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Acknowledgments

WHEN Ralph B. Keeler, President of the Juarez Stake in 1936, officially called me to be Stake Historian and placed a collection of data in my hands, I was mentally and emotionally prepared to accept. I had for a long time harbored an intense desire to record the story of Colonia Juarez.

Coincidental with the call from President Keeler came personal and professional encouragement from Harold W. Bentley, a one-time student and a long-time friend, who later became Director of the University of Utah Press and a Dean at the University. Hal insisted that the story had human interest and historical significance and should be recorded. Throughout the writing he encouraged me and guided the work and later took time from a busy life to edit and prepare the manscript for publication, making sure that each page was as correct and factually accurate as possible.

Untiring assistance in securing material, inducing research, and giving other support needed to go forward with the work came from my late husband, Ernest I. Hatch. He removed barriers to progress and lent the encouragement without which the work would never have got beyond a start. Ernest, along with Hal Bentley, not only gave constant and continued help, but these two worked together with me in the finest way when cooperative and coordinated effort was essential.

To Mrs. Marba C. Josephson, Associate Editor of the Improvement Era, I am greatly indebted for a reading of the manuscript and for suggestions. She too gave encouragement to continue a work I at times felt was beyond my powers as a writer.

To my brother, Paul Duane Spilsbury, I am grateful for going to much trouble and expense to obtain some good photographs of present-day Colonia Juarez and to Mrs. Florence Ivins Hyde who generously supplied a number of rare photographs from her father's collection.

For typing the manuscript and giving quiet encouragement through its entire preparation, acknowledgment is gladly given to Rita Skousen Johnson and others. For use of old photographs and access to letters, biographies, journals, and diaries I am indebted to many interested persons who willingly placed them at my disposal. The support and interest of a few remaining pioneers, such as Charles E. McClellan, Samuel E. McClellan, David E. Johnson and others, provided me with material from their keen memories that was invaluable.