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Ruby Lillian Kaiser was born in Sonora, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia in 1930. The daughter of Asa and Edna (Burns) Jordan, she had five siblings. Ruby held a life-long interest in the local history and genealogy of Sonora and area, and collected relevant photographs, newspaper clippings, obituaries, memorials, and other genealogy records. She was a member of Sonora Baptist Church, the Sonora branch of the Women’s Institute of Nova Scotia, Women’s Baptist Missionary Society, and the St. Mary’s Garden Club. She married Victor Kaiser in 1953 and they had three children.

Robert Ramsay or R.R. Sinclair was born ca. 18 October 1842, likely in Sherbrooke, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia. His grandfather, Donald Sinclair, was a merchant who emigrated to Sherbrooke from Thurso, Scotland around 1807. He took with him his two sons, Alexander and William. Alexander married Margaret Ramsay (originally from Edinburgh) in 1830 and together they had ten children, including Robert Ramsay. The family were Anglican. Alexander and his family lived in Sherbrooke before settling in Liscomb, likely in the late 1850s or early 1860s, where they operated a large, successful sawmill, producing over 500,000 board feet of lumber, laths, and staves in 1871. After Alexander Sinclair died in 1866, the mill was operated by his sons Donald Smith, Robert Ramsay, and William James as Donald Sinclair and Bros. The brothers were also involved in shipbuilding, and the James R. Lithgow (1872) and the Three Cheers (1873) were built in their yard at Liscomb. In 1873, the Liscomb sawmill was sold, and R.R. Sinclair moved to Sherbrooke where he worked as a merchant through to the first decades of the 20th century, selling groceries and general provisions. His first store was near the McDaniel's Sherbrooke Hotel on Mill St., where he also boarded, and in 1900 he built a new store located on Main or First St., just past the bridge to Goldenville and across from Anderson's grocery store. The building was demolished in 2018. R.R. Sinclair was also a dealer and exporter of lumber and farm produce. While most of his clients and customers were farmers within the St. Mary's River region, as well as townspeople from the villages of Sherbrooke and Goldenville, he also supplied local gold mining and lumbering companies with provisions, and exported lumber to Nova Scotia building firms like Chappell Bros. in Sydney, Cape Breton. Local memory recalls that "Bob," as he was known, would buy "rafts" of lumber floated down the river from Caledonia, which he then exported on the coastal steamer, S.S. Dufferin. It is likely that Sinclair owned a sawmill on the Northwest Arm Brook in Sherbrooke, as well as a large tract of land on present-day Cameron Rd., listed as the "Sinclair Property" on the 1876 A.F. Church map of Sherbrooke, and where the R. Sinclair shipyard was also located. Sinclair built at least two schooners at his St. Mary's shipyard, the William Hayes in 1874 and the Marshall S. in 1876. At some point, he purchased 124 Cameron Rd, a large Gothic Revival house that had been built for his brother, Marshall Sinclair, a merchant in Goldenville. Later, in 1896, R.R. Sinclair purchased 8149 Main St,. Sherbrooke, which he owned until his death on 19 January 1914, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He is buried in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia. R.R. Sinclair was also a member of the 4th Guysborough Regiment, a militia formed in response to the Fenian raids of 1866, serving in the Liscomb area. He remained a life-long bachelor.

Samuel Burton Sweet was born July 31, 1857 in Black Rock, Kings County, Nova Scotia to Lorana and Leander Sweet. He moved to the Country Harbour area of Guysborough County sometime after 1881, where he ran a store in Country Harbour Mines before moving his business interests to Goldenville sometime after 1894 and before 1901. He married Alice Cox Eaton and together they had twelve children. He died July 29, 1903 and he and his wife are buried in the Evergreen Cemetery, Cross Roads Country Harbour, Guysborough County.

James William MacDonald was born on 15 December 1853 in Sherbrooke, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia. He was the eldest son of Donald MacDonald, a tailor, and Elizabeth MacDaniel. His grandfather, Donald "Brae" MacDonald emigrated from Kerrowgare, Scotland to Sunnybrae, Pictou County in 1802. His father, also named Donald, relocated to Sherbrooke and set up the successful tailor and clothier shop on First St. that is now a part of Sherbrooke Village Restoration. James William MacDonald was a harness-maker by trade, running a harness and leather goods business located on Main or First St. in the village of Sherbrooke, next to the Joe McLane blacksmith shop, from the 1870s until the early 1930s. One of his leather treadle sewing machines is on display in his father's tailor shop within Sherbrooke Village Restoration. James William MacDonald was a member of many local fraternal, religious, and political organizations, including the Marmion Lodge (No. 73 I.O.O.F.), Queen's Lodge No. 34 A.F. & A.M, the Masonic Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia, St. Johns United Church, and the Liberal Conservative Association of the Municipality of the District of St. Mary's. He married Margaret Jane Hattie in 1889, and together they had six children, three of whom survived into adulthood. He died 24 July 1936 while enjoying a social evening at the home of his brother, J. Geddie MacDonald.

