Benjamin Shantz was a farmer and mill operator born September 21, 1811 to Christian Schantz and Hannah Paul. He married Lydia Kolb on November 5, 1833 and together the couple had eleven children; Josiah K. Shantz (1834-1913), Catharine Shantz (May 17, 1836-February 28, 1917), Hannah Shantz (April 1, 1838-August 20, 1841), Christian Shantz (January 20, 1840-?), Tobias Kolb Schantz, Abraham K. Shantz (September 20, 1844-?), Benjamin K. Shantz (December 5, 1846), Menno K. Shantz (January 31, 1849-July 6, 1888), Lydia Kolb Shantz (1851-1900), Sarah K. Shantz (April 1, 1854-April 10, 1878), and Enoch K. Shantz (October 7, 1856-May 25, 1888).

After Benjamin married Lydia he worked on his father's farm in Freeport, Ontario. In 1853, Benjamin and his family moved to Saugeen, Bruce County, Ontario. At some point, Benjamin owned a gristmill in Port Elgin, Ontario.

Lydia died on November 9, 1862.

Following the death of his wife Lydia, Benjamin remarried. He married Margaret Swinton on March 9, 1863. The couple had four children; Jacob S. Shantz (December 23, 1863-July 16, 1865), Israel S. Shantz (July 8, 1865-?), Isaac S. Shantz (February 17, 1867-?), and Rebecca S. Shantz (October 9, 1868-?).

Around 1864 or 1865 Benjamin and his family moved to Montgomery County, Missouri, and later to Dallas County, Missouri.

Benjamin died on November 9, 1868.

James Kenneth Davidson "Kenneth" Sims was born July 12, 1904 in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario to Harvey J. Sims and Florence Katherine Roos. He married twice. First, to Lyla Patterson Hughes (date unknown) and later to Mabel Alguire Cameron of Cornwall, Ontario on June 28, 1930. He died July 29, 1970 and was buried in Kitchener's Mount Hope Cemetery.

Madame Pestel was the trade name of the photographer Ann Pestel (Chetham) who operated a studio in Eastbourne, U.K. from 1900 until 1930. Pestel took over her husband’s (Henry Pestel, 1869-1900) photographic portrait studio at 49 Terminus Road, Eastbourne when he died in 1900 at the age of 32.

Gordon Wagner is the great grandson of Jacob Hailer and grandson of Louis Henry Wagner, who was a first cousin of Louis Jacob Breithaupt.

Greg Gatenby (1950-) was born in Toronto. Gatenby was an editor with McClelland & Stewart between 1973 and 1975. He later worked as the artistic director of the Harbourfront Reading Series and the International Festival of Authors. He holds a B.A. in English from York University, graduating 1972.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was a British suffragist and women's rights pioneer. The first woman to become a doctor in England, she was also co-founded the first hospital run by women, was the first female Dean of a British medical school, the first woman elected to a British school board, and finally, the first British female mayor.

Emily Davies was a British suffragist and activist for women's rights to attend university. Davies was friends with Elizabeth and Millicent Garrett, and helped to found to the Kensington Society along with them. She was also the editor of the English Woman's Journal. Her key area of activism was for education rights for girls and she was key in allowing women to sit official secondary school exams. After campaigning for women to be allowed to attend Cambridge, Oxford, and the University of London, she founded the first college for women in England, which would go on to become Girton College. Although the British senate did not allow to sit for higher education examinations, she continued to teach women these unofficially. In 1906 Davies headed a delegation to parliament to push for women's suffrage. Davies died in 1921.

Johanna Maria (Jeny) Lind was a Swedish opera singer who was known as the Swedish Nightingale. Lind was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and performed across Sweden, Europe, and the United States. In 1849 at the age 29 Lind announced her retirement from opera singing. However, in 1950 P.T. Barnum invited Lind to tour the United States which she did, giving 93 large concerts. She continued to tour the US herself and donated the proceeds of her concerts to charity. For the remainder of her life she gave only occasional concerts, and worked as a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music in England.

Jacob Hailer was born in Wilferdingen, Grossherzogthum Baden, Germany and emigrated to North America in 1829. He established himself as a wheelwright in Kitchener in 1833 and was instrumental in establishing the Evangelical Association religion in Canada. He married Margareth Riehl (1807-1885) and together they had 6 children, including Catharine Hailer who married Louis Breithaupt.

