Peter Rieder was a merchant and an early white settler of what is today the Region of Waterloo. He was born in Perth Township July 27, 1850 to Daniel Rieder of Switzerland and Christina Goettinger Rieder of Germany. Rieder was one of eleven children which included both full siblings and half siblings born to his mother and her second husband Conrad Kabel, who she married after Daniel Rieder's death.

By 1877 Rieder was living in New Hamburg and was married to Emeline Merner Rieder, the daughter of white settlers from Switzerland and Germany. Peter was also partners in Rieder and Ruby, General Merchants of New Hamburg, possibly with Emmanual Ruby (1844-1883).

Peter and Emiline had nine children: Talmon Henry (1878), Maude Matilda (1880), Idella Rose (1882), Elmer Alfred (1884), Lauretta Elizabeth (1886), Esther Emiline (1891), Eva Sarah (1892), Mary (1896), Alma (1900).

Peter Rieder retired in 1912 and died May 31, 1936 at the age of 85. Emeline died January 17, 1940 at the age of 82.

"William Lyon Mackenzie King had a long political career. He was leader of the Liberal Party for 29 eventful years through the buoyant expansion of the 1920s, the depression of the 1930s, the shock of World War II, and then the post-war reconstruction, and for 21 of these years he was Canada’s prime minister. His decisions during this time contributed significantly to the shaping of Canada and to its development as an influential middle power in world affairs. During his lifetime his achievements were sometimes obscured by a style notable for its compromises. After his death his political career was sometimes overshadowed by the revelation of his unsuspected personal idiosyncrasies."

Eugene Ferrin Clark was born March 16, 1899 in New London, Connecticut to parents Daniel Edgar (1868-1942) and Grace "Gracie" Emilie (nee Crocker) (1872-1938). Clark worked at Mason Labs at Yale University from 1917 to 1919. He married Luella Chace Mosher, sometime after 1930, and died August 24, 1973 in Tranverse City, Michigan.

Greb Industries Limited was a shoe and boot manufacturing company based in Kitchener, Ontario. Charles E. Greb, who had moved to Berlin (now Kitchener) from Zurich, Ontario, in 1909, became the secretary-treasurer of the Berlin Shoe Manufacturing Company when it was incorporated in 1910. His son Erwin Greb joined the company as book-keeper. In 1912, Charles and Erwin acquired the company, and in 1916 it received a new charter of incorporation under the name Greb Shoe Company Limited, with Charles as president and Erwin as secretary-treasurer. In 1918, Erwin bought the controlling interest in the company from his father, who remained involved with the business in an advisory capacity.

The Greb Shoe Company, which had plants on Queen Street and at the corner of Mansion and Chestnut Streets in Kitchener, was again reorganized and received a new charter in 1930. In 1938, it acquired Valentine and Martin Limited, a Waterloo manufacturer of work boots, shoes, and dress shoes, which continued to operate as a separate business until it was merged with the Greb Shoe Company in 1951. Operations by that time were consolidated at a plant on Breithaupt Street in Kitchener. When Erwin Greb died in 1954, his son Harry D. Greb took over as company president. Erwin’s other sons were also involved in the company as directors; Arthur was in senior management and Charles was a plant manager and eventually became executive vice-president (1969-1976).

In 1959, the company purchased the Canada West Shoe Manufacturing Company of Winnipeg, including its popular Kodiak brand boots. The expansion into Western Canada began a period of tremendous growth for the company. Manufacturing facilities were expanded, and the company made several other acquisitions, including Bauer Canadian Skate; Tebbutt Shoe and Leather Company of Trois-Rivieres, Quebec; and Collins Safety Shoes of Peterborough. A skate and boot plant was eventually opened in Bangor, Maine. The most significant factor in the company’s growth through the 1960s was the popularity of Hush Puppies brand of casual shoes, which Greb began manufacturing under license from Wolverine World Wide of Rockford, Michigan, in the early 1960s. The mascot for this line of footwear, a basset hound named Velvet, was a popular symbol for the brand. In 1966, Greb Industries Limited became a publicly-traded company, and by the early 1970s it had grown to become Canada’s largest footwear manufacturer, employing 1200 people in Kitchener and another 1100 in Winnipeg, Trois-Rivieres, and Bangor. In 1974, the company was purchased by Warrington Products Limited of Mississauga.

