The firm of Haney, Haney, Kendall & Melville was established in 1860 and has conducted business since then under a number of names. The first firm name recorded in the papers is MacGachen and Colquhoun on a document dated 1865. Of F. Stewart MacGachen nothing has been discovered except that he was appointed solicitor for the Waterloo Mutual Fire Insurance Company, formed in 1863. The partnership of MacGachen and Colquhoun lasted approximately fifteen years, as by 1875 Colquhoun's name alone appears on documents. In 1876 Colquhoun then entered into partnership with Ward Hamilton Bowlby and Edwin Perry Clement, under the name Bowlby, Clement and Colquhoun, but remained for only a short period. After conducting business alone for several years, in 1889 he entered into partnership with Arthur B. McBride under the name Colquhoun & McBride. This partnership lasted until 1897 when Colquhoun accepted the postion of Collector of Customs. McBride practised alone for several years before taking another partner, E.P. Flintoft, and the firm name became McBride and Flintoft, ca. 1906. Flintoft left to become solicitor for the Canadian Pacific Railway, leaving McBride once again alone for several years until taking E.W. MacKenzie as partner with the firm name McBride and MacKenzie, ca. 1916. Still later, McBride took another partner and the firm name changed to McBride & McGibbon.

The earliest document in the collection is an abstract of a will which names James Colquhoun as a beneficiary. James Colquhoun was a Barrister of the Middle Temple, a brilliant lawyer who emigrated to Canada in 1842 with his wife, Mary Bryce Colquhoun. After initially establishing a law practise in Galt and speculating in land near Ayr James Colquhoun moved to Berlin ca. 1852, where he first lived on Frederick St. and then built the home now known as "Woodside", the boyhood home of William Lyon MacKenzie King. John King was a family friend and rented Woodside from Frederick Colquhoun from 1886 to 1893. Shortly after moving to Berlin he was appointed Clerk of the county court, a position he held until his death, as was also made deputy clerk of the crown. A keen interest in education led him to serve at various times as trustee or chairman on both the public and high school boards. He died in 1877.

Frederick Colquhoun, son of James Colquhoun, was born August 31, 1839 in Sterling, Scotland. He was educated in Berlin and studied law. From 1860 until 1897 he had a successful law practise; in 1897 he was appointed Collector of Customs at the port of Berlin, a post which he held until his death in 1906. As well, Colquhoun served as Village Clerk for Waterloo from 1868 to 1876, and for the Town of Waterloo from 1876 to 1897. He was secretary of the North Waterloo Reform Association and Children's Aid Society for a number of years, and an original member of the Board of Directors of the Dominion Life Assurance Co., 1900. At the time of his death he was President of the Berlin and Waterloo Hospital Trust. In approximately 1889 he built a house on a lot on the corner of King and Union Streets, Waterloo, currently 251 Mary St.and known as the "backwards house." The house originally faced King St. but subdivision of the original lot has left the back of the house fronting on Mary St.

Arthur B. McBride was born November 21, 1861, was educated in Toronto, called to the bar in 1884 and practised in Toronto until 1889. In 1889 he moved to Waterloo and went into partnership with Frederick Colquhoun. In 1887 he married Agnes Kumpf, daughter of Christian Kumpf. In Waterloo McBride served as director of the Globe Furniture Company, as well as being active in both the Odd Fellows and Masons.