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G.A. Gibson was a farmer in the Lindsay, Ontario who at one time ran a general store on Kent St., Lindsay. His wife was Alice K. Gibson, daughter of James Kerr, and they had at least one son, A.E.M. Gibson.

The Honourable Robert Hamilton (1826-1891) was a factor of the Hudson's Bay Company who was stationed at Fort Edmonton. He married Ann (Annie) Seaborn (Seabourne) Miles (born in 1838 at Rupert's House d. 1863). Annie's mother was Elizabeth (Betsy) Sinclair (b. ca. 1805 and d. 1878) and her father was Robert Seaborn Miles Sr. (1795-1870). Like Robert Hamilton, Robert Miles Sr. was a Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. One of Robert and Annie's sons, Robert Miles Hamilton (1864-1939), married Alice May Barker and resided at "Auburn" in Peterborough, Ontario. Alice's father was the Honourable Samuel Barker, a Conservative Member of Parliament and a barrister. Alice and Robert Hamilton's children were Miles Beresford Hamilton, Robert Barker Hamilton, Alice Seabourne Hamilton, and S.R. Hamilton (male). Both Beresford and Robert Barker Hamilton served overseas during World War I. Alice Seabourne Hamilton married Charles Norman Geale.

Edward Armour Peck, whose papers are also included in this fonds, was the natural father of Arthur Henry Peck and the adoptive father of Charles Norman Geale. Edward Armour Peck was married to Kitty Revel.

Richard Birdsall Rogers was born at Ashburnham in 1857. He was the son of Robert David Rogers and Elizabeth Birdsall and a grandson of Richard Birdsall. He lived in Ashburnham until 1916 and then moved to "Beechwood Farm" in Douro Township. He was a land surveyor and was appointed Superintending Engineer of the Trent Valley Canal in about 1884. During his time in this office, he built the Peterborough-Lakefield Division and the Simcoe-Balsam Lake Division of the Trent Canal including the Hydraulic Lift Locks at Peterborough and Kirkfield, besides many dams and other works on this canal. Richard married Clara Mina Calcutt of Peterborough in 1881. They had seven children. Their daughter, Leah, married Herbert Geale, the brother of Charles Norman. Two of Richard and Mina's sons, Heber and Harry, served overseas in World War I.

The goal and court house building committee of Amherst, Hamilton Township, Newcastle District, was established on April 10, 1828. Its purpose was to make arrangements for procuring material and the construction of a new gaol and court house. Members of the committee included Walter Boswell, Zaccheus Burnham, Robert Henry, David Smart, James G. Bethune, Thomas Ward, and Elias Jones. The chosen site for the gaol and court house was Amherst, located near Cobourg, also in Hamilton Township. The end result was a large stone building which cost approximately 6000 pounds. In 1837, Cobourg became a police village, and the village of Amherst was amalgamated and became part of Cobourg. (Taken from: Spilsbury, John R. "Cobourg: early days and modern times." Cobourg: The Cobourg Book Company, 1981.)

J. Gainey was an international organizer for the Barbers' Union at the turn of the century and held the position for many years. He was born in approximately 1875 and lived until 1937. He resided in Peterborough, Ontario.

S. R. Gage was educated at McGill University and the University of Glasgow. He is the author of several books including A Few Rustic Huts, which provides a history of ranger's cabins in Algonquin Park. His interest in the Canol project undertaken in the World War II era grew out of a canoe trip on the Natla and Keele rivers in 1981. He was also interested in the management of Ontario's provincial parks. Gage was also on the Rouge Valley Park Advisory Committee (Ontario).

Robert Frost was born and raised in San Francisco, U.S.A. He married in 1895 and moved to New England. While he lived in New England he attended Harvard for two years. Unfortunately two of his children died and after their deaths he moved his family to England. In England he had published a volume of verse called "A Boy's Will" and continued to write poetry. Robert was friends with Ezra Pound and Edward Thomas. He returned to the U.S.A. and moved to New Hampshire where he continued to write. Robert won the Pulitzer Prize for Collected Poems (1923), A Further Range (1936) and A Witness Tree (1942). He continued to write until the time of his death in 1963. (Taken from: The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge University Press, 1983.)