Lester D. MacKeen was born 30 May 1895 in Stillwater, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia. His parents were John Cargill MacKeen and Mary Caroline "Carrie" Taylor. He was the oldest of their seven children. There are many MacKeen families within the Municipality of the District of St. Mary's, and this branch was known as the "Cargill MacKeens." Lester D. MacKeen worked as a blacksmith and wheelwright, offering horseshoeing and general repair work, as well as carriage painting and upholstering. He was also an agent for Frost & Wood farming implements. In later years, he offered sheet metal work and was a heating agent, selling stoves, ranges, and furnaces, which he also installed throughout the local area during the mid-20th century. He purchased the former Joe McLane Blacksmith Shop in Sherbrooke in 1954 following the death of McLane. The building was subsequently used by Lester D. MacKeen until 1970, when it was purchased by the Nova Scotia Museum and moved from Main or First St. Sherbrooke to Mill St., within the bounds of the Sherbrooke Village Restoration. In addition to his business pursuits, he served the Municipality of the District of St. Mary's as the Secretary of the Unemployment Relief Committee during the Great Depression, and as Chief Deputy Sheriff for the County of Guysborough. Lester D. MacKeen married Muriel "Myrl" McKeen of Aspen, Guysborough County, on 29 July 1925, and together they had three children. He and his wife are buried in Riverside Cemetery, Sherbrooke.

Edith Muriel (Langille) MacInnis was raised in River John, Pictou County, Nova Scotia. She trained as a teacher at the Nova Scotia Normal College in Truro and at St. Francis Xavier University. She married Murray MacInnis in 1945. The couple moved to Melrose, Guysborough County, with their two young children in 1948, and she taught elementary classes at East River St. Mary's School and high school classes at St. Mary's Rural High School. She and her husband purchased Eleven Mile House or 11 Mile House in Melrose in 1965, and Edith lived there until 2015. She died 22 October 2017.

Margaret Cameron (nee Giffin) Ellsworth was born 16 July 1912 in Medford, Massachusetts, the only child of Alber Belle Savilla Fraser of Waternish, Guysborough County, and Eldon James Giffin of Isaac's Harbour, Guysborough County. Her parents met while living and working in Boston, Massachusetts. Margaret was raised in the United States, but returned frequently to Guysborough County to visit extended family and friends, often spending summers at the Fraser family home in Waternish (now demolished). Interested in local and family history, she amassed an extensive collection of photographs, genealogies, and other materials relating to the Fraser and MacIntosh families of St. Mary's, and the Giffin family of Isaac's Harbour. She married Henry Ellsworth of Greenfield, NY in 1959 and lived and worked in Illinois as a nursing professor. She died in 1998.

Paula (nee Horton) Faulkner is the daughter of John Horton and Margaret Carroll Sears. She was raised in the Municipality of the District of St. Mary's and attended school at St. Mary's Rural High.

Frank Wendall Jordan was born 17 November, 1916 in Sherbrooke, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, to John Abner Jordan and Blanche Augusta MacDonald Jordan. While training with the Royal Canadian Air Force, he met Joan Francis Barrington Armstrong in Sydney, Nova Scotia. They married, and returned to Sherbrooke, where they raised two daughters.

In addition to the RCAF, Frank worked in mines in Ontario, operated a general store on Main Street in Sherbrooke, then followed his sister Jennie Cruickshank into the role of Postmaster, later serving as President of the Nova Scotia Postmasters Association for District # 5. He was a devoted gardener who kept a beautiful home. Frank volunteered for many local associations, notably serving as Chair of the Sherbrooke Village Commission and President of the St. Mary’s Historical Society in the 1970s. His passion for regional history resulted in a rich fonds of material relating to life in the Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s. Frank Jordan passed away on 31 May, 2012, at the age of 95.

Lester V. Macdonald was born on 31 December 1896 in Sherbrooke, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia. He was the son of William H. and Helen A. (Hattie) Macdonald. The early Sherbrooke settler and settlement official, Hugh McDonald, was his great-grandfather. After Lester V. Macdonald graduated from school with his senior matriculation, he began his working life in his father's blacksmith shop. When the First World War broke out, he served in the Royal Flying Corps as a mechanic, at one point stationed in Texas. After some education at Dalhousie University and industrial work in Boston in the 1920s, he returned to Sherbrooke in 1925 to establish Macdonald Garage and Equipment, which offered mechanic, plumbing and heating services, as well as car sales. Between 1931 and 1937, he was contracted to carry mail from Sherbrooke to Antigonish and from Sherbrooke to Sheet Harbour, a daily distance of 200 miles. He was involved in numerous community, labour, and religious organizations, including fraternal and temperance societies, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 56, the St. Mary’s Amateur Athletics Association, and St. John’s United Church. He served as a stipendiary magistrate for the courts and was the deputy registrar of deeds. He was also involved in economic development initiatives as a member of the St. Mary’s District Development Association, where he lobbied government for greater community investment, particularly in the areas of natural resources and tourism. Lester was an active supporter of the Sherbrooke Village Restoration project, a large-scale community economic development initiative that proposed to restore a portion of the streetscape of Sherbrooke to that of a typical village of the mid-to-late 19th century. In 1970, he was appointed as one of the first members of the Sherbrooke Restoration Commission, the governing body of the living-history museum, on which he served as chair. Lester V. Macdonald was an avid local historian and genealogist. During the development of Sherbrooke Village Restoration, Nova Scotia Museum curators frequently relied upon his historical knowledge. He married Irvis Mae Pryde in 1927, and together they had four children.