George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen bare-footed stable boy, he became the richest man in Canada and closely associated with George V, whose wife, Queen Mary, was a lifelong friend and confidante of the second Lady Mount Stephen. In 1829, Stephen was born at Dufftown, Banffshire, in a cottage built by his grandfather. He was the son of William Stephen (b. 1801), a carpenter, and Elspet, daughter of John Smith, a crofter at Knockando, Moray. His mother was a first cousin of the philanthropic Grant brothers of Manchester, immortalised as the "Cheeryble Brothers" in Charles Dickens' book, Nicholas Nickleby. Stephen began life as a boy running
Bertie Dickens Bertie Dickens Bertie Caudill Dickens (1902–1994) was an old-time banjo player from the community of Ennice in Alleghany County, North Carolina. Dickens was born in Grayson County, Virginia, but lived most of her life in Ennice. Dickens was raised in a musical family. Her father, Sid Caudill, was a banjo player and her brothers, Hus, Joe, and Clell were fiddle and banjo players. Together, Sid and his sons operated a sawmill in what is now Felts Park, Galax, Virginia. Bertie learned to play the fiddle and banjo as a young child, and played both the old-time clawhammer style as well