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William W. Baldwin (1775-1844) and his son, Robert Baldwin (1804-1858), were lawyers in Ontario, who gained prominence in the administrative affairs of the province and Canada during the nineteenth century.

Dalton Arthur (Pete) Bales (1920-1979) was a North York municipal politician and Ontario Progressive Conservative MP between 1958 and 1974 and held the portfolios of Labour, Municipal Affairs, Justice and Attorney General in the administrations of John Robarts and William Davis.

Born in Lansing, later part of Willowdale, in North York Township in 1920, Dalton Bales was educated at Lansing Public School, Upper Canada College, the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School.

He was an R.C.A.F. navigator from 1942-1946, was called to the Bar in 1949 and made a Queen's Counsel in 1962. From 1953-1960 Bales was Vice-President then President of the York-Scarborough Federal Progressive Conservative Riding Association.

Bales served on the North York Council from 1958 to 1962, was chairman of the North York Board of Health from 1960 to 1965 and represented the York Mills riding in the Ontario Legislature from 1963 to 1975.

During this time, Bales sat on several Legislative Committees and was a member of Cabinet from 1966 to 1974, holding the Labour portfolio (1966-1971) in the Robarts administration, and the Municipal Affairs (1971-1972) and Justice / Attorney General (1972-1974) portfolios in the Davis administration.

He was removed from Cabinet in March 1974 and, following a heart attack, retired from politics in 1975. Bales remained a partner in the law firm of McLaughlin, Soward and Bales until his death in 1979.

Jacob Ball (fl. 1772-1809) was a farmer and general merchant in Niagara Township, Ontario.

Jacob Ball was principally a farmer and general merchant, but he had also been a Captain in the New York Militia and a Lieutenant in Butler's Rangers during the American Revolution. As a United Empire Loyalist, he settled in Newark (now Niagara Township). In 1797-1798 he was granted nearly two thousand acres of land in Newark, and Grimsby and Windham Townships.

Barber Turbine and Foundries Ltd., founded in 1867, manufactured water turbines in Meaford, Ontario, eventually moving some operations to Port Colborne, Ontario which operated under the name of Barber Hydraulic Turbine Ltd.

The Barber Turbine & Foundries Ltd. of Meaford, Ontario, was founded on July 1, 1867, when Charles Barber bought the Georgian Foundry. He immediately began making water turbines and produced his first, named the Canadian Turbine, in the company's founding year. This turbine won a bronze award for best water wheel at the Philadelphia Exhibition of 1876. Around the turn of century, a Swedish company by the name of Boving opened a branch in Lindsay, Ontario. By 1928 it had run into financial difficulty, and in 1929 sold out patents, designs and equipment to Barber Turbines.

Charles Barber's son Tom took over the business from his father, and Charles Barber's grandson, Herbert Hall (son of Charles Barber's daughter and a Mr. Hall, a draftsman at the foundry) took over the business after Tom Barber's death. He operated the foundry until October of 1966, when he sold it, mostly to local shareholders. In February of 1967 it became a limited company, and Herbert Hall served as a consultant until his death later that year.

In 1973 the machine shop operations and the foundry operations were separated. The former was transferred to Port Colborne, Ontario, while the latter remained in Meaford operating under the name of Georgian Bay Foundry Limited (name changed September 26, 1973). This company continued to operate until 1987 when the foundry was again sold. On December 23, 1987, the foundry began operations under the name of Georgian Bay Kennedy Limited. As of December 1989, this corporation was still in business, with its head office in Owen Sound, Ontario. The machine shop went to Port Colborne in 1973. It was to operate under the name of Barber Hydraulic Turbine Ltd. This company was originally incorporated by Ontario as Eleven Fifty- Five Leslie Ltd. on January 28, 1971. The name change to Barber Hydraulic Turbine Ltd. occurred February 19, 1973. The head office for the corporation was in Toronto, Ontario. However, by January of 1980, the head office was in Port Colborne, Ontario. This corporation was dissolved on September 14, 1981.