Greb Industries Limited continued to manufacture footwear under the new owners, with several changes in operations, including the closure of several plants and a move for the head office from its Ardelt Avenue location in Kitchener to Mississauga. In 1987, Warrington sold the Greb division, which consisted mainly of Hush Puppies and Kodiak shoes and boots, to Taurus Footwear of Montreal. Production of Hush Puppies ended in 1989 when the licence was surrendered to Wolverine. The Bauer skate division, operating as Canstar Sports, had been relocated to Cambridge and sold to Nike. The last Greb plant in Kitchener, a Kodiak boot plant on Hayward Avenue, closed in 1991. In 1992, the Royal Bank took control of Taurus Footwear and formed Greb International to market the Kodiak brand domestically and internationally. In 2000 this company became Kodiak Group Holdings Inc., and in 2005, it purchased Terra Footwear in Newfoundland and has factories in Markdale, Ontario; Harbour Grace, Newfoundland; and in Asia.

R. Boehmer & Co. was a fuel business in Berlin (now Kitchener, Ontario) founded by Reinhardt Boehmer, who originally began selling limestone to the building trades in 1875 and later sold coal, wood, and other fuels and equipment. The Boehmer family remained in ownership of the company until 1965. In 1973 the business was sold to the St. Lawrence Cement Co.

Florence Barbara Maria von Sass was a British explorer and abolitionist. Born in Hungary (today Romania), Florence's family was killed during the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 leaving her orphaned. When she was fourteen she was sold as a slave in Vidin to Samuel Baker a British explorer and naturalist. Baker was on a hunting trip at the time and allegedly bribed the guards for her after she was intended to be owned by the Pasha of Vidin. Florence and Baker went to Africa where Baker was on an expedition to find the source of the Nile. While traveling in Africa, Florence and Baker came across Murchison Falls and Lake Albert. In 1865 the couple married and Florence became Lady Baker when Samuel Baker was knighted. Due to her parentage and upbringing, although she was a Lady, Florence was not welcome at court. Besides exploration, the Bakers were also abolitionists and in 1869 returned to Africa to help reduce the slave trade in Gondokoro where Florence worked as a medic. Florence and her husband retired to Devon where Florence died in 1916.

Betty Caldwell was a feature reporter for the Rocky Mountain News of Denver, Colorado.

Sinnathamby Thambithurai Ariaratnam is an engineer who was born in Chavakacheri, Sri Lanka on September 2, 1933. He graduated from the University of Ceylon with a B.Sc. in engineer in 1953, before obtaining a B.Sc. (1955) and M.Sc. (1956) at the University of London. In 1960 Ariaratnam completed a PhD in engineering at the University of Cambridge, followed by a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Birmingham, before accepting a research association position (1961-1962) at the Brown University. He was named an Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Waterloo in 1962, becoming a Professor in 1962. Ariaratnam is recognized for his work in the field of random vibration and his contributions to research regarding stochastic modelling and nonlinear dynamics.

Margaret "Marnie" Catherine Anthes Paisley was a teacher born in Berlin, now Kitchener, Ontario on November 1, 1906 to Talmon and Martha Rieder. She graduated in 1929 with an arts degree from the University of Toronto, where she played women's hockey. Following graduation she spent a year working alongside Emma Razt Kaufman to expand the YWCA in Japan. She married Elmer Paisley, with whom she had two children: Mary ("Penny ") and Ian. Paisley taught at the Kitchener Collegiate Institute and Waterloo Collegiate between 1955 and 1969. She was also an active member of the United Church, serving as a Sunday school teacher and director of summer camps. Paisley died June 11, 2003 and was interred at Mount Hope Cemetery in Kitchener.

Inuit are an Indigenous people living primarily in Inuit Nunangat.

Alphonse Illig was born in 1889 and married Rose Mehlman on July 27, 1921. Alphonse worked for Bauer Limited. Their son Joseph Illig was born in 1924. Joseph joined the Canadian forces for the Second World War and served on the HMCS Kirkland Lake. He was later a founding member of the K-W Naval Veterans Association and a member of the Royal Canadian Legion. Joseph died in 2012.

Frank Hurndall was in business from 1900 to 1904.

Ron Eade (February 1st, 1954 - August 13th, 2015) worked at The Record until 1988. He became a columnist for the Ottawa Citizen newspaper and wrote mainly about his culinary adventures.

