The Chignecto Isthmus and its First Settlers/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.