ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the following people, without whom I could not have written this book:

• Diane Miller, National Program Manager, National Underground Network to Freedom, National Park Service, Omaha, Nebraska, for providing updated statistics on the Underground Railroad.
• Michelle Lanier, director of the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission, Raleigh, for her research assistance with Mary Walker and the connections she provided.
• Those who pointed me in the right direction when beginning the research for this second edition, including Dr. Tom Hanchett, staff historian at the Levine Museum of the New South, Charlotte, North Carolina; Caroline Manning, registrar at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts & Culture, Charlotte; Leslie Kesler, library aide at the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Charlotte; and Stephanie Hardy, site manager at the Historic Stagville State Historic Site, Durham, North Carolina.
• Caroline R. Miller of the Bracken County Historical Society, Brooksville, Kentucky, for her invaluable research on Arnold Gragston, Reverend John Rankin, and John P. Parker, and also for compiling census records from the Freedom Center in Covington, Kentucky.
• Anne-Marie Rachman, Michigan State University Library, Special Collections, for her research expertise, especially the information she uncovered about James Lindsey Smith.
• Marla Baxter, Assistant Director of Tourism & Renaissance on Main; Lynn David of the Museum Center; and Betty Coutant of the Mason County Beat in Maysville, Kentucky, all of whom shared their information on Arnold Gragston.
• Betty Campbell, president of the Board of Trustees for Ripley Heritage, Inc., and member of the Board of Trustees for the John P. Parker Historical Society, Inc., for sharing research on Reverend John Rankin. Her presentation on John P. Parker inspired me to write about him.
• Major Ronald J. Rice of the Maysville Police Department, for sharing research material on Arnold Gragston and for inviting me to visit the Broadway Christian Church in Dover, Kentucky.
• Doris E. Onorato at the Van Allen House Heritage Center in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, for collecting a plethora of information on Ruel Daggs.
• Mary Savage, the museum board historian for the Lewelling House and Quaker Museum, and Faye Heartsill, president of the board at the Lewelling Quaker Museum, Iowa, for sharing material on Ruel Daggs.
• John Zeller, research historian for the Antislavery and Underground Railroad Project of the State Historical Society of Iowa, for general information on the workings of the Underground Railroad in Iowa.
• Joan Beaubian, president of the New Bedford Historical Society and cofounder of the Massachusetts Underground Railroad Network, for providing information on Nathan and Polly Johnson.
• Jennifer Bergeron of the Barney Ford House Museum in Breckenridge, Colorado, for research on Barney Ford.
• Courtney Oppel, my editor at Globe Pequot Press, as well as Erin H. Turner and Allen Jones, who assisted with editing for the first edition of this book.
• The staffs at the Hege Library at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina; the University Library at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill; and the Rare Book Manuscripts and Special Collections Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, for their research assistance.
• Gaye E. Gindy, Sylvania historian, Sylvania, Ohio, for her willingness to share her wealth of information on the Lathrop and Harroun families. Her research did much to prevent the Lathrop House from being razed.
• Polly Cooper, Sylvania Area Historical Society, Sylvania, Ohio, and Catherine Martineau, Esq., for information on the Lathrop House.
• Sharon Sacksteder, FSIL, for sharing the story of Miss Edith May Haviland, her remarkable fifth-grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary School in Adrian, Michigan. The work of Miss Haviland’s abolitionist ancestor, Laura Smith Haviland, was thus brought to my attention.
• Beth R. Olsen, author and long-distance friend, who suggested that I write this book, for her encouragement and her research assistance on William and Ellen Craft, and for helping to unravel the quilt myth and its connection to the Underground Railroad. I also thank her daughters, Andrea Cramer and Julia Smoot, for the same.
• Melissa Johnson, for her friendship and continuous support and for accompanying me on visits to Underground Railroad sites.
• Lorie Helms, Beth Wilson, Anita Sanchez Fitzgerald, Nancy Mills, Kathryn Zychowicz Rahal, Pam Walker, and Joan Rush for their interest and friendship, as well as Beth White, my sister and friend.
• My husband, Mark, for his technical support and unending patience, and our children, Kelsey and Mitch. Thank you for being such a loving family.