In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

ix Acknowledgments uvWWVU F irst and foremost,I thank Keith Widder for suggesting this book and for generously sharing the expertise he has developed through decades of working as a historian of the Great Lakes.He graciously offered advice not only as I worked on this manuscript, but from the very beginning of my obsession with the Wheelers. Thanks to Michigan State University for giving me the sabbatical I needed to focus on this project and to the Harvard Divinity School for giving me the chance to develop some expertise of my own by spending my sabbatical as a visiting scholar there.This meant I not only could audit Harvard classes,but I also had access to the amazing collections in the Harvard libraries. I am especially grateful to Ann Braude and Brian Delay for allowing me to attend their seminars. I could not have taken advantage of these opportunities without a place to stay in Cambridge,so I thank the Episcopal Divinity School and especially Margaret Thorpe for supplying me with convenient, affordable housing, which I shared with kind people from all over the world. I also thank Anne Dubuisson Anderson, who helped me figure out how to shape the manuscript and made very helpful comments about the portions she reviewed. And I owe a debt of gratitude to friends and family who expressed enough interest in and enthusiasm about the project to keep me going: Bob Cary and Janet Nussmann,Jerome Gundersen,Agnes Widder,Sylvia Watanabe, Sybil Eakin, Patti Mueller, Judy Jensen, Sigurd Midelfort, Catherine Cook, my brother Jon Bunge and his family.Thanks also to Bonnie Zahn and Nan Hutton for their research help. x a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s Of course, professional validation also helps, so I am grateful to Waldemar Zacharasiewicz for inviting me to speak about the Wheelers at the University of Vienna and to Alexia Kosmider and William D. Howden, the editors of the ATQ issues where my first work on the Wheelers appeared. Thanks to the many librarians who helped me locate relevant materials in their collections, especially Patricia Albright of the Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections; Martha Mayo, director of the Center for Lowell History; and Elizabeth J. Delene, archivist for the Bishop Baraga Association in Marquette, Michigan. I also learned a lot from Jim Daumpier of the Baraga County Historical Museum, from Sharon Manthei of the Ashland Historical Society Museum,and especially from Timm Severud,who describes himself as a “regional amateur historical researcher who helps people. ” I am lucky to have Michigan State University Press as my publisher, in part because dealing with the Press has been extremely pleasant. Julie Loehr has not only been enormously helpful, her enthusiasm for the project motivated me to try my best. And thanks also to Travis Kimbel for patiently answering my endless questions as I grappled with the details of getting this book ready for publication, to Robert Burchfield for his expert copyediting, to Annette Tanner for producing such an attractive book, and to Kristine M. Blakeslee for cheerfully overseeing the entire project. This collection would have been completely impossible if Steve Cotherman, director of the Madeline Island Historical Museum, and Linda Mittlestadt, archivist at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center, had not collected and preserved the Wheeler Papers.Thanks especially to Steve Cotherman and Linda Mittlestadt for their persistent cheer and helpfulness as my visits to their collections multiplied and the years passed. I also appreciate Pam Ekholm’s help at the Ashland archives. Unless otherwise indicated, all the documents come from the Wheeler Family Papers, Northland Mss 14, Part I, Box 1, Folders 6–11, and Box 2,Folders 1–5,at the Wisconsin Historical Center and Archives,Ashland. ...

Share