Marie Elisabeth Fredericka Breithaupt was born on June 14,1829, in Allendorf an der Werra, Kurhessen, Germany, the second child of Liborius Breithaupt and Barbara Catharina Goetz. She died as a young child on May 13, 1834.

Martha Edna "Edna" Breithaupt was born July 26, 1885 in Berlin (later Kitchener) Ontario to parents Louis Jacob and Emma Devitt. She had seven siblings: Louise Evelyn; Emma Lillian; Rose Melvina; Louis Orville; William Walter; Catherine Olive and Paul Theodore. As a girl, Edna, as she was known, spent her summers at the Breithaupt family cottages, "Riverbend" on the Grand River near Bridgeport (now part of Kitchener), and "Bayview" on Georgian Bay in the Penetanguishene area, where her father had opened a second branch of his tannery business in 1885. The Breithaupts were devoted members of Zion Evangelical church in Kitchener and Edna was involved in many church activities during her formative years. After high school she attended the Ontario Ladies' College in Whitby, where she majored in art.

As an adult in Toronto, Edna founded the Art Students' League bringing art education to local children. She was an artist and patron of the arts throughout her life purchasing Giant’s Tomb Island, with the intention of establishing an artist’s colony; she even has a namesake island, "Aunt Edna’s Island" on Georgian Bay. In the 1940s, Edna established Wakunda Lodge at Sawlog Bay in the 1940s where she ran an art school with students staying for weeks at a time. She was also instrumental in forming the Kitchener-Waterloo Centre of Community Arts. Edna died April 13, 1963 and was interred in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener.

Paul Theodore Breithaupt was born September 9, 1903 in Berlin (later Kitchener) Ontario to parents Louis Jacob and Emma Alvarene Devitt. Paul joined his sister, Edna, in active support of the fine arts, including the Grange Studios and the Art Students' League in Toronto during the early 1930's. He married Margaret Jean Alexander July 17, 1937 and the couple had three children: Paul Alexander; Emmy; E.A. Kirby. They lived in Pickering, Ontario and later Guildwood Village, Scarborough, the residential community his sister Rosa and her husband Spencer Clark were involved in creating that was adjacent to their arts community, Guild of All Arts.

Paul died in 1961 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener with his wife who died in 1969.

Philip Ludwig (Louis) Beithaupt was born in Allendorf an der Werra, Kurhessen, Germany on November 8, 1827 to parents Liborius Breithaupt and Barbara Catharina Goetz. The family moved to Buffalo, N.Y. in 1843, where his father owned a sheep skin processing factory. After the death of Liborius in 1851, Louis, as he was known, continued his father's business and spent time working as a carpenter. On a visit to Berlin, Ontario he met Catherine Hailer, to whom he was married February 8, 1853. Together Louis and Catherine had ten children, seven of whom survived to adulthood, and some of whom played an instrumental role in the growth and development of what is today Kitchener, Ontario.

The family lived in Buffalo until relocating to Berlin in 1861, where Philip established a leather business followed by the establishment of a tannery. He became one of the leading businessmen in Berlin, serving as Mayor from 1879 until his death in1880. He was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener.

Philip William was born December 16, 1898 in New York City, New York to parents William Henry Breithaupt and Martha Cunningham Murphy.

Rudolph Anthes "Dolph" Breithaupt was born in Berlin (later Kitchener) Ontario October 21, 1906 to parents Albert Liborius and Lydia Louisa Anthes. He became a Major in the Canadian military a member of the Scots Fusiliers of Canada receiving the Order of the British Empire. He married Marion Elizabeth Roos on August 24, 1928. Dolph died March 21, 1960 and was interred in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener.

Sara Caskey was born March 2, 1895 in Youngstown, Ohio to parents Herbert C. Caskey and Mary McElwey. She married Louis Orville Breithaupt of Kitchener on November 27, 1919 in Toronto. The couple had four children: Mary Scott; Louis Paul; Sara (Sally) Caroline and Herbert Caskey. Sara died in Kitchener February 14, 1989 and is buried with her husband in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener.

William Henry Breithaupt was an engineer born in Buffalo, New York January 25, 1857 to Philip Louis (Ludwig) and Catherine Hailer. The family moved to Berlin (later Kitchener) Ontario in 1861. He attended Berlin Collegiate Institute in Kitchener, Ontario, Commercial School in Toronto and then North Western College, Naperville, Illinois. He entered Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, New York in September of 1877. He worked in construction on the New York, West Shore and Buffalo railroad August 1881, working mainly on the West Point tunnel. in January 1883 he was appointed bridge inspector for the Pennsylvania railroad company and in October of the same year assistant engineer for C. Shaler Smith of St. Louis, Missouri. In 1886 he had his own company Breithaupt & Allen, civil engineer based in Kansas City, Missouri.

