By looking back we can, most times, see the direction our future is taking. Such is a gift few can claim to share as has Jean Murray Cole with her enthralling compositions.
Our community is certainly richer for her penning nine books, including three Peterborough township histories, plus a host of papers that fill her dossier to date. Jean Murray Cole is an acknowledged expert on the Strickland family; Samuel Strickland, Catherine Parr Traill, Susanna Moodie, and their siblings who remained in England. The Stricklands mean much to the area because they wrote and recorded their experiences in its raw, evolving youthful years.
Jean Murray Cole holds an honours degree from Trent University, the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship, and the F.H. Dobbin award for her book, ‘Sir Sandford Fleming: His Early Diaries.’ Many of her manuscripts and research papers have been donated to Trent University Archives.