Friends of La Charrette

The process of creating a self published book has been an amazing experience. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect has been the many contacts and friends developed along the way. From searching in archives, to acquiring hundreds upon hundreds of items via interlibrary loan, to sharing draft copies seeking suggestions, to working with the publisher, the many book signing sponsors and surrogates standing in for me at various events...I can only express my most sincere thanks for all their help, and friendship.

The most prominant of these are of course noted in the Acknowledgements, either collectively or by name. But when Cathie Schoppenhorst of Marthasville offered to attend the November 2005 Holiday Fair in St. Louis in my absence, she set a new standard among friends. Always a lover of family, history and genealogy, Cathie contributes mightily to her home community with a happy smile as displayed above, and as captured in poetry at the title link. By marriage we claim common ancestry but other members of my immediate family were also very supportive over these past five years.

Thanks to the entire family of La Charrette friends for your help! As a result, the newly reissued volume, La Charrette: A History of the Village Gateway to the American West Visited by Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone, Zebulon Pike will appear in January 2006. In addition to sporting a new title, its new cover has BillyO's (a Warren County native son and world renowned artist) rendition of Lewis and Clark departing La Charrette, a 20 page index, two pages of "Praise for La Charrette" offered by literary critics, professional as well as avocational historians plus a Forward by History Professor F. Todd Smith of the University of North Texas. There are even newly discovered details about La Charrette Village included.