Born in Chippewa, Ontario to Jacob Hailer and Margaret Riehl she moved as a child to German Mills and later to Kitchener. She married Jacob Wagner in 1849 and had two living children with him. After his death she re-married Daniel Biehn (Bean) and had a further 6 children.After his second husband's death while they were living in Mildmay, she returned to Kitchener where she resided for another 32 years.

Joan May Hollobon is a Canadian writer and reporter. She was born January 29, 1920, in the Isle of Wight (United Kingdom) to Ernest Frederick “Tony” and Alice Hollobon (nee Ford), and grew up in North Wales (United Kingdom).

During World War II, Hollobon volunteered as an administrative and press officer with the British Red Cross and the St. John War Organization in Wales. From 1946 to 1948, she worked in Berlin for the Allied Control Commission of Germany and Austria (a British Army bureau). And, in 1949, she worked for the Canadian and British Reader’s Digest. In 1952, Hollobon emigrated to Canada where she worked at the Kirkland Lake Northern Daily News (Kirkland Lake, Ontario), first as editor of the women’s section, later as a general reporter. In 1954, Hollobon moved to the daily North Bay Nugget (North Bay, Ontario) where she worked as general reporter and columnist.

In 1956, Hollobon began working as a general reporter for the Globe and Mail in Toronto. After covering medical news in the early 1960s, Hollobon received the fellowship in the Advancement of Science Writing and attended the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in 1963-1964. Upon her return to Canada, and during the 1960s and 1970s, Hollobon wrote in-depth pieces on medical subjects that gained her national recognition. Some pieces included the Saskatchewan Medicare crisis of 1962, reportages on mental care facilities, and a three-part series on transsexuality and the first sex reassignment operation in Canada, among others.

During the 1970s, she travelled to Dublin for the Canadian, British, and Irish Medical Associations Conference and, from there, she wrote several articles about the medical conditions in the Isles, especially focusing on Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Also during the 1970s, Hollobon was part of the organizing committee for the Canadian Science Writers Association.

In 1983, Hollobon became assignment editor for the Globe and Mail. She retired in 1985 and, shortly after, she received the Canadian Medical Association Medal of Honour (1986), and published the book The lion’s tail: a history of the Wellesley Hospital 1912-1987 (1987). In 1987, the Health Care Public Relations Association of Canada (today Canadian Public Relations Society) presented the Hollobon Award for the first time. The award is given to members of the media whose work has contributed significantly to the public’s understanding of healthcare. And, in 2019, Hollobon was named Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2022, the National Newspaper Awards named their Beat Reporting award after Joan Hollobon.

In retirement, Hollobon shared a house with her friend Kay Rex.

Tobias Moyer was born to Abraham Bechtel Moyer and Mary Gross Moyer (nee Nash) in 1832.

He died on December 28, 1909 in Kitchener, Ontario.

William Jamieson (Jamie) Martin was the second son of John Alexander and Jessie Martin. He graduated from the University of Toronto in political science and economics in 1939 and in 1941 he enlisted in the army. He was appointed to the Canadian Armoured Corps and began training in Brockville as a Cadet. During the war he was part of the Elgin and then the 1st Hussars regiment and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. On June 11, 1944, his regiment was involved in a battle at Le Mesnil Patry, northwest of Caen, France, and Lt. Martin was killed in action. He is buried in the cemetery at Beny-sur-mer in France, and there is a memorial stone for him in the Grove Cemetery in Dundas, Ontario. He was engaged to Muriel Clift who worked as a military nurse in Europe during the war.

Mayor of the City of Waterloo between 1954 and 1955.

Euphemia Bean was born June 27, 1865 in Freeport (now part of Kitchener), Ontario, the first daughter born to Daniel G. Bean and second wife Margaret Hailer Wagner. She married Henry N. Schmidt, a miller, in Bruce County on November 18, 1885. They raised a family in South Dakota, where she died in 1924. She was buried in the Sisseton Cemetery.

Falstaff Press was a private United States publisher of erotica. Their first publication was Musk, Hashish and Blood in 1900. On November 26, 1935 Ben and Anne Rebhuhn and their nephew Ben Raeburn were charged with sending obscene matter through the mails. The three were convicted in May 1939.

Panurge Press was an American publisher founded by Esar Levine, who co-owned Falstaff Press and Robin Hood House as well. In 1926, he was convicted and imprisoned for trafficking in obscene books as a result of his attempts to publish Frank Harris's My Life and Loves.