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Mercer, Ruby
Person · 1906-1999

Ruby Mercer (1906-1999) was an American-born Canadian writer, broadcaster, and soprano. She made her debut in 1936 as a member of the Metropolitan Opera, portraying Nedda in Pagliacci. Marriage to Geza Por brought Mercer to Toronto in 1958. She founded the periodical Opera Canada, which she edited from 1960 to 1990, as well as the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus, serving as its first president. Mercer was host of CBC Radio's weekly shows Opera Time from 1962 to 1979 and Opera in Stereo from 1979 to 1984. She became a member of the Order of Canada in 1995.

Miller, John
Person · 1817-1904

John Miller (1817-1904), born in Scotland, was a farmer and politician in Pickering Township, Ontario, near Brougham. He immigrated to Upper Canada in 1835. By the 1860s, Miller was one of North America’s most successful Clydesdale horses and Shorthorn cattle breeders, importers, exhibitors, judges, and marketers. John Miller and Sons, run by John and several of his sons, including William (d. 1886), Robert (1857-1935), and John Jr., also imported and bred Berkshire and Yorkshire pigs and Shropshire, Leicester and Cotswold sheep. Other farmers in Pickering Township, including James Ironside Davidson (1818-1902) and John Dryden (1840-1909), often made purchases in conjunction with John Miller and Sons, including from the famous Scottish breeder Amos Cruickshank. Their families were also connected, with Davidson’s daughter Mary marrying William Miller (d. 1886), and William and Mary’s daughter Margaret marrying Dryden’s son, William Arthur Dryden.

Miller served on his local township and county councils from the 1860s through to the 1890s. The Miller farm, called Thistle Ha’, was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1973 and a Province of Ontario Heritage Property in 1977.

Moggridge, John Hodder
Person · 1771-1834

John Hodder Moggridge (1771-1834) was born into a prosperous Bradford upon Avon family who were involved in the textiles industry. A leading Unitarian and something of a radical among industrialists, he became a member of the landed gentry in 1803, living in Dymock, Gloucestershire, where he had inherited an estate following the death of his father. He served as Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1809. In 1812, he moved to South Wales – where he lived for the rest of his life – and used his considerable wealth to set up “model” communities, founding the towns of Blackwood and Ynysddu in Monmouthshire to provide better living conditions for poor workers [From luciusbooks].

Mojica, Monique
Person · 19??-

Mojica is of Guna and Rappahannock ancestry.

Montgomery, Lucy Maud
Person · 1874-1942

Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942), perhaps best known for her 1908 book Anne of Green Gables, was, in her own words, “born – praise to the gods! – in Prince Edward Island, the colourful little land of ruby and emerald sapphire.” (Ontario Library Review, February 1929). The daughter of Hugh John Montgomery (1841-1900) and Clara Woolner Macneill (1853-1876), Montgomery – known as Maud by her family and friends – was born in Clifton (now New London), PEI. She was raised in Cavendish, PEI by her material grandparents, Alexander Marquis Macneill (1820-1898) and Lucy Ann Woolner (1824-1911), after her mother died of tuberculosis and her father moved to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

In 1894, Montgomery obtained a teaching certificate from Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown and taught for a year before taking English literature courses at Dalhousie University in Halifax. During this time, she began publishing essays, short stories, and poetry in various North American periodicals and newspapers. In 1898, after teaching school for two more years, Montgomery’s grandfather died, and she returned to Cavendish to care for her widowed grandmother.

Montgomery continued to write while in Cavendish, and in 1905 she completed her first and most famous novel, Anne of Green Gables. Her manuscript was rejected by several publishers before it was finally accepted for publication by the Page Company of Boston, Massachusetts in 1908. An immediate best-seller, Anne of Green Gables marked the beginning of Montgomery's successful career as a writer. Montgomery went on to write twenty-three additional books, including Anne of Avonlea (1909), Kilmeny of the Orchard (1910), The Story Girl (1911), Chronicles of Avonlea (1912), The Golden Road (1913), Anne of the Island (1915), Anne's House of Dreams (1917), Rainbow Valley (1919), Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920), Rilla of Ingleside (1921), Emily of New Moon (1923), Emily Climbs (1925), The Blue Castle (1926), Emily's Quest (1927), Magic for Marigold (1929), A Tangled Web (1931), Pat of Silver Bush (1933), Mistress Pat (1935), Anne of Windy Poplars (1936), Jane of Lantern Hill (1937), and Anne of Ingleside (1939). A number of short stories, poems, and novels written by Montgomery were published after her death, including The Blythes Are Quoted (2009).

