Albert Liborius Breithaupt was a businessman and public official born in Berlin (later Kitchener) Ontario November 3, 1870 to parents Philip Ludwig (Louis) Breithaupt and Catherine Hailer. He married Lydia Louise Anthes June 2, 1901. The couple had six children: Frederick Albert; Marie; Rudolph Anthes; Ruth Anna Catherine; Arthur Liborius and David.

Albert worked for his father's leather company, and also founded and developed three other Kitchener companies, founding one of the city's first rubber industries which became part of the Dominion Rubber Company, the Berlin Trunk and Bag Company, and co-founding the ladies wear firm Star Whitewear. Interested in community service, Breithaupt served as an alderman for several years, a member of the Kitchener high school board, a member of the Berlin Light Commission, and he taught in the Sunday school at Zion Evangelical Church. Interested in woodworking, he made many pieces of furniture for his Georgian Bay cottage. His last business interest being in sales work with a company he started, the Shoe Findings Company.

After Lydia's death in 1942, Albert married Gladys Eileen Baechler. Albert died in a boating accident on Georgian Bay on July 22, 1955. He was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener with Lydia.

Lester Paige Breckenridge was an engineer and inventor born in Meriden, Connecticut, on May 17, 1858. He received a Ph.B degree at Yale’s Sheffield Scientific School in 1881. From 1882 to 1891, Breckenridge was a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Lehigh University. He later taught at the Michigan Agricultural College from 1891 to 1893. Until 1909, Breckenridge was a Professor and Director of Engineering for the Experimental Station at the University of Illinois. From September 1, 1909, and onward, he was a professor at Sheffield Scientific School. In 1904, Breckenridge was also the engineer in charge of the boiler division of the United State Geological Survey fuel testing plant in St. Louis, Missouri. He was also an inventor, having created an automatic recording machine in 1901, as well as contriving and equipping dynamometers to cars in 1897 to 1899. Breckenridge was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Western Society of Engineers. He also wrote many articles in technical journals, reports, and bulletins.

Fiberglass fountain by Bruce Watson located outside of the southeast corner of the Mathematics & Computer Building.

Abraham Bray was born in England in 1818 to George and Ann (nee Preston) Bray. He immigrated to Canada in the early 1840's where he settled in Zorra Township and began to farm. By 1845 he married Sarah Jickling, also a British immigrant, and together they had nine children: George (b. 1845), Elizabeth (b. 1847), Robert (b. 1849), James (b. 1853), Mary Jane (b. 1855), John (b. 1858), William (b. 1860), Marie (b. 1862), Joseph (b. 1867).

The Bray family were early white settlers of what is now southern Ontario. Members of the family are the descendants of George Bray (1795-1846) who was born in England on December 11, 1795. He married Ann Preston (b. 1796) and the pair had 10 children: Jemima (b.1816-1866), Abraham (1818-1901), Isaac (1819-1837), Sarah (b. 1821), Rebecca (b. 1824), Rachel (b. 1827), Ruth (1832-1837), Hannah (b. 1834), Mary (b. 1839) and Jacob (1840-1920).

Eldest son Abraham immigrated to Canada in the early 1840's where he settled in Zorra Township and began to farm. By 1845 he had married Sarah, also a British immigrant, and the couple had nine children: George (b. 1845), Elizabeth (b. 1847), Robert (b. 1849), James (b. 1853), Mary Jane (b. 1855), John (b. 1858), William (b. 1860), Marie (b. 1862), Joseph (b. 1867).
Abraham's youngest sibling, Jacob, settled in the Listowel area and there married Jane Brown (b.?). Jacob and Jane had son George (1873-1937) who later married Florence Murray (1874-1959).

