John Collett was born on January 6, 1828, in Eugene, Vermillion County, Indiana.

In 1847, he graduated from Wabash College with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 1870, he was elected to the State Senate from Parke and Vermillion Counties. In politics, he was first a Whig and then a Republican. Senator Collett spearheaded a bill to make public drunkenness a crime, supported holding livestock owners responsible for their cattle and pigs running loose, and promoted gravel roads when many of Indiana’s roadways were still morasses of mud in the winter and spring. He also strove to make children’s education mandatory, build a state mental hospital, and provide homes for orphans. Though he was a widely renowned expert on rocks, fossils, and Hoosier landforms, Collett wasn’t appointed State Geologist until 1879. In 1883, he produced the first geological map of Indiana ever published. His scientific investigations helped Indiana become the greatest limestone-producing state in the U.S. and were also useful to coal miners and engineers.

He died on March 15, 1899, in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana.

Nursing Sister Georgie H. Colley, resident of the Montreal suburb of Westmount, was particularly involved in the Canadian Nurses Association of Montreal as secretary. After the Canadian Nurses’ Association was founded in 1908, she was among those who attended the International Congress of the International Council of Nurses in London in 1909. In the Montreal organization, she also was a convenor for the Montreal General Hospital, for the Griffintown Club of the Association and for its Mother’s Friendly Club in Griffintown, a section of Montreal. She wrote several articles for “The Canadian Nurse and Hospital Review,” including one in 1905 on “District Nursing” and another in 1908 on “Visiting Nursing.” As of the 1921 Census, she was single and living in Westmount with her two sisters.

John Collier was a photographer who worked in Birmingham, UK in the late 1880s. In approximately 1886, John Collier acquired a photography studio at 66 New Street, Birmingham, that was previously operated by Mr. R.W. Thrupp. Collier was also appointed photographer to the Queen. According to the 1890 Kelly's directory of Birmingham, in addition to offering photography, Collier's business also included art dealing, engraving, and picture frame making.

Cuthbert Collingwood was born on December 25, 1826, probably at Christchurch, Hampshire, England.

He was an English naturalist, physician, and scientific writer. He attended King's College School and Christ Church College at Oxford where he graduated with a B.A. degree in 1849, proceeding to an M.A. degree in 1852 and an M.B. degree in 1854. He subsequently studied at Edinburgh University and spent some time in the medical schools of Paris and Vienna. From 1858 to 1866 he held the appointment of lecturer on botany at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary School of Medicine. He was elected Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1853 and he served on its council in 1868. He also lectured on biology at the Liverpool School of Science. From 1866 to 1867 he served as surgeon and naturalist on HMS Rifleman and HMS Serpent on voyages in the China Seas and made researches in marine zoology. He became the senior physician of the Northern Hospital in Liverpool and took part in the intellectual life of the city. In 1876, he travelled to Palestine and Egypt. In the later years of his life, he lived in Paris but returned to England in 1907. In 1865, Collingwood published “Twenty-one Essays on Various Subjects, Scientific and Literary”, and he wrote on his expeditions in “Rambles of a Naturalist on the Shores and Waters of the China Seas” (1868). He wrote also “The Travelling Birds” (1872), and forty papers on natural history in scientific periodicals. Collingwood was a prominent member of the New Jerusalem Church. He published expositions of his religious beliefs, including “A Vision of Creation” (1872), a poem with a geological introduction; “New Studies in Christian Theology” (anon. 1883), and “The Bible and the Age, Principles of Consistent Interpretation” (1886).

He married Clara Mowbray (d. 1871). He died on October 20, 1908, in Lewisham, England.