The Honourable Leslie Miscampbell Frost, lawyer and Premier of Ontario, was born in Orillia, Ontario on September 20, 1895, the son of William Sword Frost and Margaret Jane Barker. He was educated at the Orillia Public School and the Orillia High School. He later attended the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. He served in the World War I in France and Belgium, with the 20th Battalion, Queen's York Rangers, and was discharged with the rank of Captain in 1918, after being severely wounded. Frost was called to the Bar in 1921. He was a member of the legal firm Frost, Inrig and Gorwill, among others, and was an honorary bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He married Gertrude Jane Carew in 1926. They never had children. Leslie M. Frost had a long and successful political career. He was first elected to the legislature of Ontario in 1937, and he was consistently re-elected at each election until his retirement in 1959. He was Treasurer of Ontario and Minister of Mines in both the George Drew and T.L. Kennedy Administrations. In 1949, Frost was chosen leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, and was sworn in as Premier and Provincial Treasurer on May 4, 1949. He remained Provincial Treasurer until 1955 and Premier until 1961. Besides his legal and political career, Frost took on many other obligations. He was a member of the of the Board of Governors of the University of Toronto and the first Chancellor of Trent University. He also held several directorships, including: the Bank of Montreal, Air Canada, Corporate Investors Ltd., Lever Brothers Ltd., KVP Company Ltd., John Deyell Ltd., Canada Life Assurance Company, Victoria and Grey Trust Co., Massey-Ferguson Ltd., and radio station CKLY. Frost was also keenly interested in history, primarily military history and the histories of Victoria, Peterborough and Haliburton Counties. He was the author of several books: "Fighting Men", "Forgotten Pathways of the Trent", "Pleasant Point Story: a History of Pleasant Point" and "The Records on Sam Hughes Set Straight." Leslie M. Frost died at Lindsay, Ontario 4 May 1973.

Cecil Grey Frost, younger brother of the Honourable Leslie M. Frost, was born in Orillia, Ontario, on August 27, 1897. His father, William Sword Frost, operated a jewellery and watchmaking business in Orillia, and as Mayor, introduced the concept of daylight saving time to the municipality. Cecil Grey Frost served overseas with the Canadian Machine Gun Corps during the World War I. When he returned to Canada, he attended Osgoode Hall Law School and graduated in 1921. He and his brother Leslie then opened a legal firm in Lindsay, Ontario, and both soon became active in local Conservative Politics. This led to Cecil's election in 1936 as Mayor of Lindsay, and in 1937 to the Presidency of the Ontario Conservative Association, As well, he organized and managed Earl Rowe's campaign in the provincial election of 1937. Thought of as a potential party leader himself, Cecil Grey Frost remained politically active until his sudden death 8 June 1947.