Lucy Doyle was a well-known newspaper reporter and amateur historian. Her career at the Toronto Telegram began in the 1890's with work as a 'copy girl'. She eventually became a reporter, drama and music critic, gossip columnist, and editor of the women's page at the Telegram. Among the highlights of her newspaper career was the opportunity to cover the Prince of Wales' tours of Canada and the United States. She spent her later years doing research for several planned but never published books, including a biography of the Prince of Wales and a work about the history of Scarborough. For 18 years, she occupied a log cabin on the grounds of the Guild of All Arts in Scarborough, Ontario, as the guest of Spencer and Rosa Clark.

Elizabeth "Lizzie" Doten (April 1, 1827 – January 15, 1913) was a prominent American lecturer, poet and trance medium. Lizzie was well known for her supposed ability to channel poetry from Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Burns and William Shakespeare. Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts both of her parents were Mayflower descendants. Two of her brothers would go on to lead the first two Union companies to deploy from Plymouth during the Civil War. Active on the lecture circuit from 1864-1880 she would speak in trances as well as lecture on topics including religious freedom, women's rights (including suffrage and equal pay), and abolition. Doten retired from lecturing in 1880 and in 1902 married her long time companion Zabdiel Adams Willard (1826–1918). They lived in Brookline, Massachusetts until her death in 1913.

Barbara Davidson is an award-winning Canadian photographer. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, she graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography and Film Studies. From 1992 to 1996 she worked as a photographer for the Kitchener-Waterloo Record. Since leaving the paper she has covered the war in Bosnia, and conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and has worked for news outlets including The Washington Times and the Los Angeles Times. In 2011 she won a Pullitzer Prize and a National Emmy for her work documenting victims of gang violence in Los Angeles.

Marion Conroy was the Alberta Chairman of the Women's Regional Advisory Committee to the Wartime Prices and Trade Board, Consumer Branch, during the Second World War and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her wartime work. Set up by the Canadian Government in 1939, the Board's purpose was to prevent the same sort of inflation and social unrest experienced in Canada during WWI. In 1941 PM Mackenzie King announced a price and wage freeze, and appointed Donald Gordon, a prominent banker, to manage the program. A combination of astute administration, public relations and public education resulted in overall effectiveness in the Board's objectives.

Charles Bowlby Clement (1879-1970) was born August 19th, 1879 to Edwin Perry Clement and Janie Elizabeth Bowlby Clement in Berlin (Kitchener). Charles followed the course of his father in some ways and in 1869 started with the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada. After doing very well in the head office in Waterloo, in 1917 he left for the Winnipeg office to become Secretary of the office, and eventually assistant loan manager. After this he continued into loan manager positions in Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto. He eventually retired in 1944 after having worked for the company for 49 years, at the time a company record. In his personal life he was very interested in chess, music, opera and art. He played violin for fun and in the “Clement Trio” with his brothers Edwin Oliver and William Pope. He was also instrumental in collecting the works of his cousin A.Y. Jackson. In 1904 he married 24 year old Gertrude Unger (1880-1967), also of Berlin. Gertrude was the daughter of Mennonite pioneers who came from Pennsylvania. The two hand only one child, Carlton Clement in 1907 in Waterloo. Carlton attended the University of Alberta for law school and graduated in 1931. He was appointed to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Alberta in 1970 and was named King’s Council in 1943. Charles Bowlby died in 1970 at the age of 91 and Gertrude died in 1967. Carlton died in 1999. His papers can be found at the Legal Archives Society of Alberta.

Founded by Charles Andrew Ahrens circa 1881 as Charles A. Ahrens & Sons on Queen Street in Berlin (later Kitchener) Ontario. In 1886 the factory was moved to a larger location on Queen Street, near King Street, Berlin and employed over 35 workers. Both machine or hand sewed slippers in a variety of materials were manufactured.

William Herman Cartheuser was an American spiritualist. Born on January 19, 1890 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Herman Martin Cartheuser (November 12, 1862-May 4, 1926) and Ida Nemethy (1856-1933), he was raised alongside his siblings:

• Elvira M. Cartheuser: Born in Budapest, Hungary on June 1, 1887. Elvira married Carl Valta on March 17, 1906. She died in 1970.

• Louise “Lulu” Ida Cartheuser: Born in Chicago, Illinois on December 12, 1892. Lulu married George MacQuiade in 1917. She died in 1962.

• Arthur George Cartheuser: Born in Leipzig, Germany on April 15, 1895. Arthur married Hilda Vogel in 1916. He died on May 30, 1937.

