Canada West. Peter McLaren Duncan married Leonora Singleton of Brighton, Ontario. Peter was a minister of the Presbyterian Church in Colbourne. Of their children, it is known that there was a son, P.W. Duncan, who immigrated to the United States in 1895, and a daughter, Alice Duncan, who was an artist of some renown, and who married John MacDonald. Alice and John had no children. Peter McLaren Duncan died in approximately 1912 and his wife died between 1925 and 1930.
George Mellis Douglas was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1875. He moved with his family in 1883 to Northcote Farm on the shore of Katchiwano Lake north of Lakefield, Ontario. In 1900 George went to work for his cousin, James Douglas, who was president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers. In 1911, at the suggestion of his cousin James, an expedition to the Coppermine River and Arctic Sea was planned, and George Douglas along with his brother Lionel and Dr. August Sandberg made the trip. The purpose of the expedition was to search for minerals in the watershed of the Coppermine above the Arctic Circle. What George and his associates discovered were huge copper deposits. Although it was known that the deposits existed since the 18th century, they were much larger than was suspected. George was also one of the first Barren Land explorers to extensively photograph the North-West Territories and the Inuit who lived in the region. Over the following thirty years, Douglas led copper explorations to the shores of the Arctic Sea and around the edges of the Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes. George also wrote about his explorations in the Arctic. He published articles in several professional journals and in 1914 he wrote "Lands Forlorn", an account of the 1911-12 expedition. George Mellis Douglas died at his home near Lakefield, Ontario in 1963.
Mr. and Mrs. T.M. Fletcher lived in Thornton, Ontario (Simcoe County). Mrs. Fletcher's [1st] husband was Frank Sanford. Sanford owned and operated a furniture factory in Fenelon Falls until the time it burned down (date unknown). It was never rebuilt. The Fletchers donated land for the Ivy Anglican Church in 1918 and at the 60th anniversary of the church, Mr. Fletcher wrote a history of the Fletchers, which was published in the Barrie Examiner in 1963.
The Honourable Eugene A. Forsey was a major figure in Canadian labour history, Eugene Forsey was author, professor, constitutional analyst and political commentator
Forsey was born in 1904 in Grand Bank, Newfoundland. He attended McGill University, and Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. In the 1930s, Forsey drafted the Regina Manifesto, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)'s founding declaration of policy, and ran for public office four times for the CCF. He served as a lecturer in economics and political science from 1929-1941 at McGill, and held the post of director of research for the Canadian Congress of Labour (known as the Canadian Labour Congress from 1956-1966) from 1942 to 1966. Forsey directed a special centennial project, 'a history of Canadian unions, 1812-1902', from 1966-1969, and served on a committee which founded Labour/Le Travail. Forsey was regarded as one of the foremost experts on the Canadian constitution and taught Canadian Government and Canadian labour history at Carleton University and the University of Waterloo. He was a member of Senate from 1970-1979, and was named to the Privy Council in 1985. Forsey received numerous honorary degrees, including one from Trent University in 1978, and was chancellor of Trent University from 1973-1977.
His books include How Canadians Govern Themselves (now in its sixth edition) and Trade Unions in Canada, 1812-1902. A complete list of Forsey's publications can be found here.
Forsey died on February 20, 1991.
Edith Fulton Fowke was born on April 30, 1913 in Lumsden, Saskatchewan of Irish parents. She studied at the University of Saskatchewan, taking her B.A. in 1933 and her M.A. in 1938. In 1938 she married Frank Fowke. She was editor of Western Teacher from 1937-1944, and associate editor of Magazine Digest from 1945-1949. In 1957 she began collecting songs and producing recordings for Folkway Records of New York, as well as writing and editing books of folksongs and folktales. She joined the English Department at York University in 1971. She was awarded her LL.D. at Brock University in 1974, and her D. Litt at Trent in 1974, was made a Fellow of the American Folklore Society in 1975, and became a member of the Order of Canada in 1977.
The Honourable Leslie Miscampbell Frost, lawyer and Premier of Ontario, was born in Orillia, Ontario on September 20, 1895, the son of William Sword Frost and Margaret Jane Barker. He was educated at the Orillia Public School and the Orillia High School. He later attended the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. He served in the World War I in France and Belgium, with the 20th Battalion, Queen's York Rangers, and was discharged with the rank of Captain in 1918, after being severely wounded. Frost was called to the Bar in 1921. He was a member of the legal firm Frost, Inrig and Gorwill, among others, and was an honorary bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He married Gertrude Jane Carew in 1926. They never had children. Leslie M. Frost had a long and successful political career. He was first elected to the legislature of Ontario in 1937, and he was consistently re-elected at each election until his retirement in 1959. He was Treasurer of Ontario and Minister of Mines in both the George Drew and T.L. Kennedy Administrations. In 1949, Frost was chosen leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, and was sworn in as Premier and Provincial Treasurer on May 4, 1949. He remained Provincial Treasurer until 1955 and Premier until 1961. Besides his legal and political career, Frost took on many other obligations. He was a member of the of the Board of Governors of the University of Toronto and the first Chancellor of Trent University. He also held several directorships, including: the Bank of Montreal, Air Canada, Corporate Investors Ltd., Lever Brothers Ltd., KVP Company Ltd., John Deyell Ltd., Canada Life Assurance Company, Victoria and Grey Trust Co., Massey-Ferguson Ltd., and radio station CKLY. Frost was also keenly interested in history, primarily military history and the histories of Victoria, Peterborough and Haliburton Counties. He was the author of several books: "Fighting Men", "Forgotten Pathways of the Trent", "Pleasant Point Story: a History of Pleasant Point" and "The Records on Sam Hughes Set Straight." Leslie M. Frost died at Lindsay, Ontario 4 May 1973.
