Civilizing the Texas Frontier traces the lives of Mr. and Mrs. James Lowry Smith, Amarillo pioneers when the population of that city was just two hundred. The story begins in Salado, Texas, and Horn Lake, Mississippi where they spent their early lives; then focuses on their meeting and subsequent engagement in Colorado City; and ends with their immense contributions to the spiritual, cultural, business, and social growth of the Queen City of the Plains. The book is thematically tied to the numerous evolving civilizing events of the Texas frontier including the advent of telephone and postal service and the west Texas roots of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the formation of the largest wholesale grocery business of the time.