Barber Hydraulic Turbine Inc. was incorporated on October 11, 1984. The successor to this company is called Barber Water Power Products, in operation as of December of 1989.

Eliakim Barnum (ca. 1785-1833) owned a mill, tavern, and distillery in Haldimand Township, Ontario.

In 1807, Eliakim Barnum arrived from the United States, where he was born around 1785, and settled in Haldimand Township, near the village of Haldimand (now Grafton). By 1819, he owned a mill, tavern, and distillery, as well as being a landowner. He built a house in 1819, which today is known as Barnum House in Grafton, Ontario

Barnum was a Tory and was active in the community as a justice of the peace and Lieutenant-Colonel of the local militia. He helped found St. George Anglican Church in Grafton and, in 1820, the first school in Haldimand Township.

Barnum and his wife, Hannah, had five children. His son, Smith Barnum, became the first Warden of the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham in 1849.

The Bartle Brothers, Simon Peter Bartle (1875-1956) and Herman Arthur Bartle (1877-1958) were professional travelling photographers in Glengarry and Stormont Counties during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

They were the sons of Dr. Charles Bartle, a physician, and his wife, Charlotte (Shaver), of Dixon, Osnabruck, Stormont County.

Simon attended public school in Morrisburg, where he obtained an art teaching certificate. While in Morrisburg, he appears to have also studied photography. Returning to Dixon after completing his formal education, he embarked upon a career as a photographer. In this enterprise, he was assisted by his younger brother, Herman.

The Bartle Brothers travelled throughout Glengarry and Stormont Counties, photographing area residents and a variety of local subjects. Their careers as travelling photographers ended ca. 1914 when the Bartles purchased Osnabruck Township property together and went into mixed farming.

In 1917, Herman married Lillian Taylor.

A.W. Barton was a professional photographer who managed Defender Photo Supply, a photographic shop in Toronto, during the 1910s before moving to Oshawa, Ontario, ca. 1920.

Barbara Beardsley (1927-2005) was an active member of the New Democratic Party and ran in two provincial elections as a candidate in Toronto's St. Andrew-St. Patrick riding.

Barbara Beardsley (neé Tubman) was born in Ottawa in 1927. She met Robert Beardsley in Ottawa in 1944 and they were married in Toronto in 1950.

After attending the University of Toronto's Victoria College, Beardsley devoted her time to caring for the couple's four children. Following the birth of their last child, she returned to the University of Toronto's library school and embarked on a career in the education research field.

Beardsley supported her husband Robert through four federal electoral campaigns in which he ran as an NDP candidate in Toronto's Spadina riding. Throughout this time, her own commitment to the NDP party grew. Beardsley won a bid to become member-at-large of the NDP's Provincial Executive for Ontario and proceeded to introduce a number of changes to ONDP executive operations, including the provision of daycare at conventions and the rotation of Provincial Council meetings around the province.

After federal NDP leader David Lewis lost his seat in 1974, Beardsley was recruited to work for the Ontario campaign to elect Rosemary Brown as his successor. Beardsley herself proceeded to run in the St. Andrew-St. Patrick riding in the 1975 provincial election against Progressive Conservative candidate Larry Grossman, falling only 400 votes short of a victory. She was defeated by Grossman again in 1977.

Following her husband's retirement, Beardsley helped him to start up B+B Research and Consulting Services under the auspices of which the couple worked as party organizers and campaign managers for candidates across Canada. When Beardsley retired in 1990, the couple left politics and moved to Prince Edward County.

In April 1998, Beardsley was the recipient of the Agnes MacPhail Award for her activism and work with the ONDP's Provincial Committee on Women's Issues. She died in 2005.

Robert (Bob) Beardsley (1926- ) has been an active member of the New Democratic Party since its formation in 1961 and ran in four federal elections as a candidate in Toronto's Spadina riding.

Robert Beardsley was born in 1926 in Panama to an American mother and Canadian father. In 1940, with the onset of war, Beardsley's father joined the Armed Forces and brought the family back to Canada.

