Chignecto Isthmus; First Settlers | Page 3

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THE CHIGNECTO ISTHMUS AND ITS FIRST SETTLERS
BY HOWARD TRUEMAN
1902

PREFACE.
For some years past I, in common with many others, have felt that all letters of interest and accessible facts in connection with the early history of the Truemans should be collected and put in permanent form, not because there is anything of interest to the general public in the records of a family whose members have excelled, if at all, in private rather than in public life, but in order that the little knowledge there is of the early history of the family might not pass forever out of the reach of later generations with the death of those whose memory carries them back to the original settlers. In getting together material necessary for the work, numbers of interesting facts concerning other families came inevitably to light. In order to preserve these facts, and at the same time give the book a slightly wider interest, I decided to write a short history of those families connected by marriage with the first and second generations of Truemans, and also, as far as material was available, of the first settlers in the old township of Cumberland, which now includes the settlements of Fort Lawrence, Westmoreland Point, Point de Bute, Jolicure, Bay Road, Bay Verte, Upper Tidnish and Port Elgin. Finally, as a kind of setting for the whole, I have prefaced these records with a brief outline of the early history of the Isthmus.
That the work falls far below the ideal goes without saying. Anyone who has made the effort to collect facts of local history knows how difficult it is to get reliable information. In almost every case where there was a conflict of opinion I have endeavored to verify my facts by light thrown on them from different directions; but doubtless mistakes will be found. By keeping the work in preparation for a longer time, more matter of interest could certainly be added, and perhaps corrections made; but to this there is no end, as the discovery of every new item of interest reveals a whole series more to investigate.
To all who have given me assistance warmest thanks are tendered. To Dr. Ganong, of Northampton, Mass.; Judge Morse, Amherst; W. C. Milner, Sackville; and Dr. Steel of Amherst, grateful acknowledgment is especially due for their ready and cheerful help. To Murdoch's Nova Scotia, Hannay's Acadia and to Dixon's and Black's family histories I have also been indebted.
INTRODUCTION.
This book needs no introduction to the people of the Isthmus, whom it will most interest. I shall therefore attempt only to point out the plan the present work will take in the general history of Eastern Canada.
Mr. Trueman does not profess to have attempted a complete history of the Isthmus. The earlier periods, prior to the coming of the Yorkshiremen, are so replete with interest that a many times larger work than the present would be necessary for their full consideration, but Mr. Trueman has treated them with sufficient fulness to show the historical conditions of the country into which the Yorkshiremen came. It is the history of these Yorkshiremen and their descendants which Mr. Trueman treats so fully and authoritatively, and withal, from a local standpoint, so interestingly; and his work is the more valuable for the reason that hitherto but little has been published upon this subject. Some articles have appeared in local newspapers, and there are references to it in the provincial histories, but no attempt has hitherto been made to treat the subject as it deserves. Those of us who are interested in history from a more scientific standpoint will regret that the material, particularly of the earlier part of the Yorkshire immigration could not have been more documentary and less traditional, but that it is as here given is not Mr. Trueman's fault but a result of the nature of the case. It is not impossible, by the way, that such documents may yet be discovered, perhaps in some still unsuspected archives. It is to be remembered, however, that to a local audience, documents are of less interest than tradition, and the genealogical phases of history, here so fully treated, are most interesting of all. Mr. Trueman seems to have sifted the traditions with care, and he certainly has devoted to his task an