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.
The Baulch family were tailors who lived in Hampton, Ontario and Port Hope, Ontario. Members of the family include Joseph H. and his wife Laura, Henry N., R. Baulch, and Will Baulch, Rochester, New York.
The Buck family genealogy was compiled by Louise Buck, wife of Edwin D. Buck of Norwood, Ontario. From curiosity she researched and produced a book on the Buck family in Canada from the first ancestor to descendants. The book begins with a brief history of England then Yorkshire, Dent and its surroundings. Louise then writes about the English ancestors, immigration to Canada and gives a short history of Upper Canada and then Norwood. Included in the book are genealogical charts, abbreviations and codes, variations in the spelling of names, relationship charts, family charts and connected families. The book was privately produced in 1987.
Joseph Walton (1772-1826) was the first settler of the Walton family to settle in Smith Township, Peterborough County in 1819. He married Hannah Stuart (1772-1861) and they had seven children: John (1797-1881), Nancy, Joseph (1913-1900), William (1814-), Matthew (1817-1902), Jacob (1820-1865) and Robert (1823-1904). The family farmed in Smith Township and eventually spread out across Canada and the United States. Verna Burgess is the granddaughter of Joseph Walton who married Sarah Jane Chalmers (1821-1875). Their daughter Emma (1861-1946) married Dr. Francis John Burgess (1861-1945), a general practitioner and pharmacist in Lakefield, Ontario, and they had four daughters: Lelia, Verna, Doris, and Helen. Verna became a high school Department Head and she sat on the committee (as representative of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation) to examine the need to have a non-sectarian degree-granting college, which would eventually become Trent University.
John and Mary Anne Fair had a number of children. The oldest daughter, Martha Jane Fair married William Hall. John and Mary Anne's second son was John Joseph Fair. Their youngest daughter was Caroline Fair and she held a Bachelor of Arts degree.
The first McIntyre living in Otonabee, Ontario, was either Duncan McIntyre (1765-1840) or a cousin Archie McIntye. Duncan married Isobella Blair (1766-?) in 1793. They had eight children: Catharine, 1793-?; Janet, 1795-?; Isabella, 1797-?; Donald, 1799-?; Archibald, 1801-1889; John, 1803-1803; John, 1804-?; Duncan, 1806-?; and Margaret, 1809-? (born in Otonabee). Duncan became the first town warden and sat on the first board of trustees for the Presbyterian Church.
Daniel Nill was a farmer who at one time owned the property at 1202 Morton Line in Cavan, Ontario. The fonds consists of items which were found on the property in 2001; they relate to Nill and to members of the Mason family.
The Orgill family is a branch of the Boyd family of Bobcaygeon, Ontario. Mrs. Norma Orgill (1922-2020), the donor of the collection, was the wife of Herbert Orgill, a descendant of William (Willie) Thornton Cust Boyd (1859-1919). Willie was the son of the lumbering entrepreneur Mossom Boyd (1815-1883).
The Raper family (fl. 1890-1898) lived in the Millbrook and Cavan, Ontario area.
Sydney (Sid) Helmer Standen was born in 1905 in Minesing, Ontario, the son of Andrew Ronald and Ada Louisa Standen. In 1911, his family moved to Kindersley, Saskatchewan where Sid grew up. He later became a teacher and also served in World War II.
Euphemia (Effie) Young McQueen was born in 1903 in London, England, daughter of James and Margaret McQueen (nee Drysdale). In Effie’s first year, the McQueens moved to Scotland and then, in 1913, to Canada, where they settled in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. Effie became a teacher and appeared in theatrical performances and recitations.
Sid and Effie married in 1930 and settled in Hanley, Saskatchewan. They had four sons: Philip Andrew, Neil McQueen, Sydney Drysdale (Dale), and Eric James William; Philip died in 1955 at the age of 22 during a tactical flight training exercise near Chatham, New Brunswick. In 1942, Sid and Effie moved to Burnaby, British Columbia where they were to spend the remainder of their lives. After Effie’s death in 1965, Sid married Gladys Marshall; he died in 1975. (Taken from “Standens and McQueens: A Canadian Story of Migrant Families” by S. Dale Standen, 2014).
Captain Charles Rubidge, land agent and author, was born 20 April 1787 in the Parish of St. George-in-the-East, London, England. He was the son of Robert and Margaret Rubidge. In October 1796, at the young age of nine, Rubidge entered the Navy as a midshipman on the Arrow, Sloop of War. He served under Lord Nelson and Lord Cochrane and was honourably discharged in 1815, at the end of the War of 1812. In June 1819, Rubidge emigrated to Canada with his wife and three children (they later had three more children) and in May, 1820, became the second person to settle in Otonabee Township. He assisted in the settling of the Peter Robinson immigrants in 1825 and other immigrants in 1831 and 1839. In 1831 Rubidge was appointed Immigrant Agent at Peterborough by Lord Seaton, Governor-General of Canada. He was also the author of two books. The first was A Plain Statement of the Advantages Attending Emigration to Upper Canada (London, 1838) and the second An Autobiographical Sketch (Peterborough, 1870). Captain Charles Rubidge died 5 February 1873.