(George) Murray Bray (1905-1974), lawyer, was born January 12 1905 to Florence Murray Bray (1874-1959) and George Bray (1873-1937) both of Canada. Born in Perth, Murray and his parents later moved to 70 Margaret Ave. in Kitchener. Murray studied law in Toronto and in 1929 he was called to the bar. He began working at his father's law office of Sims, Bray, McIntosh and Schofield in Kitchener. In 1928 Murray married Isabel Treacy (1906-1986) daughter of William (1878-1953) and Francis Crawford Treacy (1875-1929). Murray and Isabel had two children, William George, called Bill (b. 1929) and Judith (b. 1933). The family of Murray Bray lived in the Westmount region, at 145 Union Blvd. and later at 54 Rusholme Ave. Murray died in 1974 and Isabel in 1986.

Moses E. Braendle was born October 23, 1862 in Wellesley township, Ontario to parents Johannes "John" Braendle, and Rosina Barbara Eberwein. He married Catharine Emelia Anthes (date unknown) and the couple had a son, Harold Anthes born July 17, 1893, in Woolwich Township. Moses' occupation is listed as teacher in the birth record of Harold. In 1910 he is listed as a bookkeeper in a furniture factory in Waterloo, later in 1921 he is a stock clerk also in Waterloo. Moses died in 1952 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener, Ontario with Catherine who died February 23, 1953.. Harold died in Florida, July 17, 1974.

Catharine [sometimes Catherine] Emelia Anthes was born April 30, 1864 to parents Jacob Anthes and Magdalena Stricker. She married Moses E. Braendle (date unknown) and the couple had a son, Harold Anthes born July 17, 1893, in Woolwich Township. Moses died in 1952 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener, Ontario. Catherine who died January 23, 1953. Son, Harold died in Florida, July 17, 1974.

Sue Bradnam was a photographer at the Kitchener-Waterloo Record in 1981.

Barrie Phillip Nichol, who often went by his lower-case initials and last name, with no spaces (bpNichol), was a Canadian poet born in Vancouver in 1944. He became widely known for his concrete poetry in the 1960s. Concrete, pattern, or shape poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance. The words are arranged in such a way as to depict their subject.

Nichol received his elementary teaching certificate from the University of British Columbia in 1963, but he only worked a brief stint as a teacher.
His most famous published work is probably The Martyrology, a long poem encompassing nine books in six volumes. In The Martyrology different ways of speaking testify to a journey through different ways of being.

Nichol also worked in a wide variety of other genres, including musical theatre, children's books, collage/assemblage, pamphlets, spoken word, computer texts, fiction, and television. Sadly, B.P. Nichol died due to complications following routine back surgery in September of 1988. Despite having such a brief lifespan, Nichol was highly prolific and produced a substantial volume of work.

James Boyd was born ca. 1910. He was made a Lieutenant with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1927. He became an orthodontist in Waterloo, Ontario. James Boyd married Mildred Eidt, widow of Dr. Thoman Burton Feick, sometime after Feick's death in 1956. James Boyd died sometime after 1965.

Evelyn Mae Boyd was an American-born author, professor of English and World War II veteran. Born June 3, 1893 in Oelwein, Iowa to Walter and Mae Ann (nee Lee) Boyd, she graduated from Grinnell College in 1918 with a bachelor of arts, followed by an MA from the University of Chicago and a PhD from Columbia University in English and comparative literature with a focus on medieval and Italian Renaissance literature.

Following graduate studies, Boyd taught briefly at the State Teachers College in DeKalb, Illinois before returning to Grinnell College in 1923 where she joined the faculty and remained until her retirement in 1958. Between 1926 and 1927 Boyd worked as an exchange teacher in Kobe, Japan later writing and publishing on Japanese customs. In 1942 she joined the America Red Cross as an assistant field director and hospital recreation worker. For her service, which included two years with the navy near the Panama Canal and two years with the army in northwest Europe, she was given a presidential citation in 1946. During her time with the Red Cross Boyd held evening classes for military personnel wanting to keep up with their studies. The experience resulted in the teaching of all-male classes of veterans at Grinnell College due to a shared understanding of war.
Boyd relocated to Waterloo, Ontario following her retirement from Grinelle College, where she taught first at Wilfred Laurier University and then at the University of Waterloo.

