Dr. Royal Alexander Brink (1897-1984) was born in Oxford County, Ontario, the son of Royal Wilson Brink (1855-1945) and Elizabeth Ann Cuthbert (1855-1909). He was a graduate of the Ontario Agricultural College (now part of the University of Guelph) in 1919. In 1922 he married Edith Margaret Whitelaw (1896-1962), also an Oxford County, Ontario native, the daughter of Andrew Oscar Whitelaw (1867-1931) and Jean Alexandra Gunn (1869-1934). Edith had graduated from the Macdonald Institute, then part of the Ontario Agricultural College. Appointed to the faculty of the Department of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin at Maddison in 1922, Dr. Brink became a major contributor to the field of genetics and to the improvement of major crop plants.
Charles Palmer was an actor in Great Britain before coming to Canada. Lillian Graham was an actress known for her film acting is known for Love at First Sight (1977), The Pit (1981), and Agnes of God (1985). Palmer and Graham met at the Express Film Agency in London, England. In 1937 they married and immigrated to Vancouver, Canada where Charles Palmer served as a Royal Canadian Army Services Corps captain at a supply station in Dawson Creek. In 1946, they moved to Toronto to focus on their performing careers.
Charles Palmer was born in Darlington, England, and died in 1978. He performed in many stage productions, served with the Earle Grey Company for nine years, toured with the Canadian Players for two years, and performed at the Shaw Festival, the Charlottetown Festival, and most of the Toronto theatres. He had many television and film roles, did many voice-overs for radio productions and many television commercials including the “Mr. Christie, you make good cookies” advertising campaign.
Duncan Christie and his wife May Johnston of Clarkmannon, Scotland, immigrated to Oxford Township in 1817.
The Clan Leslie claim descends from the Hungarian noble, Bartholf, who obtained the barony of Lesselyn in the 11th century. His son, Malcolm, was the first to take the name from the lands in Aberdeenshire, Angus, Fife, Mar, and the Mearns. The clan chiefs eventually became the Earls of Rothes and Leven. The Clan Leslie includes the family names of Abernathy, Carney, Laing, and More.
Lieutenant Colonel John Davidson (1850-1926) of Sunnyside, Guelph (16 Arthur Street) was the son of Charles Davidson (1816-1898) and Jeannie Kennedy (1823-1908). Educated at the Guelph Grammer School and Rockwood Academy, Davidson became an agent in the Wellington Mutual Fire Insurance Company, who was managed by his father. He took over as manager after his father’s death in 1898. In the 1880s, Davidson joined Guelph’s 16th Battery as a gunner, taking command of the Battery from 1890 to 1900 and later of the 1st Brigade of Field Artillery, commanding both the 11th and 16th Batteries. He married Grace Davidson (1854-1925) of Hamilton.
John’s parents, who were married in Canada in 1847, were both born in Scotland. Charles was from Aryshire, Scotland and came to Canada in 1841. Jeannie Kennedy, the daughter of William Kennedy (1783-1874), a stone mason, and Elizabeth Spence (1783-1861), was from Roxburghshire, Scotland. The Kennedy family immigrated to Canada in 1833 and lived first near Kingston before settling on a farm (Spence Bank) on Elora Road near Guelph. The painter David Johnson Kennedy (1817-1898) was a son of William and Elizabeth and brother to Jeannie.
Sunnyside (16 Arthur Street, Guelph) was designed and built in 1854 by William Kennedy as a wedding gift for Charles and Jeannie. The house remained in the Davidson family until 1977.
The Dougall family emigrated from Kippen, Scotland in May 1844 to Usborne Township, Huron County, Ontario.
Alexander Dunbar and Elizabeth Dolmage were Irish immigrants from Templemore, County Tipperary. They settled in Rockwood, Eramosa Township, Wellington County, Ontario in 1832.
Howard Burlington Grubb (1881-1965) was born in York, England, in 1881. He obtained his B.S.A. from the Cornell School of Landscape Architecture before returning to England in 1908 to work for T. H. Mawson as an apprentice. He married another successful young landscape architect, Lorrie Alfreda Dunington (1877-1945), whose name he adopted. They emigrated to Canada in 1911.
The Dunington-Grubbs established a practice that soon became highly successful, especially after founding a much-needed nursery to provide ornamental plant material at Sheridan, Ontario, called Sheridan Nurseries. The hiring of Sven Herman Stensson from England to operate Sheridan Nurseries resulted in a profitable relationship between the two families. The Dunington-Grubbs and, later, the firm of Dunington-Grubb and Stensson, were responsible for designing both private and public gardens. These included municipal contracts, such as the 1914 plans for the City of Brantford and other urban projects for churches, educational institutions, apartments, clubs, parks, factories, and public buildings.