Robert Waddell and Hugh Waddell were brothers who were both businessmen in Durham County in the middle to late 1800's and the early 1900's. Robert Waddell resided in Balieboro and Hugh Waddell lived in Millbrook, Ontario.
Miss Neads was the organist at the Presbyterian Church in Bowmanville, Ontario, in 1876.
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).
From 1966 to 1973, John Leishman was Controller and, from 1971, also Vice-President (Finance). The office was split in 1973 and there was a Vice-President (Finance) and a Controller (Peter Lewis). John Earnshaw became Vice-President (Administration and Finance) in 1981 as John Leishman moved to the position of Executive Vice-President (External Relations and Financial Affairs). John Earnshaw held the office until August 1991. Nancy Sullivan became Vice-President (Finance and Administration), 1991-1994. For further information about the office and its leadership over the years, see A.O.C. Cole, Trent: The Making of a University, pp. 126-129; D'Arcy Jenish, Trent University: Celebrating 50 Years of Excellence, 2014; and the annual course calendars (available in the Archives Reading Room).
"The link between the two [Wallis family and Forbes family] is Louisa Forbes who became Mrs. James Wallis. Louisa was the mother of well-known Peterborough-born artist and sculptor Katherine Wallis and Louisa’s father was Capt. Robert Miller/Millar Forbes.
Capt. Robert Miller Forbes had a distinguished career in the British Navy. It was, however, marred by an incident in 1798. Robert caused his ship commander, Capt. Lord Henry Paulet, later Earl St. Vincent, to be court martialled. Paulet apparently struck the then Lieutenant Forbes while Forbes was on duty on their ship – the Thalia. Paulet lost the case - but soon after he was given clemency, re-instated, and in 1819 became a Vice-Admiral. Robert Miller did not fare as well. In a transcribed letter he says that “he became the object of the most cruel and vindictive persecution… that has proved a barrier to his professional progress thro’ the mis-representations of that distinguished officer.”
After the Napoleonic Wars Robert Forbes, along with a number of ex-British military personnel, took their families and settled in France. Robert’s first child, Louisa, was born in Avranches, France. There is a watercolour in our new donation of the Church where Louisa was christened. It is likely by Katherine Wallis. The Forbes family moved around in Europe and sons were born in St. Servan Sur Merin Brittany, France. Finally the family moved to Peterborough.
Robert Forbes had an even more well-known brother – Charles John Forbes. Charles was in both the British Navy and the British Army. While in the Navy, Charles was present at the Battle of the Nile (also called the Battle of Aboukir) where Nelson defeated the French Navy. Another person at Aboukir was Charles Rubidge. Perhaps Charles Forbes and Charles Rubidge reminisced together about old battles.
While in the British Army, Charles Forbes was present for the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Our donation contains a letter written 29 Jan. 1815 on board H.M.S. Alceste, off Cat Island (near New Orleans), and sent to James Cobb, Secretary, East India Company (a cousin). In the letter Charles says that the information given to the Admiral was “fallacious” and that unlike what they had been led to believe, no “settlers of Louisiana and the Floridas” flocked to join the British cause and hence they had insufficient troops for the encounter with the Americans. It’s interesting to note that even by the end of January, Charles did not know that a treaty to end the War had been signed.
Charles had two separate enlistment periods with the British Army. Like his brother, he retired when the Napoleonic Wars were over and lived in Europe, but a few years later he re-enlisted in the Army. In 1824 he worked for the Commissariat in Nova Scotia and in 1825 he went to Montreal and stayed for 8 years. He was then posted to Jamaica and, like many Europeans who lived in the tropics, became ill. He briefly to went to England and then finally retired at half pay back in Quebec.
While posted in Quebec he acted as Commissary General for the Army and ensured there were supplies for the engineers and workers who were building canals in the Montreal region. While he was there he purchased land in the village of Carillon, on the Ottawa River just south of Lachute, Quebec, in what is now the Argenteuil Region of Quebec.
There he built a wonderful house called “Bellevue”. In our newly acquired scrapbook of Louisa Forbes there is a sketch of that house. Charles was known far and wide for his hospitality and many important people would visit him – including the Governors General.
Another well-known owner of land in the area was Sidney Robert Bellingham - nephew of Thomas A. Stewart. Sidney was very interested in politics and played a role in the 1837 rebellion – as did the British veteran Charles John Forbes."
David Stirling Macmillan was born 9 October 1925 in Scotland. He received his Masters degree from Glasgow, Scotland in 1949, and in 1965 his Ph.D. from Sydney, Australia. He was an archivist who worked as a temporary Assistant Keeper for the Scottish Record Office (now National Records of Scotland) in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1949-50, and then the University of Sydney from 1954 to 1968, where he was the first university archivist. He was named a Fellow of the Royal Australian History Society. He left Australia in 1968 to come to Trent University, where he was a professor for 20 years and taught History from 1968 to 1987. He taught courses such as the Expansion of Europe, 1400-1825 and Russian History, as well as his specialty, Business and Economic History. He also taught some evening courses at Durham College in Oshawa for Trent. He received the Eminent Service Award in 1987. After a lengthy illness David Stirling Macmillan died 4 September 1987.
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.
