Jacques Duperon Baby and his sons, James and Francis, were involved in the fur trade, the public service, Justice, landownership, and the militia during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Francis Baby was a member of the Upper Canada Legislative Assembly. Francois Baby, brother of Jacques Duperon, and his descendents played an important role in Quebec's politics and economy during the late 18th and 19th centuries. Jacques Duperon Baby (1731-1789) was a French fur trader in Detroit during the late eighteenth century. Jacques (James) Duperon Baby (1763-1833) was a public servant, office holder, judge, landowner, and a militia officer during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
John Miller (1817-1904) and his two sons John and Robert were family farmers in Pickering Township, Ontario.
John Miller was born and educated in Dumfrieshire, Scotland, and moved to Upper Canada in 1835. For several years, he worked on his uncle’s farm "Riggfoot", near Markham. In 1848 he got married and purchased the southern portions of lots 16, 17, and 18 of Concession 7 in Pickering Township. He then named his farm "Thistle Ha". By 1852, his father William and his uncle George had been importing livestock from Britain. In 1869, John Miller travelled to Scotland and brought back Shorthorn cattle to breed. He also bred Shropshire sheep, Yorkshire sheep, and Clydesdale horses, and his buyers included Americans replenishing their farms after the American Civil War.
John Miller’s son, Robert (1857-1935) continued his father’s work on the farm. From 1900 to 1923, he served as a director for the Canadian National Exhibition, and in 1923, was the first farmer to be elected President of the C.N.E.
Another son, John Miller Jr. (1866-1948) also worked on the family farm, specializing in Shorthorn cattle and Shropshire sheep. This work was also continued by a grandson of John Miller Sr., Hugh J. Miller.
The Traill family were English immigrants who farmed at Hamilton Township, Rice Lake, Northumberland County, Ontario during the late nineteenth century.
The Becker family were farmers in Walsingham Township, Norfolk County, Ontario during the nineteenth century.
The Bates family were United Empire Loyalists from Darien, Connecticut who settled in Wellington Square (now Burlington), Ontario and Kings County, New Brunswick.
The Ballantyne family lived in Downie Township in the 19th century, including Thomas Ballantyne, who was a member of the Ontario legislature.
The Birdsall family were immigrants from Yorkshire, England who settled in Peel and Peterborough counties, Ontario during the early nineteenth century. William Birdsall (1798-1876) settled in Meadowvale, Peel County, Ontario where he became a farmer, Justice of the Peace, and officer of the York militia. Richard Birdsall (1799-1852) emigrated to Asphodel Township, Peterborough County, Ontario in 1817 and was a land surveyor and agent for the Canada Company and the Upper Canada government.
The Grobb family were primarily farmers and teachers who lived and worked in southern Ontario, primarily Clinton Township, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The Tallman family were primarily farmers who lived in and around Grimsby and Beamsville, Ontario after emigrating from the United States following the American Revolution in the late 18th century.
The Treadwell-Johnson family was a prominent Ontario family during the nineteenth century, largely based in L'Orignal, located along the Ottawa River in eastern Ontario.
The Fink family lived in Belleville, Ontario.
The Morrison family lived in Tweed, Ontario, in the early twentieth century.
Sir James Robert Gowan (1815-1909) was a lawyer and judge in Barrie, Ontario, while his cousin, Ogle Robert Gowan (1796-1876), was a politician and journalist in Brockville, Ontario. Elizabeth Burkitt Gowan (d. 1854) was the mother of James Robert Gowan; Henry Hatton Gowan (1788-1863) was his father. James Robert's sisters were Anne Henrietta Gowan-Ardagh (1813-1889) and Susan Elizabeth Gowan-Strathy (1822-1893). James Gowan's wife was Anne (Anna) Ardagh-Gowan (d.1905); they married in 1853 and had no children. Ogle Robert Gowan's wife was Frances Anne Colclough-Turner Gowan (b. 1811).
Samuel L. White, and his son Samuel Alexander White, were teachers in the Stratford, Ontario and Peel County regions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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.
The McKeoughs are an Ontario family of Irish origins, with a long connection to the military and closely associated with the history, business and politics of the city of Chatham. William Edward McKeough (born in Chatham, February 12, 1860; died in Chatham, December 3, 1929) was the grandson of Thomas McKeough (1791-1874), who had arrived in Canada circa 1829.
William Edward's father was William McKeough (1824-1888), first a tinsmith and then a Chatham entrepreneur and politician; he was elected mayor in 1871 and was the first president of the Erie and Huron Railway. William Edward's mother was Betsy Ann Stone (1833-1909), daughter of John Stone (1798-1827) and Mary Burns (1807-1899), of Orford Township. William Edward had two brothers and one sister: George Thomas (1855-1931), John Franklin (1857-1924) and Alice Maude (1862-1935) (married name Shannon).