Boyd died in Waterloo on December 24, 1983 at the age of 90 and was buried alongside her family in Ackley, Iowa.

Emma Allen Bowlby Boyd was born August 17, 1862 and died January 25, 1897.

Joseph B. Bowman was born October 3, 1837, oldest child of Samuel B. Bauman and Elizabeth Bauman. He married Nancy Huber on December 25, 1866. He died from tuberculosis on November 3, 1871 and is buried in Blair, Ontario.

Isaiah Bowman was a distinguished academic in the field of geography. He taught at several universities in the United States of America before accepting a position in 1915 as the Director of the American Geographical Society. He remained in this role until 1935 when he accepted a new position as president of John Hopkins University. Bowman served as president until he retired in 1948. Throughout his career, Bowman also served as an advisor to the U.S. Department of State in various roles.

Bowman was known for his anti-Semitic and racist views. As the advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, Bowman supported accepting only low quotas of Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis into the United States. In addition, he was known to be reluctant to hire Jewish faculty and staff and John Hopkins University and placed a quota on the admission of students of Jewish descent.

Although Bowman was born in Waterloo, Ontario he moved to the United States with his family as a young child and his connection to the region is minimal. The University of Waterloo officially dedicated the Arts II building as the Isaiah Bowman Building of the Social Sciences on October 26, 1967. In 1974, the name was changed to the Isaiah Bowman Building for Environmental Studies. In 2008, the building was officially renamed Environment I (EV1). A picture of Bowman and a plaque from the dedication ceremony in 1967 remained in the lobby of the building until 2022.

Isaac L. Bowman was born to John B. Baumann and Nancy Baumann (nee Bechtel) near Freeport, Ontario on May 23, 1830.

He worked as a teacher in the public schools in Ontario. Around 1860-1861, Isaac was appointed inspector of public schools. He held this position until 1871. He then worked surveying land. He also served as the Treasurer of the Township of Waterloo.

Issac was a member of the United Brethren in Christ, of which body he was a local minister.

On December 25, 1862, he married Elizabeth Meyers (b. May 17, 1844) and together they had four sons. The family resided in Berlin, Ontario.

Isaac died of paralysis February 3, 1893.

Hervey Bowman was born on September 30, 1873.

Arthur Bowman was born on August 5, 1865.

He worked as a civil engineer and resided at Mahan, Pennsylvania.

Ward Hamilton Bowlby was a Canadian lawyer born October 4th, 1834 to Adam Bowlby and Elizabeth Sovereign Bowlby. Like his siblings, Ward went to school originally at Upper Canada College and eventually to Toronto University where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts in 1856 and a Masters of Arts in 1857. He obtained a Bachelor of Law in 1858 obtaining the first University gold medal in law awarded to Toronto University. In May of the same year he was admitted to the bar and moved to Berlin (now Kitchener). He founded the law firm Bowlby, Colquhoun and Clement with his brother-in-law E.P. Clement and F. Colquhoun. He would practice in this firm until 1903 when he retired from active practice. Bowlby was appointed King’s Council, as well as holding the positions of Crown Attorney and Clerk of the Peace of Waterloo County, a member of the Town and County Council, reeve of Berlin, and a member of the public school board.

Besides his law practice Bowlby also invested in many Canadian companies including Canadian Pacific and Merchant’s Bank. In 1861, at the age of 27, he married 22 year old Lissie Hespeler Bowlby (1839-1920), daughter of one of the founders of the Waterloo area, Jacob Hespeler. The couple lived in Jacob Hespeler’s now historic home from 1870-1877. The couple had one daughter, Annie Hespeler Bowlby Perley, who married an M.P. and who died in London, England after a sudden illness in 1910. Ward died in 1917 after a period of illness, and Lissie died in 1920.

