Maria Matilda Thompson was born in Elzevir Township, Hastings County, Ontario on 31 July 1860, the child of Charles Thompson and Alice (formerly Brown). She married Samuel Rollins, a farmer, in Madoc, Ontario on 6 November 1883. She died in Vermilion, Alberta on 12 July 1956 and was buried in Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan.
Molly Bramley was a photographer based in Ivanhoe, Ontario. She was born Mary Elizabeth Roushorne in Bala, Ontario. She married Stanley Bramley in Bala on 30 September 1950 and died in Ottawa on 15 April 1990.
Perla Mildred Pidgeon was born in Saskatchewan in 1920. She worked as a teacher in eastern Ontario and died in Peterborough, Ontario in 2018.
Quinte Secondary School was located at 45 College Street West, Belleville, Ontario. It was closed in 2018.
Belleville Chamber of Commerce
The Belleville Chamber of Commerce came to being in 1864 as the Belleville Board of Trade for Hastings County and initially every business in the county was obliged to join. In 1920, the Board of Trade changed its name to the Belleville Chamber of Commerce. Chambers of Commerce were eventually established in Quinte West, Madoc, and Tweed as they branched off from the Belleville unit.
There have been five locations in the history of the Chamber of Commerce. These include the current location in the historic log cabin at 5 Moira Street East. Previous locations include, a building near City Hall on Front Street which burned down in 1948, inside the City Hall building, a location on Campbell street, and 338 Pinnacle Street between Victoria and Station Streets.
A Belleville District Junior Chamber of Commerce was chartered in 1961. Known as the “Jaycees,” the first President at the time of inauguration was Zdenck Kvards. Over 600 local businesses were members of the Chamber of Commerce as of 2014. The organization also sponsors, nominates, and delivers the Belleville Citizen of the Year Award annually.
According to the information retrieved from the files collected by the Hastings County Historical Society, notable Presidents have been:
1931 – J.O. Hertz [Herrity?]
1956 – H.P.M. Cane
1958 – J.N. Yanover
1959 – J.C.R. Punchard
1960 – E. David
1961 – Jerry Wishart
1962 – W.T. Elliot
1963 – J.B. Corke
1969 – Hugh Murray
1970 – Jack Ireland
2014 – Andy Bridgeman
2014 President Elect – Tracy McCollum
The official opening of the Quinte Curling Club took place on 15 February 1958 in their new building at 246 Bridge Street West in Belleville, Ontario.
Mary Hall is a resident of Belleville, Ontario. She was a member of the Historic Structures Committee of the Hastings County Historical Society.
The Friends of McGeachie are a volunteer group which supports the McGeachie Conservation Area on Steenburg Lake in Hastings County.
Vern Whalen was a former resident of Point Anne, Ontario and an active member of the Hastings County Historical Society.
William Nisbet Ponton, born in 1856 at Belleville, Ontario, was educated at Upper Canada College, the University of Toronto, B.A. 1877, M.A. 1878, and Osgoode Hall. He practised law in Belleville where he specialized in the administration of property and estates, and served for 27 years on the Belleville Board of Education in addition to acting as Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce.
Ponton was an executive of the Associated Boards of Trade of Ontario. Registrar of the Canadian Bar Association, President of the Ontario Bar Association, a member of the Council of the Canadian Red Cross, Grand First Principal of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Canada A.F. & A.M., a Fellow and Vice-President of the Royal Empire Society, a Senator of the University of Toronto, Vice-President of the Old Boys' Association of Upper Canada College, and a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada. He commanded the 15th Battalion, Argyll Light Infantry, from 1892 to 1901.
He lived in Sidney Cottage on Trent Road (now known as Dundas Street West).
Bishop's Seeds was established in Belleville, Ontario, by Charles Edward Bishop (1854-1941), who had immigrated from England in 1875. It remained a family firm in Belleville, selling seeds for farmers across Canada until its closure in 1990.
The Women's Christian Association in Belleville, Ontario, held its inaugural meeting on 18th November, 1879. It was formed with the aim of establishing a hospital in the city, and a home for the aged. The organization was incorporated in 1907. Work started on the construction of the hospital in June 1884. In 1948 the Association turned ownership of the hospital over to the City of Belleville. The Association continued to fund healthcare related projects until 2018, when it was wound up, donating its remaining funds to Quinte Health Care toward the renovation of the Maternal Child Program at Belleville General Hospital.
Scarborough High School opened in 1922 and was renamed Scarborough Collegiate Institute in 1930. In 1954 it became the R. H. King Collegiate Institute, until 1989 when it was renamed again as R. H. King Academy. Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._H._King_Academy