More Zeal Than Discretion: The Westward Adventures of Walter P. Lane

Acknowledgments

I have been working on this biography of Walter Lane for more years than I wish to admit. I owe debts to a great many people who contributed to the several versions of this work and to my development as a scholar. Attempting to name them all will inevitably lead to gross omissions. To those I miss, my thanks and my apologies. Sam Haynes, University of Texas at Arlington, deserves special mention. He was there at the very beginning. He, along with Richard Francaviglia and Gerald Saxon, served on my thesis committee, and their insistence on scholarly rigor has significantly influenced this biography. Also at UTA, Stephanie Cole first introduced me to the rich field of gender studies. Diana Hines and the staff at the UTA interlibrary loan office worked tirelessly to chase down obscure titles, and Katherine Goodwin, Sally Gross, Marcelle Hull, and the staff of the UTA Special Collections cheerfully assisted me in researching their rich archives. At Southern Methodist University, I enjoyed the opportunity to work with an impressive array of talent. I count Edward Countryman, Crista DeLuzio, Benjamin Johnson, Sherry Smith, and David Weber as mentors and friends. Without the generosity of Gov. William Clements , I could not have pursued an academic career. Thank you. In the course of my research, I visited a number of libraries and archives. The staff at the Archives Division, Texas State Library, maintains an environment of professionalism, congeniality, and accessibility that never ceases to impress. Thanks to Melissa Essex of the Guernsey County District Public Library, Peggy Fox of the Col. Harold B. Simpson History Complex, and Lisa Struthers of the San Jacinto Museum of History. I am grateful for the assistance of the numerous staff members who I encountered of the Texas/Dallas History and Archives at the Dallas Public Library, the Harrison County ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xii Museum, the New York State Library, and the archive formerly known as the Barker Texas History Center. I would like to thank Mary Lenn Dixon of Texas A&M University Press for her patience and perseverance in bringing this unwieldy manuscript to publication. Thanks to Archie McDonald and the East Texas Historical Journal for publishing my article on the Surveyors’ Fight, a modified version of which appears in chapter 3. James Crisp and Ralph Wooster read the over-long draft of the book, and I am grateful for their insightful encouragement . My family and friends have been unwavering in their support of my academic endeavors. I have always counted on my mother Candance, my father, the original Jimmy Bryan, my lifelong friends James Solis and Christian Dovel, and most of all, my wife, Liza, to whom I dedicate this volume. MORE ZEALTHAN DISCRETION ...