Martha Esther Bowlby (nee Murphy) was born July 23, 1836 in Montreal, Quebec. She came to Berlin (now Kitchener) in 1854, where she married Dr. David Sovereign Bowlby in 1856. An active member of the community, Bowlby was the first secretary treasurer of the Kitchener-Waterloo Ladies' Hospital Auxiliary, was a member of the St. John's Anglican Church, and served at one time as the first regent of the Princes of Wales chapter of the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire. She died in 1925 after being badly burned in an accident at her home. Bowlby was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery alongside her husband, who died in Rome, Italy in 1904.

George Herbert Bowlby was born July 16, 1865 to David Sovereign Bowlby and Martha Esther Murphy Bowlby in Berlin (Kitchener), Ontario. Educated in Berlin at both the elementary and high school, he studied briefly at St. Jerome College before obtaining a medical degree at the Toronto University. After obtaining his degree he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London and also was a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. As a youth he was heavily involved in sports, playing soccer and cricket. At the onset of WWI he joined the Army Medical Corps of the Canadian Over-Seas Expeditionary Force, became a Captain and was appointed Assistant Director of Medical Services. In 1894 at the age of 28 he married 22 year old Blanche Alexandrine (Adine) Seagram (1871-1919), the daughter of Joseph Emm Seagram, founder of Seagram Distilleries.

In 1917 while serving in WWI, George was walking the ground of Bath military hospital, where he was working, and fell off a cliff. He was found dead at the bottom of the cliff and was cremated in Bath. Adine was overseas at the time as well, volunteering for the Red Cross. After the death of her husband, Adine stayed on with the Red Cross for another year until she was forced to return to Berlin to look after her ill father. On July 19th, 1919 Adine was riding in a car with her brother Capt. Tom Seagram and her niece. The car was involved in a collision with another vehicle and Adine died of the injuries she sustained.

Jacob Hoffman (1809-1878) married Veronica Eby (1817-1876) and lived in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario. Their oldest child, Isaac Hoffman (1835-1898) married Caroline Harlen[1] (1838-) ca. 1854. Two daughters (of their six living children) are represented in the fonds: Caroline M. Hoffman (1857-) and Emma Sivina Hoffman (1862-).

Caroline M. Hoffman married John D. Barnes of Providence Rhode Island (date of marriage unknown, ca. 1878?). They had one daughter, Lillie Caroline Barnes.[2] As of 1895[3] they were living in Providence, R.I. but sometime after that Caroline and Lillie returned to the Waterloo area.

Lillie Caroline Barnes married David Shannon Bowlby, K.C. (1873-1938) in 1904. They had two children, foster daughter Carolyn Barnes Bowlby, and son Shannon Bowlby. (Source: "David Shannon Bowlby, K.C.," WHS 26 (1938): 45-46 and Ezra E. Eby, Biographical History of Waterloo, 1895-1896, p. 802).

Carolyn Barnes Bowlby married Norman Davison (1877-) in 1920. They had two children, Peter (1927-) and Carolyn, known as Patti (b. ca. 1930).
Carolyn Davison married J.W. Carlisle.

Emma Sivina Hoffman (b. 1862), married Cyrus Schiedel of Waterloo in 1885. They had one son, Wilfrid H. Schiedel. (Source: Ezra E. Eby, Biographical History of Waterloo, 1895-1896, p. 802)

[1] Spelled variously in sources Herlan, Harlen, Harlan.
[2] Ezra Eby gives her name as Lillie, probably after her aunt Lillie Josephine Hoffman. However, the name used by the donor is "Lillian".
[3] Date from Ezra Eby.

