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John Young was a Halifax merchant, author, and politician. Born in Falkirk, Scotland in 1773 to Janet and William Young, he was educated at the University of Glasgow ca. 1790. Young performed well in his theological studies but chose to pursue business in Falkirk and Glasgow. He married Agnes Renny, with whom he had nine children, including George, Charles, and William. In 1814 Young and his family moved to Nova Scotia, where he founded John Young and Company.

Young became interested in agriculture shortly after his arrival in Nova Scotia. Between 1814 and 1816, under the pseudonym "Agricola," he wrote letters to The Acadian Recorder, championing ideas such as the creation of a provincial farming board, rural farming societies, and other initiatives. His suggestions were popular and supported by Lord Dalhousie, who established a Central Board of Agriculture in 1819. Young was appointed secretary and treasurer, making him responsible for mediating between the board and the newly formed farming societies, importing and distributing seeds, tools and other items, managing agricultural competitions, and handling correspondence and other administrative duties. In 1822 many of Young’s Agricola letters were published in the book The Letters of Agricola on the Principles of Vegetation and Tillage. While the board was initially popular and well supported, the House of Assembly failed to renew its charter in 1826.

In 1823 Young ran unsuccessfully in Halifax for a seat in the assembly, and in 1824 he won a Sydney by-election. He proved to be a vocal and active member in the assembly, where he remained until his death in Halifax on October 6, 1837.

William Young was a Nova Scotia businessman, lawyer and politician. He was born in 1799 in Falkirk, Scotland, to John Young and Agnes Renny. In 1814 he moved with his family to Nova Scotia, where he helped to establish John Young and Company, a wholesale dry goods business. He acted as his father’s agent in Halifax and New York. In 1815 he formed a partnership with James Cogswell to operate an auction and commission business that lasted until 1820.

Young began an apprenticeship in 1820 with the Halifax law firm of Charles Rufus and Samuel Prescott Fairbanks. The relationship ended in 1823 when Young was accused of sharing Fairbanks' campaign information with his father during John Young's failed bid against Charles Fairbanks in a Halifax by-election. In 1824 he managed his father’s successful campaign in a Sydney by-election. He became an attorney in 1825 and a barrister in 1826. In 1834 he and his brother, George, established an insurance business that lasted into the 1850s. He married Anne Tobin in 1830.

In 1832 Young won his first seat in the provincial assembly. The election results were invalidated because of interference from his brother, George. In the election of 1836 he ran and won in Inverness County, a seat he held for twenty years. Young was active in the assembly, working with reformers and supporting responsible government. He was a member of a delegation to Quebec City for constitutional discussions with Lord Durham in 1828 and served as speaker of the assembly for many years and as attorney general from 1854–1857. In 1859 he ran and won in Cumberland County and served briefly as premier before being appointed chief justice, a position he held until his retirement in 1881.

Young was actively involved in many aspects of Halifax society. He donated books and money to the Citizen’s Free Library. He was instrumental in negotiating the land lease for Point Pleasant Park, contributed financially to Dalhousie College and served as chairman of the college’s Board of Governors for 36 years (1848-1884). William Young died in Halifax on 8 May 1887.

Edith Zillig was born and raised on a farm in the province of Pomerania, Germany. She studied at the Agricultural College of Potsdam before gaining employment as a farm manager. In 1954 she immigrated to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and one year later married Gernot Zillig, who had also recently emigrated from Germany. In 1958 the Zilligs bought 150 acres overlooking the Kennetcook River in Scotch Village, Nova Scotia. Although they were interested initially in mixed farming, after concluding that the land was better suited to livestock, they began to build up a variety of cattle, swine, domestic waterfowl and sheep, including six mature crossbred Suffolk ewes from the Annapolis Valley.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Edith and Gernot belonged to the provincial sheep farmers' association, which later became the Sheep Producers Association of Nova Scotia (SPANS). Between 1973-1983 she was an active promoter of the Nova Scotia sheep industry through SPANS sheep fairs and served as the association's director during the mid-1980s. In 1981 she was appointed Western Director of the Nova Scotia Wool Marketing Board, a position she held until 1993. In addition, she maintained an interest in the Purebred Sheep Breeders Association of Nova Scotia.

Edith continued to farm and raised sheep after the death of her husband in 1993, working with her son, Manfred, and her daughter, Margaret, until her own death in 2009.