Peter had a keen sense of history and the value of family. I am Peter's first cousin. Not long ago he gave me a copy of a letter written by our joint grandfather, John Main Trueman, hand written on University of Illinois letterhead, dated Dec.22, 1905, where John was a member of the Department of Dairy Husbandry. The letter was to John's brother George, and apparently was part of a discussion on their mutual religious beliefs and practices shared with their father Howard, (our great-grandfather) who was the author of a history of the Chignecto Isthmus (published in 1902) where the family farm had sat near the border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick since the 1780's. Peter had found this letter among his father Albert's papers. Albert was my mother's brother.
In this letter John says: "it is very easy to write the commonplace views and ideas, and leave out anything that belongs a little deeper in our nature, or is nearer to our real self. As I wrote father last week, we were cradled in argumentative Christianity and it comes naturally to us to set in order the arguments for and against both the beliefs and practices of our religion." He goes on to mention doubts about the doctrine of Christ's sacrifice as an atonement to God for mankind's sins "which I got from Father years ago while hoeing turnips in the field between the orchard and Richard Carter's."
Peter was fascinated by that last comment. We both had a pretty good idea what field that was, and wished we could have been hoeing turnips with them back in the late 18 hundreds to have heard our great grandfather's arguments. I suspect that Peter also saw in it a family origin for his own credo, for, with regard particularly to current events, if ever there was a man with an active curiosity, a talent for setting in order the evidence, and a tendency to healthy skepticism and frank, honest comment, it was Peter. Peter suspected that the reason why the letter was found among his father Albert's papers was that his father had found it among his grandfather John's papers, never mailed. Had it gone to George it would not likely have come into Albert's hands. Perhaps it had been a little too candid even for his father and his brother's ears. John went on to become the Principle of the Truro Agricultural College, and George to be the President of Mount Allison.
One of my best memories of Peter was of him and Eleanor hosting my mother's (his aunt's) 90th birthday party at their beautiful home on Amherst Island. It was quite a big affair, and was the sort of family occasion, and kind of effort, that Peter and his lovely wife Eleanor, deeply enjoyed and were happy to do. Mother lived to 99 and often recalled that day. It was definitely the highlight of her golden years. Thanks Peter and Eleanor.