I have my great great grandmother's diary for the year of 1875 (Ida Handy). She lived in Howard township and in her diaries mentions many names of both family and friends who lived in the surrounding areas. Not necessarily in detail, mostly just their coming and goings. I have most of this transcribed so can do lookups easily.
Some surnames of people mentioned: Atkinson, Baldwin, Bryant, Bury, Cavers, Colls, Davis, Delong, Downie, Fairchild, Handy, Hicks, Kennedy, MacFarlane, McAllister, McPhail (Peter & Neil tried for stealing clover), Miles, Mosher, Newcome, Oakes, Purvis, Ransom, Roome, Scarlet, Simons, Stewart, Storey, Teetzel, Turner, Van Allen (Dr.), Watson, Westlake, Willins (?), Willson
I also have my great great grandfather's diaries from about 1882 - 1913. He was politically active, ran the local post office and newspaper. He was also appointed 'Issuer of Marriages' in 1885, so I have a book of marriages he recorded from 1885 - 1895. Too many names to mention at this point.
I hope to be submitting both sets of diaries to the Rural Ontario Diary project soon, so eventually there will be transcriptions of both