William married Martha Cunningham Murphy February 1, 1898 in Montreal, Quebec. The couple had three children: Philip W,; Margaret Catharine and Martha Elizabeth. In 1907 William was in a partnership with E.H. Keating in Toronto, Ontario. The couple moved to Berlin, Ontario. William was an entrepreneur and professional engineer, and his diaries contain notes on town planning in Kitchener, environmental protection of the Grand River watershed and early local public works projects such as public transportation, the Berlin and Waterloo Railway, the Bridgeport Line, and also water and power supplies. The history of the Berlin Gas Works is documented in the diaries and also in correspondence with his brother, Ezra Carl, also an engineer, who died in 1897 in an explosion at the gas works. William also served as President of the Waterloo Historical Society.

William died January 27, 1944 due to complications from a fall at home, and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener. His wife, Martha died in 1950 and was buried with William.

William Walter Breithaupt was born in Berlin (later Kitchener), Ontario June 7, 1894 to parents Louis Jacob and Emma Alvarene Devitt. He received his education at the Kitchener Collegiate Institute, and attended both Northwestern College, Naperville, Illinois and the University of Toronto. He worked at the Breithaupt Leather company, the family business. William served in World War I as a lieutenant in the Infantry in Spring of 1916. He served in Canada in various capacities before heading to England for further training in 1918 where he was on Armistice Day. He returned to Canada where he was honourably discharged in May of 1919.

William Walter married Gertrude Irene Hughes of Toronto on December 12, 1919 in Toronto. The couple lived in Kitchener, and had two children. A son, William Ransom was born August 7, 1920. William Ransom served in World War II as a flying officer in the 239th Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force. He was shot down on September 13, 1944 near Cologne, Germany, did not survive and is buried in Rheinberg, Germany War Graves. A second son, Norman Hughes was born December 31, 1924 in Kitchener.

Gertrude died April 10, 1954 and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener. William Walter died in Scarborough, Ontario on January 7, 1977 and was buried with Gertrude.

ca. 1865: Civil War veteran David Francis Bremner (1839-1922) opened a bakery in Cairo, Illinois. David moved the bakery to Chicago, Illinois sometime before 1871.

1889-1890: The American Biscuit & Manufacturing Company was formed by attorney Adolphus Green through the amalgamation of 40 Midwestern bakeries including the Bremner bakery in Chicago, Illinois. The new company was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and David Bremner served as its President.

1898: The American Biscuit & Manufacturing Company merged with the New York Biscuit Company and the United States Baking Company to form the National Biscuit Company. The new company was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and Adolphus Green served as its President.

1902: The original Bremner Butter Wafer was created.

1905: Bremner Brothers Biscuits Company established by David Bremner's sons. This company produced the Bremner Brothers Butter Wafer, the predecessor to Bremner Wafers. At some point, the company was renamed the Bremner Biscuit Company.

1984: Bremner Biscuit Company moved to Denver, Colorado.

1999: Bremner Biscuit Company was acquired by Dare Foods Limited.

2011: The Bremner Biscuit Company plant in Denver, Colorado closed. The production of water crackers was moved to Dare Foods Limited's plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The production of Bremner Wafers was outsourced to Venus Wafers in Hingham, Massachusetts.

Lieutenant General Lewis H. Brereton was Commander of the Far East Air Force, the Philippines, at the beginning of World War II.

Eric Breugst was an academic advisor with the Arts Undergraduate Office at the University of Waterloo. Born in Fergus, Ontario Breugst obtained a B.A. a the University of Waterloo in 1989 and an M.A. and B.Ed. in Scotland in 1993. He retired from his role as Manager of Academic Advising at Waterloo in 2020 to focus on travelling. Breugst died while in England on August 12, 2024.

Ellen Roselia "Rosy" Cook was born June 5, 1849 in Waterloo Township, now in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario, to James and Elizabeth Cook. She married Ephraim K. Bricker (1848-1925) on October 15, 1868. Rosie Bricker died January 1, 1929 in Kitchener, Ontario.

Leonard Walter Brockington was born in Cardiff, Wales, April 6, 1888 and died in Toronto on Deptember 15, 1966. He had a long and multifaceted career, perhaps best known as the first Chairman of the CBC from 1936-1939. He served as Special Assistant to Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King from 1939-1942.
See: Babe, Robert E., "Leonard Walter Brockington" (2008) in The Canadian Encyclopedia of Biography: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/leonard-walter-brockington

Matt Broman was born February 2, 1895 in Sweden. He became a landscape architect, working in and around Hamilton, Ontario. In the late 1930's, he was Superintendent of Arboriculture at the Niagara Parks Commission and was working at that time with T.B. McQuesten on designing the Royal Botanical Gardens. Matt Broman Park in Hamilton is named in his honour. He died in 1989.

Doris Lillian Brown (nee Harrison) was an Executive Director of the Young Women's Christian Association of Kitchener-Waterloo. Born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Brown studied liberal arts at the University of King's College in Halifax, graduating in 1941.