Beardsley graduated in 1947 with a degree in English and Physics from Queen's University and in 1951 he earned his teaching degree from the Ontario College of Education. He worked as an educator throughout his life, notably as Mathematics Head at the Sarnia Senior Collegiate Institute and Coordinator of SEED Alternative School.

Beardsley met Barbara Tubman in Ottawa in 1944. They married in Toronto in 1950.

In the late 1950's Beardsley attended a meeting of the New Party Club, the group that eventually formed the New Democratic Party. Beardsley's early involvement led him to run in the 1962 federal election as a candidate for the fledgling NDP party in the Spadina riding. He was not successful. The election resulted in a minority Progressive Conservative victory and was quickly followed by the federal elections of 1963 and 1965, in which he again ran and lost.

Beardsley made a last unsuccessful attempt at federal politics in the 1972 federal election.

Beardsley remained active in the NDP, supporting his wife Barbara through two attempts at winning Toronto's St. Andrew-St. Patrick seat in the 1975 and 1977 provincial elections.

When Beardsley retired, he and his wife formed B+B Research and Consulting Services, working as party organizers and campaign managers across Canada. When Barbara Beardsley retired in 1990, the couple left politics and settled in Prince Edward County.

Harry Beattie was an amateur photographer active in the Niagara region of Ontario in the early twentieth century.

Born in Niagara region [ca. 1888], Harry Beattie grew up on a farm near Winona. The maternal side of his family, the Wentworths, apparently owned larged fruit estates in the Winona area. Around 1910 he married Connie Orr, also from a Winona farming family. Beattie supposedly worked for the Bell Telephone Company in the Winona area in the period before World War I, and regularly assisted with the harvest on the farms of his relatives.

Beattie was well-travelled and was an enthusiastic amateur photographer. Moving west with his wife, mother and and brother, Beattie settled in Calgary sometime in the 1910s, and remained there until his retirement in Sorrento, British Columbia. He regularly returned to Winona. He died around 1980, at age 93.

The Beaver and Toronto Mutual Fire Insurance Company provided insurance against destruction caused by fire and other events.

George Frank Beer (1864-1949) was an urban reformer, and a trade and unemployment expert in Toronto in the first half of the twentieth century.

He was born in Badeque, Prince Edward Island, where he received his formal education and joined the family business, Beer Bros. In 1900 he moved to Toronto and was the treasurer of the Ellipse Whitewear Company. About 1912, Beer joined the urban reform movement, becoming involved in many private and government sponsored projects for urban development. He was the first President of the Toronto Housing Company (a private concern with government backing), and planned the construction of tenement units for the amelioration of living conditions for the poor. He was also made a member of a committee appointed by Clifford Sifton's Conservation Commission to draft a Model City Planning Bill for Canada. In addition, he was involved in G.H. Gooderham's committee for building a Toronto-Hamilton highway, which was completed in 1917. Beer was an active member of the Canadian Manufacturers Association (acting as chairman, 1911-1912), the Canadian Political Science Association and, as an imperialist and free-trader, was a signatory to the Round Table Memorandum and a staunch advocate of an Empire organization for intra-Empire and world trade.

Alexander Emerson Belcher (1844-1926) was a soldier, public servant, politician, and mayor of Southampton, Bruce County, Ontario.

He was born near Toronto and attended the Royal Military School there. He served in the militia against the Fenians, and attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He engaged in a varied banking and commercial life, being one of the founders of the Commercial Travellers' Association . He was active in Conservative politics in Bruce County, and served as President of the Bruce Conservative Association. He was the first Mayor of Southampton (from 1905- 1908), and in 1911 was appointed a Clerk in the Office of the Registrar- General. He also wrote poetry and had an interest in fraternal organizations and local history

Norman S. Bell (1910-1980) was factory manager of Noorduyn Aviation Limited and an amateur photographer.

Bellevue Pathé Quebec was a film production laboratory, and closed its Montreal office in 1977.