The Honourable Leslie Miscampbell Frost, lawyer and Premier of Ontario, was born in Orillia, Ontario on September 20, 1895, the son of William Sword Frost and Margaret Jane Barker. He was educated at the Orillia Public School and the Orillia High School. He later attended the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall. He served during World War I in France and Belgium, with the 20th Battalion, Queen's York Rangers, and was discharged with the rank of captain in 1918, after being severely wounded. Frost was called to the Bar in 1921. He was a member of the legal firm Frost, Inrig and Gorwill, among others, and was an honorary bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He married Gertrude Jane Carew (1894-1970), in 1926. They never had children. Leslie M. Frost had a long and successful political career. He was elected to the legislature of Ontario in 1937, and he was consistently re-elected at each election until his retirement in 1963. He was Treasurer of Ontario and Minister of Mines in both the George Drew and T.L. Kennedy administrations. In 1949, Frost was chosen leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, and was sworn in as Premier and Provincial Treasurer on May 4, 1949. He remained Provincial Treasurer until 1955 and Premier until 1961. Besides his legal and political career, Frost took on many other obligations. He was a member of the Board of Governors of the University of Toronto and the first Chancellor of Trent University. He also held several directorships, including: the Bank of Montreal, Air Canada, Corporate Investors Ltd., Lever Brothers Ltd., KVP Company Ltd., John Deyell Ltd., Canada Life Assurance Company, Victoria and Grey Trust Co., Massey-Ferguson Ltd., and radio station CKLY. Frost was also keenly interested in history, primarily military history and the histories of Victoria, Peterborough and Haliburton Counties. He was the author of several books: Fighting Men, Forgotten Pathways of the Trent, Pleasant Point Story: a History of Pleasant Point and The Records on Sam Hughes Set Straight. Leslie M. Frost died at Lindsay, Ontario 4 May 1973. Cecil Grey Frost, younger brother of the Honourable Leslie M. Frost, was born in Orillia, Ontario, on August 27, 1897. His father, William Sword Frost, operated a jewelry and watchmaking business in Orillia, and as Mayor, introduced the concept of daylight saving time to the municipality. Cecil Grey Frost served overseas with the Canadian Machine Gun Corps during the World War I. When he returned to Canada, he attended Osgoode Hall Law School and graduated in 1921. He and his brother Leslie then opened a legal firm in Lindsay, Ontario, and both soon became active in local Conservative Politics. This led to Cecil's election in 1936 as Mayor of Lindsay, and in 1937 to the Presidency of the Ontario Conservative Association, As well, he organized and managed Earl Rowe's campaign in the provincial election of 1937. Thought of as a potential party leader himself, Cecil Grey Frost remained politically active until his sudden death on 8 June 1947. Robert John “Jack” Beal (1919-1994) was Gertrude Jane Frost’s nephew. He was married to Eileen Beal; their son, Robert “Bob” Beal, is a journalist and historian.

The Friends of the Bata Library was established in 1978 as a support group for the Bata Library. It consisted of citizens who held regular evenings with guest speakers and whose membership fees contributed to donations to the library and archives at Trent University. The initial meeting was held May 23, 1978 with Professors Gordon Roper, R.D. Chambers, F.A. Hagar, Graham Cogley, Elwood Jones, Librarian John Wiseman, and Head Librarian Brian Heeney. They proposed that Michael Treadwell head the Friends of the Bata Library Steering Committee as chairman and in the summer of 1978 Brian Heeney and F.A. Hagar were to contact various colleges and universities in the U.S.A., Britain and Canada to find information about other Friends programs. By October 12, 1978 the formation of a Friends group at Trent was well under way. The committee outlined the purpose of the new group as fostering the role of the Library as the intellectual heart of the University and community which it served. The Friends would be helping to accomplish their purpose through their fees thus providing a special fund for the acquisitions of rare books and manuscripts by encouraging gifts and bequests of books and manuscripts from the wider community and by enriching the intellectual life of the University through their participation in the meetings of the Friends. The meetings took the form of informal lectures and seminars on subjects of general interest, while focusing on the Library's collections and archives. The committee solicited members by inviting people to become founding members and to come to the founding meeting of the new group. The founding meeting was held October 27, 1978 at 4:OO pm with the official opening of the Bata Library's new A.J.M. Smith Collection with Dr. Smith being the guest of honour and speaker. With diminishing attendance in the years leading up to 2011, a memorandum of agreement pertaining to the Friends’ endowed funds was signed on April 19, 2011 between Trent University as represented by the University Library and the Executive Committee of the Friends of Bata Library. Under the terms of the agreement, the Friends continues to support the library and archives through the purchase of rare and special materials.