David Sovereign Bowlby was born September 5th, 1826 to Adam Bowlby and Elizabeth Sovereign Bowlby. He was born on the family farm in Townsend, and, like his brothers began to be educated from an early age. He attended Upper Canada College, University of Toronto, Toronto School of Medicine and ultimately the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, graduating in 1853. In October of the same year he moved to Berlin (Kitchener) to temporarily fill in for his cousin Dr. J.W. Sovereign, and ended up staying on indefinitely. He also took on the role of County Jail surgeon, and coroner for many years. Besides his medical practice he was heavily involved in the community being a member of the village council, and on the Board of Trustees of Berlin High School as well as being warden and delegate to the synod for St. John’s Anglican Church. In 1856 David Sovereign married 18 year old Martha Esther Murphy (1837-1925) of Montreal and brought her to Berlin. Together they had five children: Janie Elizabeth Bowlby Clement in 1859, Emma Allen Bowlby Boyd in 1862, George Herbert Bowlby in 1855, Grace Bowlby Fennell in 1871, and David Shannon Bowlby in 1873.

In his later years David Sovereign suffered from bronchial troubles and died in 1903 while in Sicily on a trip to improve his breathing. Martha Esther Murphy lived for another 22 years in the family home in Berlin. Martha was extremely active in social and philanthropic organizations in Berlin including as a founding member of the Kitchener and Waterloo Ladies Hospital Auxiliary, organist of St. John’s Anglican Church, and first regent of the Princess of Wales chapter, Daughters of the Empire. Martha died unexpectedly at the age of 88 after her dressing gown caught fire from the gas heater in her home.

David Shannon Bowlby was born in Berlin (Kitchener) Ontario January 24, 1874. He attended the University of Toronto graduating with a B.A. in 1895, and an LL.B. in 1896. In 1893 he received his call to the Bar. He was appointed Crown Attorney for Waterloo County in 1917. Bowlby died October 11, 1938.

Alfred Bowlby (1820-1915) was born August 26, 1820 in New Jersey, USA, the eldest son of Adam and Elizabeth. He grew up largely on the family farm in Townsend and began receiving an education at home from an early age. He, along with his brothers, was taught to read from the New Testament and was taught multiplication by his mother. He began formal schooling at the age of nine and would eventually go on to study medicine at Columbia, graduating in 1845. After a failed attempt to continue his studies at University of Toronto due to religious difference, he studied another two years at McGill. In 1846 he finally opened his own practice in Waterford. In 1854 at the age of 34 Alfred married 22 year old Margaret (Mary) Chrysler (1831-1917) of Ancaster, Upper Canada. The two would go on to have eight children together and live in Townsend for the rest of their lives. Alfred continued to practice medicine until his death in 1915 at the age of 95. Margaret passed in 1917 at the age of 86.

Adam Bowlby (1792-1883) was born in 1792 to Richard Bowlby, and wife Elizabeth Hawksworth. Adam moved to Upper Canada in 1815 to live with his uncle Thomas Bowlby, the first Bowlby family member to come to Upper Canada and here Adam set up a gristmill. After a few years manufacturing tools and implements for farmers, Adam purchased a small parcel of 450 acres in Townsend around the time of his marriage, in 1819, to Elizabeth Sovereign of New Jersey. The farm was built up over a period of 21 years to approximately 3,000 acres. During this 21 year period Adam and Elizabeth had six children: Alfred Bowlby in 1820, William Bowlby in 1822, David Sovereign Bowlby in 1828, Mary Ursula Bowlby Powell in 1830, Ward Hamilton Bowlby, in 1834, John Wedgewood Bowlby in 1837. During this time Adam served as magistrate and district councilor, treasurer of the Masonic Lodge and Captain of the Waterford Company during the rebellions of 1837-38. Adam eventually left his farm to son William (the only farmer in the family) and settled in Berlin (Kitchener) where he died in 1883 at the age of 91.

Emma Allen Bowlby was born to David Sovereign Bowlby and Martha Esther Murphy Bowlby in Waterloo in 1862. When she was 21, in 1884, she married the 39 year old Gardiner Boyd. Gardiner Boyd was born in 1845 to Mossom Boyd and Caroline Dunsford of Bobcaygeon Ontario. The couple had three children, Gardiner Mossom (born 1885), Mary Olive (born 1886) and Frieda Kathleen (born 1888).
Emma died in 1897 and her husband in 1898 leaving her children to be raised by their maternal grandparents, and later by their father’s half brother.