In 1911, shortly after her grandmother’s death, Montgomery married Rev. Ewen Macdonald (1870-1943), a Presbyterian minister. After honeymooning in England and Scotland, Maud and Ewen moved to Leaskdale, Ontario, where Ewen ministered. They had three children: Chester Cameron Macdonald (1912-1963), Hugh Alexander Macdonald (stillborn, 1914), and Dr. Ewan Stuart Macdonald (1915-1982). Besides being a mother and acting as a minister’s wife, Montgomery continued to write profusely, including as a diarist. In 1923, Montgomery became the first Canadian woman to join the Royal Society of Arts. The family moved to Norval (now Halton Hills), Ontario in 1926. When Ewan retired in 1935, Maud and Ewan moved to Toronto. That same year, Montgomery became a member of the Literary and Artistic Institute of France and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Montgomery died on April 24, 1942, in Toronto. She is buried in Cavendish, PEI.

Morse, Barry
Person · 1918-2008

Herbert Morse, who later changed his name to become known professionally as Barry Morse, was born on June 10, 1918, in the East End of London, England. Although he had dropped out of school, the 15-year-old auditioned for and obtained a scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). One of his audition pieces was an excerpt from George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan. Shaw was, in fact, a benefactor of RADA and occasionally dropped by to visit the students and teach. Morse thrived under Shaw's periodic tutelage and immersed himself in all of Shaw's works. Indeed, over the course of his career, Morse performed in all of Shaw's plays and directed many of them. Upon his graduation from RADA, Morse distinguished himself in radio, winning the BBC's Radio Award which led to several prominent roles in radio drama. He also began making a name for himself in live theatre, notably in several West End productions, including Crisis in Heaven directed by John Gielgud in 1944.

Morse performed in many repertory theatres, and it was at one in January of 1939 in Peterborough that he met actress Dorothy Anna "Sydney" Sturgess. They were married in March of that year and had two children Melanie Virginia Sydney Morse MacQuarrie (born 1945) and Hayward Morse (born 1947). The family came to Canada in 1951 and settled in Montreal, where both parents continued their performing arts careers. Almost immediately on coming to Canada, Morse worked in live radio with appearances on CBC television soon after. Around 1953 (when Morse obtained his Canadian citizenship), the family relocated to Toronto where he became involved with Crest Theatre, which in its early days ran a series of fund-raising performances in aid of the newly established Actors' Fund of Canada (AFC). Perhaps not coincidentally, it was at this time that he along with four other actors (Jane Mallett, Barbara Hamilton, Donald Davis, and William Needles) each contributed a symbolic $1 to establish the AFC, an organization "designed to help anyone, anywhere, who has ever been engaged in any branch of the entertainment industry," according to the AFC's history.

Perhaps Morse's most recognizable role was that of Police Lieutenant Philip Gerard in the American TV series The Fugitive. The show ran for four seasons (120 episodes total) and was nominated for 5 Emmy Awards. It won in the category of Outsanding Dramatic Series in its final season (1966).

Morse's enthusiasm for Shaw led him to the Shaw Festival as both actor and its second artistic director. During his brief tenure in 1966 at the struggling new festival, he brought it to international attention and sold-out performances. In 1976, he was a founding member alongside Gordon Pinsent, Kate Reid, Amelia Hall, George Luscombe and others of Theatre Compact, an independent theatre in Toronto with an adventurous repertoire. Over the two years of its existence the company mounted plays by August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov, John Murrell, Alan Richardson, and Michael Brodribb.

Over Morse's seven-decade acting and directing career in radio, TV, film, and on stage, he performed more than 3,000 roles. Morse, predeceased by his wife, died in England on February 2, 2008.

Moses, Daniel David
Person · 1952-2020

Moses was raised on a farm on the Six Nations of the Grand River near Brantford, Ontario.

Moyer Goodall, Helen Joan
Person · 1938-2014

Helen Joan Moyer Goodall was born on February 2, 1938, and passed away on April 17, 2014 in the Kitchener Waterloo Municipality, Ontario. Helen is buried at McKee Cemetery, Craigsholme, Dufferin County, Ontario.