Noah Taylor Books

Seventh-day Adventists in the early 1900s were highly influential in establishing the basis for what has evolved into today's "Intelligent Design" concept of creation--a very contemporary issue among educators, parents, and politicians. Far from being a mere sectarian recitative of how a church of highly educated Christians has wrestled with the theological and scientific import of the early chapters of Genesis, Understanding Genesis offers a wide-ranging view of options available to any Christian interested in reviewing the main strains of thought that mesh the Genesis account with the clearly articulated scientific evidence that points to an evolutionary, rather than a spontaneous creation. This is not difficult reading, but it is intensely informative and heavily footnoted. It is also non-polemic and highly respectful of both fundamentalist Christian perspectives and purely scientific points of departure. Given the current national dialogue regarding the merits of "Intelligent Design" theory, this is a book fresh off the press with a great deal to offer anyone interested in engaging intelligently in the national dialogue.

We found this book to be full of interesting stories about early Texas. It was helpful in finding information about our ancestors and our early Texas family.

I learned of this book through the H-Texas History forum online and I was not disappointed. Occasional "old time" expressions make the account interesting and remind the reader that the writer is speaking from another time. The story as told from a first-person point of view was enhanced by my prior knowledge of events in Texas history. Reading about those events in the words of a person who was there was impressive. I highly recommend this book. I have purchased copies as gifts.

Dictated to one of his daughters when he was well past eighty, Noah Smithwick witnessed the panorama of Texas History. From the early days of Austin's Colony to the the aftermath of the Civil War, the text is lively with a dry sense of humor. But the reader is urged to use this book with caution. Some facts don't match up with other documents that were written at the time, instead of years later. (Noah had been banished from Texas in a round-about way. He had made a rifle and loaned it to another settler, who promptly used it to commit a murder.) Smithwick seemed to posess a fair education, which on the Texas frontier was something of an accomplishment. Blacksmith, carpenter, tobacco smuggler, gunsmith, racontour par excellance and even somewhat of a romantic, Smithwick's book is well worth reading.

Noah Smithwick was an old man, blind and near his ninetieth year, when his daughter recorded these words. After his death in 1899, she polished the manuscript and had it published in 1900. He had stayed on in "paradise" Texas from 1827 to 1861, when his opposition to secession took him to California. This book is his story of these "old Texas days." If his memory for facts sometimes fails him, his stories never do.

Read about what happened from someone who was really there for the early days of Texas.