KREW KUTS: A Crossroads Museum Story – Finale

By Bernie Krewski

Gerard and Annie Peck, as previously noted, moved from Oyen to Calgary in 1938 where they retired. Their eldest and youngest sons, Hubert and David, remained in Alberta working in agriculture as ranchers and farmers at Cochrane and Lacombe.

The new Peck house in the snow at Oyen, early 1920s. PHOTO COURTESY OF PECK FAMILY

Wedding photograph (2 June 1928) of Edward and Sylvia Peck with Edward's parents in the background. PHOTO COURTESY OF PECK FAMILY

Edward and Oswald, their second and third sons, followed different paths.

Edward left Oyen in the fall of 1924 to attend the Ontario Veterinary College at Guelph. He graduated in the spring of 1928 and on June 2 married Sylvia le Marchant at All Saints Church in Oyen. Sylvia was the daughter of Rev. and Mrs. le Marchant of Bolton, England, as I mentioned in an earlier article.

As The Oyen News reported, “The little church on the corner has a pretty interior and was beautifully arranged with plants and flowers provided by the women’s guild and their friends, this being the first wedding to be held within its doors.” A dance in the Masonic Hall was attended by one hundred and twenty-five guests with music by the Oyen Imperial Orchestra. Following a honeymoon in Calgary and Banff, Mr. & Mrs. Peck left for Winnipeg where Edward commenced duties as a veterinarian for the federal government.

Oswald Peck remained in Alberta for a few more years, commencing studies in entomology at the University of Alberta in the fall of 1928. He spent part of the summer of 1931 investigating the presence of wireworms in the Oyen district. After graduating in 1932, he continued his studies at McGill University where he subsequently received M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees. On Oct. 7, 1936, the day after receiving the latter, Dr. Peck and Virginia Gardner were married. They settled in Ottawa where he was employed with Agriculture Canada. He died on February 2, 1999, age 95.

A news article published at the time of his death featured this headline: “Oswald Peck – Co-creator of insect collection.”

Dr. Peck was an integral member of a group of long-time scientists working in Agriculture Canada’s taxonomic department, studying and classifying insects often microscopically small. Their scientific legacy is described as a colossal catalogue known as the Canadian National Collection of Insects and Related Arthropods. “It is considered by many in the taxonomic field to be the best research collection in North America, containing 13 million to 15 million specimens from Canada, the U.S. and around the world.”

Three of his long-time colleagues, whose lives recently ended as well, were involved in a project during the 1950s and 1960s in a group of forty scientists collecting and identifying an estimated 250,000 insect species a year. 

“They were responsible for supplying interested parties with the right name for an insect in question. With crops and subsequently huge sums of money in the balance, knowing your Chalcid wasps (Dr. Peck’s special interest) from your caddisflies is crucial. If you guess wrong, the results can be disastrous.”

When Mr. Peck wasn’t pondering the characteristics of his beloved wasps, he was likely tending to his equally beloved gardens with his wife, Virginia, being a life-long member of the Ottawa Horticultural Society.

The news report also said: “His interest in plants and insects no doubt grew from his days as an adolescent in Alberta. In 1920, when Mr. Peck was 17, his father moved his family from their home in England to Alberta. Though the land he’d acquired proved practically unworkable, the experience sent Mr. Peck and his brother off in pursuit of various agricultural interests”.

This narrative on the Peck family might have ended at this point, but for circumstances stemming from Edward Peck’s eminent career as a veterinarian. He died in England on February 24, 1971, at age 69. However, his contributions to the field of veterinary and animal medicine in Nigeria, British Somaliland and Tanganika with the British Colonial Service, and many other such endeavours, left a deep imprint for future generations of veterinarians.

These are summarized in a fifteen-page paper written by R. Trevor Wilson and published in the “International Journal of Veterinary and Animal Medicine,” 2020, vol. 3, Issue 2. Of even greater interest, it includes details about the Peck family and several photographs.

For example, Gerard Peck, Edward’s father, was previously employed as an electrical engineer and managing director of William Ryder Ltd., Engineers and Iron Foundry Operators, who manufactured spindles and flyers for the weaving trade and of which he was a principal shareholder. He travelled to Canada in 1911 and bought a half section of land (9.28.4.4) at Oyen (see the chart in Many Trails Crossed Here, v. 1, p. 69). Mr. Peck returned to England leaving A.E. Collenge (“Collinge” is misspelled), his gardener, in charge of his Canadian farm.

This paper outlines the various stages that led to the eventual arrival here of the Peck family in the early 1920s. Particularly noteworthy is that all the boys began their careers by attending the Olds School of Agriculture.

Matters changed, it appears, when Edward Ackroyd, Mrs. Peck’s brother and a distinguished lawyer in England, visited them in Oyen. He said their well-educated boys were wasting their time at the farm that had no future for them. Edward and Oswald apparently followed his advice.

These photos are of the Peck family home on their farm and of Edward’s wedding at the Anglican Church in Oyen.

I will be sending a copy of Trevor Wilson’s paper to the Crossroads Museum so it can be attached to accessories from David Perk’s wedding in 1929.