Brown's affiliation with the Y began in 1946 when she was hired as a program secretary at the Y in Halifax. While there she worked jointly with Missions to Seamen to entertain ship crew coming into the city and with the Y travellers aid program organizing English classes for new Canadians. She left Halifax in 1952 to work for a year as Executive Director in Galt and then in Toronto as membership secretary. Brown joined the YWCA of KW in 1955 as Executive Director taking responsibility for 15 members of staff and more than 150 volunteers.

Brown died in Ottawa on May 29, 2003. She was predeceased by her husband Albert Reed Brown. The couple married in 1959 and together raised a daughter.

Irene Brown was born Irene Coombs on Feb. 10, 1920 in Huddersfield in Yorkshire, England. Her youth was spent travelling with her theatrical parents. She attended Longley Hall School and after the death of her mother moved to Blackpool with her father and step-mother. At the onset of WWII she began nursing training at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport and at Blackpool Victoria Hospital. She worked in the Civil Nursing Reserve and was assigned to the Kirkham Emergency Hospital. She met and married Edward Brown and had three children. Irene and Edward Brown and their children emigrated to Canada in 1956.

Mayor of Kitchener, Ontario, 1946-1947.

The Y.M.C.A. chorus of which R. J. Brown was a member, was founded in the mid-1930s by Don McLaren. It was formed with the support of the Y.M.C.A. quartette which had been established some years earlier. The chorus was disbanded during World War II when many of the chorus members served in the armed forces. Moreover, in 1941 Don McLaren moved overseas to become a representative of the Y. M.C.A. in England.

The first year of this chorus was 1935 and as it started to grow and become more proficient, rehearsals came to be held twice a week instead of once a week. Later on a female section was added to the chorus. This included five girls and a female pianist, Miss Dorothy Schweitzer, who replaced the previous pianist, Freddie Oliver, who had moved to Toronto. The Y.M.C.A. Chorus broadcast over C.F.R.B., Toronto in both 1938 and 1939 for J. M. Schneider Ltd. The broadcasts were carried out from the Y.M.C.A. gymnasium on the corner of Queen and Weber Street in Kitchener.

Dr. Steven Brown was the nephew of Ross Dixon.

Thomas Austen Brown was the son of a drawing-master. He was a student of the Royal Scottish Academy School, and soon caught the attention of the critics at the exhibitions. His paintings, The Strawberry Harvest (1884), 'Love Lightens Toil' (1885), 'Hark! The Cuckoo' (1886) and 'Playmates' (R.A 1886) were scenes from country life, and were noted for their vibrant colours and sentimentality. As a result of his work at Cambuskenneth, Brown became closely associated with the Glasgow movement, working in both oil and watercolour. As a result, he also shared their early success in London and on the Continent. Brown later lived in the north of France, where he continued to paint in watercolour, and completed much of his later work. Brown was a successful artist, who won several first-class medals at print exhibitions in Munich, Dresden, Barcelona and Budapest (1861-1911).

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (nee Moulton-Barrett) was a British poet and activist of the Victorian period. Known for her prolific output, she was one of the leading poets of her time and was a contender for Poet Laureate. She was also a campaigner for the abolition of slavery and reform in child labour laws.

Hannah Maria Cook was born January 1, 1837 in Waterloo Township, now in the Region Of Waterloo, Ontario, to James and Elizabeth Cook. She married John A. Brubacher (1844-1837) on October 15, 1872. Hannah Brubacher died October 13, 1921.

Hattie A. Bruce was born in 1857 in or near Guelph, Ontario to George A. Bruce and Margaret Keith. She lived in Kitchener, Ontario, and supported herself independently, remaining unmarried until her death in 1930.

J. Fraser Bryce was born in Dundas, Ontario in 1852. He operated as a Toronto-based photographer between 1877 and 1909, working and travelling in the United States for stretches during this period.

Miss Oktoberfest 1985.

Miss Oktoberfest 1992.

Budds Department Store was a family-owned business that first opened in Kitchener, Ontario in 1926. Four brothers from Saint John, New Brunswick, Lou, Jack, Mort, and Nat Budd purchased the Davis Economical Store at 227 King St. W. in Downtown Kitchener, reopening the doors shortly after as Budds Department Store. In 1931 the brothers opened a second location in Guelph. In 1933 the Kitchener store moved to a larger location to accommodate their growing business, and in 1937 a third location opened in Simcoe, turning their family business into a chain. Nat Budd's sons Howie and Stan got involved in the business in the 1960s, and later Howie’s son Jeff joined the business, taking over operations management and advertising in 1997. In 2015 the Budd family announced that all three locations would be shutting down due to Howie and Stan's wish to retire. In early January 2016 the Kitchener and Guelph locations closed their doors, and the Simcoe location followed within a month. Budds Department Store was just shy of its 90th anniversary.