George Barker Hall was born in Brooklyn, New York and later immigrated to Upper Canada. He was a lawyer, MPP, and a judge in Peterborough, Upper Canada and Canada West. He also owned a flour mill in the town of Peterborough in the late 1840's and 1850's.
Jean Harstone, born 1900, was raised in Peterborough, Ontario. During the early 1920's she attended an architectural/interior design school in New York City and later went on to work in promotion and advertising for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) Radio Network and later for the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) Radio Network. Jean Harstone died in 1980.
S. R. Gage was educated at McGill University and the University of Glasgow. He is the author of several books including A Few Rustic Huts, which provides a history of ranger's cabins in Algonquin Park. His interest in the Canol project undertaken in the World War II era grew out of a canoe trip on the Natla and Keele rivers in 1981. He was also interested in the management of Ontario's provincial parks. Gage was also on the Rouge Valley Park Advisory Committee (Ontario).
G.A. Gibson was a farmer in the Lindsay, Ontario who at one time ran a general store on Kent St., Lindsay. His wife was Alice K. Gibson, daughter of James Kerr, and they had at least one son, A.E.M. Gibson.
Stanley Hodgins was born in 1900 in Manitoba. He was raised in Stratford, Ontario and when he was old enough started to teach school near Kitchener, Ontario. Later he became a public school principal. He met Laura Belle Turel and they were married in 1926. Just before their marriage Laura Belle had graduated as a registered nurse from Hamilton General Hospital. They honeymooned on a canoe trip in Algonquin Park. Eventually they would take their two sons, Larry and Bruce on canoe trips. In 1943 Stanley became camp director at Camp Wabanaki near Honey Harbour in Georgian Bay. In 1956 they purchased Camp Wanapitei Limited, from Ed Archibald. In the purchase they acquired a chateau, a number of buildings, tent floors, an ice house, dining hall and canoes. The Camp opened under the directorship of the Hodgins. It was co-ed with boys and girls as well as men and women forming a group that would be community based and informal and relaxed. The ideals and beliefs of the Hodgins, which were part of Camp Wabanaki where the Hodgins were previous to Wanapitei, were brought in Wanapitei. A youth camp was offered as well as a spring season. Canoe tripping played a major role in the life of Camp Wanapitei. Eventually they expanded their canoe tripping to four week trips that took campers to Moosonee and Ottawa. As well there were numerous regattas every summer. In 1971 a cooperative company, called Camp Wanapitei Co-ed Camps Ltd., purchased the youth camp from Laura Belle and Stanley Hodgins. The Hodgins kept the Chateau and continued to operate it. The president, and camp director, of the new private Camp Wanapitei was Bruce Hodgins. In 1973 an adult tripping program was offered and organized by Bruce and Carol Hodgins. The youth camp offered woodcraft, swim instruction, sailing, crafts, canoe re-canvassing, square dances and special activities for the younger crowd. By this point in time the canoe tripping encompassed rivers and lakes in Northwestern Quebec and Northeastern Ontario. Trips were still going to the James and Hudson's Bay. The camp had also led trips down the Nahanni and Coppermine in the Northwest Territories and trips into Manitoba, British Columbia and New Brunswick. In 1989 Laura Belle Hodgins (nee Turel) died. In 1990 legal ownership of the Chateau was transferred to Bruce and Carol Hodgins and the Chateau property was transferred to Larry and Bruce Hodgins. Stanley Hodgins died in 1993. The dreams and ideals instilled, at Camp Wanapitei, under the Hodgins directorship continued with the younger Hodgins. The Canadian Studies program of Trent University, in Peterborough, Ontario, took trips to Wanapitei every September. In 1991 the Chateau received an official Heritage Building Designation. The trips and camping continue on into 1996 and the future.
William J. Chirpaw ran a hotel and a lumber business at Victoria Road, Bexley Township in Victoria County. Chirpaw was Reeve of Bexley at one time.
Owen Hoey was a farmer who resided on the south half of Lot 16, Concession 3, Seymour Township from 1853, until his death in 1877.
Ross Irwin was born in the Village of Cambray, Victoria County, in 1921. In 1929 his family moved to the Village of Oakwood in the Township of Mariposa. He joined the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in 1942 and served in Italy and Northwest Europe. Following his discharge in 1946 he worked in Peterborough for a short time and then enrolled in the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph in 1947. Upon graduation he received an appointment to the faculty of the College. Later he became a professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Guelph. Ross married Doreen Webster of Oakwood in 1949 and they have two children. (Taken from: Mariposa: The Banner Township. Lindsay, Ontario: Ross Irwin Enterprises, 1984.)
George Y. Clement was a lawyer in Wallaceburg, Ontario in 1965. His grandfather, George H. Young, was involved in the two Riel rebellions and the western Fenian invasions. Young, at the age of 18, was a clerk in the Hudson Bay store in Fort Garry in 1869-1870. His father was the local minister.
Reverend Clementi came to Lakefield, Canada West and from there moved to Peterborough.
Dr. J.W. Clemishaw was a medical doctor who practised in Port Hope, Ontario, in the late 1800's.
Venerable J.C. Clough was the Archdeacon of Peterborough, Ontario.