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Into the Wilderness

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Into the Wilderness

The First book in the series.

hardcover U.S.

Into the Wilderness
Sara Donati
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553107364
Hardcover; 1998-08-03

mass market paperback

Bantam
ISBN: 0553578529
Paperback; 1999-08-03

Primary Characters

Residents Of Paradise

The Middletons

Judge Alfred Middleton, landowner
Elizabeth, his daughter
Julian, his son
Curiosity Freeman, a freed slave, his housekeeper
Galileo Freeman, a freed slave, the manager of his farm and holdings, and Curiosity's husband
Daisy, Polly, and Almanzo Freeman, their grown children, in Judge Middleton's employ

The Bonners

Dan'l Bonner (known also as (Hawkeye), a hunter and trapper
Chingachgook (known also as Great-Snake or Indian John), his adoptive father, a sachem of the Mahican? people
Cora Bonner, Dan'l's wife, a native of Scotland (deceased)
Nathaniel Bonner (also known as Wolf-Running-Fast or Between-Two-Lives), thier son, a hunter and trapper
Hannah (also known as Squirrel or Used-to-Be-Two), Nathaniel's daughter
Sara (also known as Sings-from-Books), Nathaniel's wife (deceased)

The Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk)

Falling-Day, of the Wolf Clan?, Nathaniel's mother-in-law
Many-Doves (also known as Abigail), her daughter
Otter (also known as Benjamin), her son
Runs-from-Bears, of the Turtle Clan?

Villagers

Richard Todd, doctor and landowner
The Reverend Josiah Witherspoon, a widower
Katherine (Kitty) Witherspoon, his daughter
Anna Hauptmann, widow, owner and proprieter of the trading post, and her children Ephraim and Henrietta
Axel Metzler, Anna's father, a widower and proprietor of the tavern
Billy Kirby, trapper, carpenter, lumberjack
Liam Kirby, Billy's young brother
Jed McGarrity, his wife, Nancy, and sons, Ian and Rudy and infant daughter, Jane
Moses Southern, his wife, and their children, Jemima, Adam, and Jeremiah
Asa Pierce, blacksmith
John Glove, owner of a mill
His wife, Agatha, his children, Hepzibah and Ruth; and his slaves, Benjamin and George
Claude Dubonnet (known also as Dirty-Knife), his wife, Gertrude, and his children, Marie and Peter
Charlie LeBlanc, farmer and trapper
Isaac Cameron and his grown daughter, Hitty, and his sons, Benjamin, Obadiah, and Elijah
Jack MacGregor, hunter and trapper
Archie Cunningham and his wife, Goody, and their son Praise-Be? and grown son Noah
Jan Kaes, and Matilda, his wife, and their grown daughters, Molly and Becca
Henry Smythe?, his wife Constance, and his daughter, Dolly

Saratoga

Major General Philip Schuyler and his wife, Catherine; some of their children, Philip, Catherine, Cornelia, Rensselaer, and three of their grandchildren
Anton Meerschaum, their overseer
Sally Gerlach, their housekeeper
The Reverend Lyddeker

Albany

Judge van der Poole
Simon Desjardins, French aristocrat and merchant
Pierre Pharoux, French aristocrat and merchant
Samuel Hench, a Quaker from Baltimore, Elizabeth Middleton's second cousin
Leendert Beekman, a Dutch merchant
Baldwin O'Brien, a treasury agent

Johnstown

Mr. Bennett, an attorney
Mrs. Bennett, his wife

In the Bush

Robbie Maclachlan, Scot, former soldier, a hunter and trapper
Jack Lingo, courier du bois?, hunter and trapper
Dutch Ton, hunter and trapper
Joe, an escaped slave

Good Pasture (Kahen'tiyo)

Stone-Splitter?, sachem
He-Who-Dreams?, faith keeper
Sturdy-Heart?, a maker of canoes
Spotted-Fox?, a warrior and fur runner
Throws-Far (also known as Samuel Todd)
Made-of-Bones, clan mother of the Wolf
Splitting-Moon, granddaughter of Made-of-Bones
Two-Suns?, clan mother of the Turtle
She-Remembers?, clan mother of the Bear

Trees-Standing-In-Water (Barktown)

Sky-Wound-Round?, sachem
Bitter-Words?, faith keeper

At Oakmere, in England

Augusta Merriweather, Lady Crofton, Elizabeth Middleton's aunt and judge Middleton's sister
Cousin Amanda Spencer and her husand William Spencer, Viscount Durbeyfield

Short summary

When Elizabeth Middleton, twenty-nine years old and unmarried, leaves her Aunt Merriweather's comfortable English estate to join her father and brother in the remote mountain village of Paradise on the edge of the New York wilderness , she does so with a strong will and an unwavering purpose: to teach school. It is December of 1792 when she arrives in a cold climate unlike any she has ever experienced. And she meets a man different from any she has ever encountered — a white man dressed like a Native American, tall and lean and unsettling in his blunt honesty. He is Nathaniel Bonner, also know to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives .Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, white, black, and Native American, Elizabeth soon finds herself at odds with local slave owners. Much to her surprise, she clashes with her own father, as well. Financially strapped, Judge Middleton has plans for his daughter — betrothal to local doctor Richard Todd. An alliance with Todd could extract her father from ruin but would call into question the ownership of Hidden Wolf, the mountain where Nathaniel, his father, and a small group of Native Americans live and hunt. As Judge Middleton brings pressure to bear against his daughter, she is faced with a choice between compliance and deception, a flight into the forest, and a desire that will bend her hard will to compromise and transformation. Elizabeth's ultimate destiny, here in the heart of the wilderness, lies in the odyssey to come: trials of faith and flesh, and passion born amid Nathaniel's own secrets and divided soul. -Text taken from saralaughs.com, Into the Wilderness --Kristy? 18:24, 6 February 2007 (CST)