Francis Frape was born December 10, 1898 in Kingston, Ontario. He was the son of May Ryan and Arthur Ernest Frape and had at least one brother, two years younger than her, also named Arther Ernest. Both Francis and his brother enlisted into the Canadian military during World War I. Francis served as a sergeant in both France and north Russia for the 16th Brigade when he was 20 years of age. His enlistment and involvement in WWI began a life long carrier within the Canadian military where he engaged in continuous military training. He was decorated with Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1919. In 1922 he married Lillian Mabel Robson (born December 2, 1903.) They had at least one child named Francis (Frank) Frape. In 1928 he was promoted to be Warrant Officer Class II and Company Sergeant Major Instructor in Kingston. In 1938 Francis was appointed to be Camp Sergeant-Major for the Cannaught Camp in Ontario and in the following year was awarded The Canadian Medal for Long Service and Good Conduct. By the end of his military carrier he reach the rank of Captain. In 1982 Lillian and Frank celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

Henry Fowlds was born in 1790 in Scotland and married in 1813 to Jane Marshall Steele. Together they had ten children (Eliza, John, James S., Robert H., Elizabeth, Henry M., Mary C., William J., Mary Anne, and Theresa) of which only five survived (James S., Elizabeth, Henry M., William J., and Theresa). The family came to North America in 1821, settling first in New York, and then in Hartford in 1833. In 1834, they crossed the border and settled in Prince Edward County, Upper Canada. The Fowld's family settled in Asphodel Township in 1836, and then moved on to Westwood, where they set up a saw mill in conjunction with Dr. John Gilchrist in what was to become the village of Keene. On September 27, 1851, Henry Fowlds purchased from the Honourable James Crooks the water rights, lands and buildings then known as Crooks' Rapids, and later as Hastings. The Fowlds built upon this base, expanding their original saw mill to a corporate busisness of saw mill, grist mill, general store and post office. The three Fowlds' brothers, James, Henry M. and William, set up a lumber and flour business under the name of Jas. L. Fowlds and Bros. This company was terminated with the death of James Fowlds in 1884. The Fowlds were quite active in Hastings, occupying the seat of reeve, and the office of postmaster. James S. (1818-1884) married Margaret MacGregor and they had nine children between the years of 1845 and 1860. Their seventh child, Frederick W. (1857-1930), married Elizabeth Sutherland and they had three children, Helen, Eric, and Donald. Eric and Donald were soldiers in World War I and Helen was a nurse in the same war. Helen married Gerald Marryat after the war and became a remarkable local historian of the Peterborough region.

Edith Fulton Fowke was born on April 30, 1913 in Lumsden, Saskatchewan of Irish parents. She studied at the University of Saskatchewan, taking her B.A. in 1933 and her M.A. in 1938. In 1938 she married Frank Fowke. She was editor of Western Teacher from 1937-1944, and associate editor of Magazine Digest from 1945-1949. In 1957 she began collecting songs and producing recordings for Folkway Records of New York, as well as writing and editing books of folksongs and folktales. She joined the English Department at York University in 1971. She was awarded her LL.D. at Brock University in 1974, and her D. Litt at Trent in 1974, was made a Fellow of the American Folklore Society in 1975, and became a member of the Order of Canada in 1977.

The Peterborough Fortnightly Club was encouraged, by F.M. de la Fosse (?-1945) the librarian at the Public Library, to meet during the winter months and discuss learned talks by fellow members. (Taken from: "Peterborough The Electric City." Burlington: Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce, 1987.)

The Honourable Eugene A. Forsey was a major figure in Canadian labour history, Eugene Forsey was author, professor, constitutional analyst and political commentator

Forsey was born in 1904 in Grand Bank, Newfoundland. He attended McGill University, and Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. In the 1930s, Forsey drafted the Regina Manifesto, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)'s founding declaration of policy, and ran for public office four times for the CCF. He served as a lecturer in economics and political science from 1929-1941 at McGill, and held the post of director of research for the Canadian Congress of Labour (known as the Canadian Labour Congress from 1956-1966) from 1942 to 1966. Forsey directed a special centennial project, 'a history of Canadian unions, 1812-1902', from 1966-1969, and served on a committee which founded Labour/Le Travail. Forsey was regarded as one of the foremost experts on the Canadian constitution and taught Canadian Government and Canadian labour history at Carleton University and the University of Waterloo. He was a member of Senate from 1970-1979, and was named to the Privy Council in 1985. Forsey received numerous honorary degrees, including one from Trent University in 1978, and was chancellor of Trent University from 1973-1977.