Paul W. Bennett (1949- ) is a teacher and founding member of both the Ontario School Board Reform Network and the Coalition for Education Reform.

Paul W. Bennett was born July 29, 1949 in Toronto. After attending York University in order to obtain a Bachelor of Arts and an Master of Arts., Bennett obtained a Bachelor of Education and doctorate in education from the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE). He was Chair of the History Department at Upper Canada College from 1980 until 1991, Director of Programs from 1991 to 1995 and Vice-Principal, Academics, June, 1995, until June, 1997, when he moved to Montreal to take up the position of Headmaster of Lower Canada College. He is the author of three Canadian history textbooks, including Canada: A North American Nation, and was a member of the Canadian Historical Association Advisory Committee on the Teaching of History. He was also a member of the Advisory Board, Centre for Liberal Education and Public Affairs, Carleton University.

Paul Bennett's children attended school in York Region Board of Education and Bennett served as a School Trustee for York Region Board of Education, Markham Ward 7. He served from 1988 until 1997, winning re-election in 1991 and 1994. As a School Trustee he quickly became very unhappy with the senior administration of the York Region Board of Education and consequently became a founding member and Chair of the Ontario School Board Reform Network (OSBRN) in 1990.

Bennett was also founding member and Co-Chair of the Coalition for Education Reform, 1993-1994, and a Director of the Coalition from 1993 until 1996. Bennett was also a leader, through OSBRN and the Coalition, in the charter school movement in Ontario. The organizations Bennett led lobbied the Ministry of Education and Training to change the school system, requesting changes such as fewer and more accountable school boards, a revised curriculum with core subjects and clearly defined content and skills, higher and measurable academic standards, and charter schools. Many of the changes requested have been implemented by the Ontario Government.

The Benson family lived in Port Hope and Peterborough, Ontario, and were involved in businesses such as a general store and railways, and in the administration of law during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Benson family played a particularly prominent role at the local and provincial levels during the nineteenth an early twentieth centuries in both business and law. The head of the Benson family was businessman Thomas Benson (1804-1857), originally from Ireland. Of his twelve children, Thomas Moore (T.M.) Benson gained the greatest prominence, as both a lawyer and a judge. T.M. Benson's younger brother, Frederick Albert Benson (184[3]-1918) also practised law. Among T.M. Benson's children, Clara Cynthia Benson (1875-1964) is best known as a pioneering Canadian woman in the sciences. Many other members of the Benson family continued the family interest in law and business, as well as cultivating an appreciation of their own family history.

Dr. Clara Cynthia Benson (1875-1964), a professor of chemistry at the University of Toronto, was the daughter of Thomas Moore Benson and his second wife, Laura A. (Fuller) Benson.

Dr. Benson was the first woman to obtain a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Toronto in 1899, and was one of the first two women to earn a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1903. She joined the faculty of the Lillian Massey School of Domestic Science, and in 1906, she was appointed Associate Professor in the Faculty of Household Science, with a specialization in food chemistry. In 1926, she became a full professor and head of the Department of Food Chemistry, and continued working in the department until her retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1945. A number of honours have been associated with her name, including the naming of the Benson Building (1959) and the Clara C. Benson scholarship (1950) at the University of Toronto, and the Clara Benson Award (1992) of the Canadian Society for Chemistry.

In addition to her professional activities, Benson became first president of the Women's Athletic Association at the University of Toronto in 1921, and also served on the national board of the YWCA.

Frederick Albert Benson (184[3]-1918) was a lawyer and notary public, and served as commander of the 46th Battalion Volunteer Militia at Port Hope, Ontario.

Frederick Albert Benson was the son of Thomas Benson and Alicia (Lowe) Benson and younger brother of Thomas Moore Benson.

He studied law at the University of Toronto and because a lawyer and notary public. He also commanded the 46th Battalion Volunteer Militia at Port Hope.

James Binley Benson (182[9]-1876) lived in Peterborough, Upper Canada.

James Binley Benson was the eldest son of Thomas Benson and Alicia (Lowe) Benson. He died in Bermuda in 1876.