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Acknowledgments
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Acknowledgments Iam indebted to many people who assisted me in the research and writing of this book. Richard White offered many penetrating insights, criticisms, and much encouragement. David T. Bailey, always a source of fresh ideas, challenged me to consider perspectives that I had overlooked. I also benefited much from the comments of Gordon Stewart, Donald Lammers, Mary Schneider, and the late Stephen Botein. James M. McClurken shared new documents with me, along with his remarkable knowledge of the Odawa, Chippewa, and Metis. Susan Sleeper-Smith has enriched my understanding of the complex society that existed in the western Great Lakes in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Fred Bohm has helped me to stretch my historical imagination and commit it to words. My colleagues at the Mackinac Island State Park Commission were a source of much support. I am especially grateful for the friendship of Donald P. Heldman, who encouraged me in more ways than he will ever knOw. Eugene T. Petersen, Marian E. Petersen, Elizabeth M. Scott, DavidA. Armour, Marsha Hamilton, Jane Robinson, Phil Porter, Lucille Hume, andJim Evans all contributed to the completion of this work in ways too numerous to list. Professor Joseph L. Peyser of Indiana University South Bend has been a wonderful source of inspiration. Several others helped to keep me on track as I struggled past various obstacles . Many conversations with Wesley Andrews and Phil Bellfy challenged me to clarify my interpretations of the role played by Native people in this work. Bruce Roth saved me from falling into an electronic black hole by rescuing me from computer disasters. Robert A. Trennert, Jr. and Janice White Clemmer offered useful comments on the paper (leading to this book) which I presented at the Western History Association Annual Meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota, in October 1984. I thank the staffs of the following institutions that provided me with research materials and answered my inquiries over the years. The Houghton Library at Harvard University made the Papers of the American Board of Commissioners xi BATTLE FOR THE SOUL for Foreign Missions available to me during my three visits there. Quotations from these papers are by permission of the United Church Board for World Ministries . Other repositories that opened their holdings to me were the State Historical Society of Wisconsin; Minnesota Historical Society; University of Notre Dame Archives; William L. Clements Library and Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan; Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University ; Dominican Archives at Sinsinawa, Wisconsin; Cornell University Department of Archives and Manuscripts; Newton-Andover Theological School Library in Newton Centre, Massachusetts; Congregational House in Boston; Mackinac Island State Park Commission Research Library, Lansing, Michigan; Northeast Minnesota Historical Center, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota ; and Michigan State Archives, Lansing, Michigan. The Journal of Presbyterian History granted me permission to use the contents of my article, 'The Missionaries of the Mackinaw Mission, 1823-1837: Presbyterians and Congregationalists on the American Frontier," which appeared in the winter 1989 issue. Although 1recognize that many others have contributed to the writing of this book, 1alone am responsible for omissions and errors of fact and interpretation. 1 am most grateful to my wife, Agnes, for her patience, encouragement, and assistance during the seemingly endless gestation of this book. With much love 1 dedicate it to her and to the memory of our friend, Sara Franks Chambers. Sara grew up in the Mission House a century ago when it was a fashionable hotel operated by her parents. Sara and Agnes shared a bond that we discovered a few years before Sara's death. Mrs. Joseph Light and her family; of Dayton, Ohio, spent several weeks of many summers during Sara's youth at the Mission House. Seventy years later Sara fondly shared her recollections of Mrs. Light with us during our visits to her home on Mackinac Island. Mrs. Light was Agnes' step greatgreat -grandmother. xii ...