Ethel Cecelia Stevens spent her youth in Montreal. In 1941 she married Arthur L. L. Martin, who became a Lieutenant-colonel in the American Armed Forces, and moved to New York city. She returned to Montreal five years later and obtained an office job at the Imperial Tobacco Company, her place of employment prior to marriage. She continued to work for that company until she retired. Ethel Martin was a devout Unitarian and actively supported many organizations aimed at preventing cruelty to animals. She traveled throughout the world, particularly in her later years, and regularly took advantage of Montreal's cultural offerings.

Daniel Strobel Martin was born on June 30, 1842, in New York, New York.

He was an American geologist, naturalist, educator, and author. In 1863, he graduated from New York University, and in 1868, from the Union Theological Seminary. The same year he was appointed Professor of Geology at the Rutgers Female College where he remained for 23 years. He also taught at the Presbyterian College for Women at Columbia, S.C., from 1898 to 1904. He was a life member of the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the New York Mineral Club. He was a plant collector and some of his collections can be found at the herbarium of The Charleston Museum where he served as the Curator of Geology and Paleontology and cataloguer. Martin published several books on scientific and ethical subjects, e.g.; “Minerals and the Methods of Studying Them" (1864), "Geological Map of New York City and Vicinity" (1887), and "The Moral Aspects of Scientific Education" (1879).

He died on January 3, 1925, in New York, New York.