His books include How Canadians Govern Themselves (now in its sixth edition) and Trade Unions in Canada, 1812-1902. A complete list of Forsey's publications can be found here.

Forsey died on February 20, 1991.

Diane Forrest was born in 1955 in Mississauga and grew up in Lorne Park and Toronto. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 1977 with a 4-year arts degree. She worked primarily as a freelance writer in the magazine industry, winning three gold National Magazine Awards, three silvers and numerous honourable mentions, along with many other awards for her writing. Most of her work was in “service journalism,” providing information and education on a variety of issues, from how to pack a suitcase to land claims. Her most frequent clients were Maclean’s, Cottage Life, and Moneywise/Financial Post Magazine. She also wrote, edited, and contributed to a number of short books. In 2004, she switched to financial services, writing and editing in the marketing field. Forrest also wrote and produced a number of short plays for the Toronto Fringe Festival and the Alumnae Theatre Company, a women’s community theatre. At Alumnae she worked in programming, dramaturgy, marketing, training and development, and founded the Write Now playwriting event and the New Play Development Group.

David Forbes, born January 13, 1772, was a Colonel with the 78th Highlanders in the British Army. He joined the army as an ensign in 1793 and one year later he was promoted to Lieutenant. He fought in battles in the Netherlands, Africa, India and Malaysia. He was promoted to Captain in 1803, Major in 1811 and Lieutenant-Colonel in 1814. In 1817 he went on half pay and returned to Scotland, settling in Aberdeen. On January 10, 1837, he was promoted to Colonel, in 1838 made a C.B., and in 1846 promoted to Major General. He died on March 29, 1849. (Taken from: Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.)

Charles Foran was born in Toronto, Ontario but has lived in Ireland, New York, and China at various times. He was educated at St. Michaels College, University of Toronto and holds a Master's Degree from University College, Dublin. He is a novelist and non-fiction writer of international renown. He has been a regular contributor to Time, GQ, Saturday Night, Toronto Life, the Utne Reader, Canadian Geographic, Walrus, Globe and Mail, Rough Guide to World Music. His journalism pieces deal with sports, travel and literature. His novels include Sketches in Winter (1992), Kitchen Music (1994), The Last House of Ulster (1995), Butterfly Lovers (1997), The Story of My Life (So Far) (1998), House on Fire (2001), Carolan's Farewell (2005), Join the Revolution Comrade (2008), Mordecai: The Life and Times (2010). Foran won the Charles Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction for Mordecai in 2011. See also http://www.charlesforan.com.

Mr. and Mrs. T.M. Fletcher lived in Thornton, Ontario (Simcoe County). Mrs. Fletcher's [1st] husband was Frank Sanford. Sanford owned and operated a furniture factory in Fenelon Falls until the time it burned down (date unknown). It was never rebuilt. The Fletchers donated land for the Ivy Anglican Church in 1918 and at the 60th anniversary of the church, Mr. Fletcher wrote a history of the Fletchers, which was published in the Barrie Examiner in 1963.

Arthur Greig Fleming was a resident of Kirkaldy, Fifeshire, Scotland. He married Elizabeth Arnot in the early 1800's. They had at least two children, David and Sandford who emigrated to Canada in 1845. Sandford later became Sir Sandford Fleming, well known railway surveyor and construction engineer. In 1847, David Fleming was living in Toronto, Canada West. Arthur and Elizabeth travelled to Canada in 1847 after July. It is possible that they emigrated to Canada as well.