George Barnston was born about 1800 in Edinburg, Scotland.

He was an HBC fur-trader and naturalist. He was educated as a surveyor and army engineer. He joined the North West Company in 1820 and was retained by the Hudson’s Bay Company after the 1821 amalgamation. He began his HBC career at York Factory (Manitoba) and from there, he helped outfit two forts in the south; Lower Fort Garry and Fort du Bas de la Rivière at the mouth of the Winnipeg River. From 1826-1832, his postings took him to various posts on the Pacific coast and subsequently to Fort Albany, Ontario. During his time with the HBC, Barnston was a student of the natural history of the various areas and his specimens are in the Smithsonian Institution, the British Museum, and the Redpath Museum at McGill University. He wrote regularly for the Canadian Naturalist and for the Ibis. In 1882, he became a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

He died on March 14, 1883, in Montreal, Quebec.

William McTavish Stuart Barnston was born c. 1856 in North West Territories, Canada, where his father George Barnston (c.1800-1883) was an HBC fur-trader and naturalist. His brother James Barnston (1831-1858) was a physician and botanist.

He married in 1875 in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, and had three daughters and three sons. He died on November 25, 1891. in New York, New York, and is buried in Montreal, Quebec.

French lyricist and composer Gaston Theophile Baron was born in 1874 in Armentierès in northern France. In 1908 he wrote a one-act vaudeville piece entitled “Un constat qui finit bien.” Throughout the early decades of the 20th century he was based in Montmartre, the artists’ neighborhood in Paris, where he both composed and wrote lyrics for songs. During World War I, Marianne, as the feminine symbol of the French motherland, became popular in French art and literature, and Baron wrote a nationalist song “Marianne, Marianne” in 1919. He wrote many other patriotic songs and contributed songs for the booklet "Songs of the Republic of Montmartre.” (The “Republic of Montmartre” was a charitable and cultural organization founded by a group of artists from that neighborhood in 1921.) The Bibliothèque Nationale de France holds 94 entries linked to Baron.

Barott established the architectural firm Barott, Blackader & Webster with associates Gordon Home Blackader (1885-1916) and Daniel T. Webster (1870-1939) in 1912. From 1917 to 1935, the firm operated under the name Barott & Blackader.

Ernest Isbell Barott (1884-1966) was born in Canastota, NY, and studied architecture from 1902 to 1905 at Syracuse University. Later he apprenticed at the New York office of McKim, Mead and White. In 1912 Barott formed a partnership with Gordon Blackader and Daniel T. Webster.

Hugh C. Barr was an employee of Henry Watts and Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania between 1911 and 1915. Along with Henry Watts, he was the company's primary salesman, making contact with potential buyers, accompanying them on excursions to Alberta, and gathering information about land for sale in Canada. During his time with the company, Barr moved to Alberta and settled on a farm there with his family.