Waterloo 150 Project

In 2007 Waterloo turned 150! To celebrate, WPL created a list of men and women, past and present, who helped make Waterloo what it is today. 

 

Waterloo 150: The Profiles

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Waterloo 150 project would not have been possible without a grant from the Waterloo Regional Heritage Foundation.

Beth Gallagher, our writer, was a pleasure to work with and was so good at capturing the essence of a person, and at handling a very large project with professionalism and grace.

Thanks so much to volunteers Susan Berczi who gathered the photos together, and to Joleen T., Kerstin H., Maureen S. and Sue H. who assisted with the mountain of research. We appreciated the work of staff, particularly Judy G. and Julie S.

Karen Ball-Pyatt from the Kitchener Public Library was a great help, as was the staff of the Doris Lewis Room at UW, and Anne Chafe in Heritage Resources at the City of Waterloo. Thanks to Andrea Bailey of The Waterloo Chronicle for her assistance and support of Waterloo 150.

Thanks finally to all of you who suggested names for the project. There were certainly more than 150 names that we could have chosen, but we hope that this selection offers a glimpse into the Waterloo of the past, and shows you just a few of the many dynamic people who make up our community today.

A NOTE ABOUT OUR SOURCES

In our Ellis Little Local History Room at the Waterloo Public Library (Main), we have many thousands of newspaper and magazine clippings about Waterloo people, businesses and events. We relied largely on these clippings, and on our book collection, to gather information. Some of the books that we used over and over are listed below.

Of course, we also used the internet, our subscription databases, and local magazines such as Exchange and the new Grand and Rex. Serendipity favoured us when we were searching for a piece of specific information on our microfilm of the Waterloo Chronicle and The Record, and came across some other tidbit useful in another profile.

Of great use were Ellis Little’s papers, housed at the Library. Ellis Little researched hundreds of Waterloo people, and provided us with so many useful dates, facts, and leads.

Some of the books we used are: Confederation Number Diamond Jubilee, July 1, 1927; Waterloo County : an Illustrated History / Geoffrey Hayes, 1997; Waterloo : an Illustrated History / Kenneth McLaughlin, 1990; Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada : the Record of Over a Century of Progress, 1914; the Waterloo Historical Society annual volumes, published for nearly a century already; Waterloo Township Through Two Centuries / Elizabeth Bloomfield, 1995; Welcome to Waterloo : an Illustrated History of Waterloo, Ontario, in Celebration of its 125th Anniversary, 1857-1982 / Marg Rowell, et al., 1982; Women of Waterloo County / Ruth Russell, editor, 2000.