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184 Acknowledgments Many people deserve my heartfelt thanks for their help, encouragement, and understanding as I worked on this book. Especially deserving is my wife, Candise, who read the manuscript and encouraged me every step of the way while patiently enduring my need for solitude to write. A special thanks also goes to my brother, Bill Nokes, who started me on this journey when he asked one afternoon, “Why don’t you write about Reuben Shipley?’’ and pointed me to a page about the former slave in a family genealogy. Bill lives his dream sailing the Pacific in his ketch, Someday. My deepest thanks goes, too, to my son Jeffrey Nokes and my sisters, Gail Hulden and Kathy Nokes, all of whom read early versions of the manuscript and offered their suggestions, and to my other son, Deston Nokes, whose work on my websites and advice on marketing is invaluable. I am also much beholden to Darrell Millner, professor of black studies at Portland State University, who offered direction and suggestions, and steered me away from several errors of interpretation. The same for Stacey Smith, assistant professor of history at Oregon State University, who expanded my reading list and pushed me to give greater weight to Oregon’s place in the national debate over slavery. And where would I be without the tireless help of the good people at the Oregon Historical Society Library, most notably Research Librarian Scott Daniels, and reference assistants Hannah Allan and Jennifer Keyser. Any listing of those who helped me is risky because of deserving people I may overlook. But the list must include Harold H. Kerr II, president of the Howard County Missouri Genealogical Society; Gary Gene Fuenfhausen, a cultural historian in Arrow Rock, Missouri; Diane Knutson of the Miller County (Missouri) Museum; Mary Gallagher of the Benton County (Oregon) Historical Museum; Nita Wilson of the Polk County (Oregon) Museum; Lee Merklin, historian for the Henkle Family Association; Brian Waldo Johnson of Monmouth, Oregon; Renita Bogle-Byrd of Decatur, Georgia; Greg Shine, chief ranger and historian at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site; Walter Bachman of New York City; Amy Everetts and Donna Postma of the Cartography Department in the Polk County Assessor’s Office; Michael Ramirez of the Benton County records and licenses office; David Malone, land surveyor in the Benton County Public Works Department; Peggy Smith of the Independence (Oregon) Heritage Museum; Kylie Pine of the Willamette Heritage Center in Salem; Willie Richardson and Gwen Carr of Oregon Acknowledgments d D 185 Northwest Black Pioneers; and Andrew Needham and Austin Schulz of the Oregon State Archives in Salem. Also, Stephenie Flora, whose comprehensive list of early emigrants on oregonpioneers.com is invaluable. And, not least, my appreciation to Tom Booth and Jo Alexander of Oregon State University Press, who, respectively, guided this book through the selection and publishing process, and to my editor, Tara Rae Miner, whose attention to detail made this a better book. Lastly, one more word about the Oregon Historical Society Library. It is a treasure trove without parallel for researchers of Oregon and Northwest history. Found on its shelves are the journals and biographies of early settlers, newspapers dating to the 1850s, early photographs, and more than a century of Oregon Historical Quarterlies. Among the quarterly articles most helpful to me were several written in the early twentieth century by the late Fred Lockley, an Oregon Journal columnist whose indefatigable interest in the early history of our region, including interviews and sketches of former slaves, made a major contribution to this book. This author alone is responsible for any errors of commission or omission. ...

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