Working largely in the greater Toronto area, Dunington-Grubb and Stensson was also awarded projects as far afield as the University of Calgary and the Manitoba Parliament Buildings. Chief among the urban public works represented in the Guelph holdings are the plans for the Oakes Garden Theatre and Rainbow Bridge Gardens in Niagara Falls, Gage Park and the McMaster University Entrance Park in Hamilton, and the Workman's Compensation Board grounds and the central boulevard of University Avenue in Toronto. During the 1950s, commercial firms such as the Ford Assembly Plant at Trafalgar, and the Imperial Oil Company in Toronto, engaged the services of Dunington-Grubb and are also represented by planting plans.
Active until shortly before his death in 1965, H.B. Dunington-Grubb was a founding member of the CSLA, its president in 1934-35 and 1945 (carrying on his late wife's term of office), and its secretary in 1953. He lectured for over 25 years at the University of Toronto, contributed many articles to scholarly journals, and was active in several professional organizations including the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto. He was the recipient of numerous awards and honourary positions, including the first Allied Arts Medal from the Royal Canadian Architectural Institute ever awarded to a landscape architect. While his imaginative and original garden designs of inner city and suburban estates remain a monument to his artistry, his innovations in the field of urban improvement and environmental design are his most significant contribution to the profession. He became a fellow of the CLSA in 1964. He died on 26 February 1965, aged 84.
An associate in most of her husband's work, Lorrie Alfreda Dunington-Grubb (1877-1945) was an active partner in their firm. Born in 1877 in England, she attended Swanley College of Horticulture in Surrey and had founded her own private practice before her marriage in 1911. Drawn to landscape architecture by her love of floral design, she published in both English and Canadian journals and was a founding member of the Canadian Society for Landscape Architects (CSLA) in 1934 and its president in 1944. She died in January 1945.
William Fasken (1782-1849) and Margaret Mitchell (1788-1866) were married in Aberdeenshire, Scotland on May 22, 1813, and came to Canada in 1837, settling in Nichol Township, Wellington County. They had at least eleven children:
• Christina (1815-1888), married George Grey (1808-1894) and lived in Jasper County, Missouri
• John (1816-1900), married Christina Elizabeth Wilson (1837-1920) and lived in Nichol Township
• William Jr (1818-1843), lived in Nichol Township
• Margaret (1819-1901), married Samuel Card (1816-1855) and lived in Nichol Township
• Robert (1820-1896), married Isabella Milne (1832-1908) and lived in Nichol Township
• George (1821-1883), married Sarah Mary Ann Carder (1825-1896) and lived in Pilkington Township, Wellington County
• Isabell (1823-1907), married Duncan McCrae (1818-1913) and lived in Gosfield South Township, Essex County.
• Marion (1824-1905), married Alexander McDonald (1818-1883) and lived in Wellington County
• Jean (1826-1913), married John Gordon (d.1913) and lived near Harriston, Wellington County
• Alexander (1827-1891), married Amanda Elizabeth Johnson (1838-1922) and lived in Jasper County, Missouri
• James (1833-1881), married Elmira M. Willis (1842-1917) and lived in Jasper County, Missouri
Roy Franklin Fleming (1878-1958) was born in Derby Township, Grey County. His father, Charles Fleming (1840-1910), had emigrated from Logeirait, Scotland in 1843 with his parents, Alexander and Jean (Stewart) Fleming, and his seven siblings, including James Fleming (1840-1910). The family settled in Derby Township, Grey County. The family settled first in Vaughan Township, York County, where Jean “Jennie” Fleming (1843-1942) was born, and in 1850 moved to the newly opened Derby Township, Grey County where they cleared land around the village of Kilsyth.
In 1903, James Fleming (1830-1910) was a successful farmer in Derby, postmaster in Kilsyth, and owned a music store in Owen Sound. His daughter, Minerva "Minnie" Fleming (1868-1953), was a music teacher in Owen Sound. Jennie Fleming (1843-1942) was a long-time resident of Owen Sound active in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Church of the Disciples of Christ. Roy Franklin Fleming was a teacher on Garden Island, near Kingston. A graduate of the Kingston Art School and later the New York School of Art, Roy became an art educator In Ottawa, a photographer, an art critic, a historian, a writer, and an accomplished watercolour artist.