William Edward McKeough attended Wesleyan Collegiate Institute in Dundas (1875-1877) and the Petit Séminaire de St. Charles in Ste. Thérèse, Québec (1878-1879). He articled in the offices of Matthew Wilson, Barrister-at-Law, and began his course of law in the offices of Robinson and Wilson (Chatham), passing his final examinations at Osgoode Hall in January of 1886. He subsequently worked in the Toronto law firm of Moss, Hayles and Aylesworth, in the Chancery Agency Department. He returned to Chatham in late 1886 and became a member of the legal firm of Robinson, Wilson, Rankin and McKeough. After a number of reorganizations, the firm dissolved and William Edward McKeough pursued an independent law practice and was also involved in the family hardware business founded in 1847 by his father William and uncle John Franklin McKeough.
During the 1880's, John Franklin McKeough (brother of William Edward) purchased the Dover Street foundry of Robert Parkinson and Son and amalgamated it with J. & W. McKeough, Hardware Merchants. By 1905, the business had expanded to include manufacturing and was incorporated as McKeough and Trotter Limited, being suppliers of stoves, plumbing and heating parts, and industrial fittings. In 1943, the name was changed to McKeough Sons Company Limited. William Edward's eldest brother, George Thomas, studied medicine and became a doctor in London, England.
Around the turn of the 20th century, William Edward became very active in local politics. He was elected Alderman in 1899, Chairman of the Board of Works in 1900, Mayor of Chatham in 1904 and Chairman of the Board of Education in 1911.
William Edward McKeough and Mabel Annie Stewart (1872-1946) were married in 1892, at the home of Sheriff Jarvis in Toronto. Her father was the proprietor of the Brantford Expositor and the Hamilton Times. Her mother, Annie Racey was the daughter of Henry Racey of Brantford, and of United Empire Loyalist extraction. Her great-great grandfather, Commodore Grant, was a member of Governor Simcoe's First Parliament of the Province of Upper Canada.
William Edward McKeough became a successful businessman and politician, with wide-ranging interests in the arts. He travelled extensively and his acquaintances included Alexander Henderson Manning, Frederick Wyld, Alfred Gooderham and Sir James Whitney.
William Edward and Mabel had three children, William Stewart (1893-1916) and George Grant (1898-1964), and a daughter (born 1900) who did not survive infancy. William Stewart was an accomplished athlete who attended medical school at the University of Toronto (until World War I broke out during his third year) and served in the 18th Battalion during the First World War. Major William Stewart McKeough was killed in action at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and was the recipient of numerous acknowledgements for bravery after his death. Lieutenant Colonel George Grant McKeough served with the 24th Kent Regiment, the 186th Battalion and the Dover Patrol, and was closely associated with the political and industrial life of Chatham. He married Florence Sewell Woodward in 1921. They had three children, Woodward Stewart (born 1921), Sewell Ann (born 1923, married name Carruthers) and William Darcy (born 1933). William Darcy became a member of the Provincial Legislature for West Kent in 1963, and later the Minister of Municipal Affairs (1967, 1972), Minister of Energy (1973-1975), and Treasurer and Minister of Economics and Intergovernmental Affairs (1975-1978).
Thomas Hunter Scott was born in 1849. He commenced business as a photographer in St. Thomas on March 1st, 1879. He initially opened a studio at 265 Talbot Street under the name "Scott and Company" in partnership with William Lindrop, a partnership that lasted until November 1881. In July 1882, he entered into another partnership with his brother-in-law James. H. Hopkins at the same location, this time under the name "Scott and Hopkins". This partnership lasted until April 1890. By 1894, Scott was at new location at 585 Talbot Street under the name "Scott Studio". The Scott Studio subsequently remained at this location until its closure in 1989, although it also operated a tourist studio in Port Stanley during the early 1900's.
Scott's son, W. Murray, was born ca. 1883. He apprenticed with his father beginning in 1900. In 1911, and after a two-year break when he left to go prospecting in Northern Ontario (with camera nevertheless in-hand), Murray took over the Scott Studio from his father. He married Florence Baker on December 27, 1911. Murray exceeded his father's reputation for exceptional craftsmanship, winning five awards from the International Association of Photographers for his work and artistry. He was a fixture on the streetscapes of St. Thomas and Elgin County. He is credited with several innovations in local photography, including a "Children's Studio" replete with many fixtures to produce a smile.
Murray Scott operated the studio until 1955 when the business was sold to Frank Sefton and his son Clifford, previously of Montreal. The Seftons maintained the studio's reputation for innovation, becoming the first studio to offer colour reproductions in St. Thomas. Clifford and his wife Margeruite successfully operated the business until its closure in 1989.
Thomas Hunter Scott died at his home, Burnside, in Union in 1918. William Murray Scott died at Elgin Manor, Fingal, in 1967.
Besly Family includes John Besly, Barton Hope Besly, and Maria Besly.