William as well as his parents and siblings occasionally spelled their family surname as ‘Von Cartheuser.’

William’s father, Herman, was originally from Austria and he worked as a photo engraver. William’s mother, Ida, was originally from Hungary. Around 1887, William’s parents emigrated to the United States of America (USA) although they likely traveled back to Europe periodically in the following years.

William married Ruth G. Van Cise (December 9, 1901-September 7, 1970) on September 11, 1921 in Monroe, New York when he was 31 years old. William and Ruth had two children; Jacqueline Ruth Cartheuser (May 30, 1924-July 15, 1998) and William Roland Cartheuser (April 12, 1926-August 15, 1957). William and Ruth eventually divorced (year unknown).

William was a Spiritualist medium. He lived in Orange, New Jersey but traveled extensively across North America to hold seances and sittings. He is reported to have worked as a direct voice medium and also as a trumpet medium.

In September 1927, William met Jenny Pincock and was later invited to become the medium for her home circle in St. Catharines, Ontario. In 1930, Jenny and her sister Minnie as well as her brother-in-law Reverend Fred J.T. Maines formed a spiritualist church called the Church of Divine Revelation and a healing circle called the Radiant Healing Centre in St. Catharines, Ontario. During the early 1930s, William visited the congregation to hold religious services and sittings. William also provided lectures that were communicated to him through a spirit guide called LIGHT for the publication of 'Progression,' a small quarterly magazine published by Jenny Pincock starting in 1927. In 1935, Jenny Pincock ceased her connection with William and with the Church of Divine Revelation.

On a waiver certificate issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the U.S. Treasury Department, William claimed to be a minister ordained on September 6, 1930.

For a period of time in the 1930s, William resided in Lily Dale, New York.

On October 1, 1961, William married Berdiena “Birdie” Wolcott [nee Boomgaard] (April 20, 1896-September 11, 1986) and together they moved to Santa Barbara, California. Berdiena was previously married to Edgar Marle Wolcott (September 5, 1880-September 13, 1953). Berdiena and Edgar had attended sittings held by William in California until Edgar’s death.

William died on February 26, 1966 at the age of 76. He is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills), Los Angeles, California.

Caroline Byers (nee Graul) was born December 18, 1860. The daughter of William and Louise (nee Nordemann), she married Andrew Byers on August 30th, 1881 at St. John's Lutheran Church in Ellice Township, Ontario. Together they had seven children: John (1883-1956), William (August 1, 1885-August 13, 1921), Helen (1888-?), Elizabeth (September 4, 1887-?), Frederick (February [3 or 4], 1892), Catherine (November 7, 1893-?), Harry (July 4, 1896- July 13, 1957), and Susannah (November 5, 1899-?). Byers died May 2, 1942 and was buried at the Redeemer Lutheran Cemetery in Monkton, Ontario with the family surname spelled Baier.

Cornelius Franklin Burk was an engineer and civil servant. Born in Chicago, Cornelius Franklin Burk came to Canada in 1920 and was granted Canadian citizenship in 1934. He obtained a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. from the University of Toronto before working as a draftsman and test engineer at Sheldon's Ltd. in Galt in 1929. He later spent several years working in Talara, Peru as an employee of International Petrolium Ltd. Burk served as the Director of development at the University of Waterloo from 1959 to 1961 before becoming secretary-manager of the Waterloo Chamber of Commerce. He succeeded Clifford N. Hall in the role, who had held the position from it's creation in 1952 until 1961.

Bharti Vibhakar is an Indian-Canadian business owner, chef and teacher. Born and raised in South Yemen, she moved to Mumbai (then called Bombay) at 22 years of age, where she married and had two children. She immigrated to Canada in 1980, after divorcing her husband. Vibhakar and her daughters initially settled in Guelph, Ontario and moved in 1984 to Kitchener, Ontario. In 1986 she opened Spice of India, on King Street East, where she sold spices for use in cooking and remedies for common ailments, and taught cooking classes with a focus on vegetarian Indian cuisine. She also operated a stall at the Kitchener market, which first opened in 1990, where she sold more than 400 samosas on a typical Saturday. In 1992 Vibhakar released a cookbook titled Spice of India. The publication was edited and introduced by Record columnist Luisa D'Amato. In 2009, at the age of 70, Vibhakar retired, closing both her store and her market stall.