FIRST DAWN

Author: Judith Miller ISBN: 0764229974 7/2005 HISTORICAL/INSPIRATIONAL Publisher: BETHANY HOUSE
Time Period: 1877

Lured by the promise of true freedom, a thriving community, and land to call their own, sharecroppers Ezekiel Harban and his three daughters set off for Nicodemus, Kansas. When their wagon train arrives, they are shocked at what they find, and many give up and head back home. But Ezekiel's family is determined to build a new life in spite of the disappointments. Dr. Samuel Boyle and his family also are drawn by the wonderful potential of the Kansas frontier. When the Boyles settle in nearby Hill City, the struggling people of Nicodemus get word of a doctor in the neighboring community and seek his help. As the lives of the Harban and Boyle families intersect, the two communities begin an enduring bond that seeks to bring the promises of the past to fulfillment.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

I'd never heard of the Kansas towns of Nicodemus or Hill City before, but after reading Judith Miller's FIRST DAWN and being inspired by her book to do a bit of researching on my own, I know of them now. Her story of two fictional families from totally different worlds whose lives meet and intersect as they begin new lives on the Great Plains, is honest, inspiring, and richly told through an author who has definitely done her research.

Jarena Harban's family are former Kentucky sharecroppers, who venture westward after being conned by a white man into buying land in the town of Nicodemus, a newly established, supposedly thriving black community he describes as the "land of milk and honey". What the Harban's find instead, is a vast plain with little wildlife, no town, no buildings, and not much by the way of usable natural resources. Unlike many in their wagon train, they stay, determined to cultivate their land and breathe life into a town they'd expected to find. It is their perseverance, their determination and faith that sees them through as they struggle to simply survive on the barren and unwelcoming land. But it's theirs.

On the other side of the coin are the financially secure Boyles. Samuel Boyle is a doctor, a northerner living in Kentucky several years after the Civil War. His views on slavery and racial equality are contradictory to most of those around him, and he's seen little change in the South's treatment of blacks after the war to convince him of a change in the southern attitude. Trundling up his family—his spoiled daughter, Macia, his dissolute son, Harvey, and southern belle wife, Margaret—he heads to Hill City, not far from Nicodemus, to settle into a life of farming and quiet solitude.

Judith Miller has given her readers a story of both parallels and strong contrasts. Both families have a deep faith that carries them through and guides their lives. Macia Boyle and her brother, Harvey, learn humbleness and a sense of purpose as they get to know and help the residents of Nicodemus, opening their eyes to the many injustices of a society that, at one time, they both would have seen as normal and an accepted way of life. Jarena's family struggles just to get enough food to survive; in contrast to the Boyle's, the Harban's lives are filled with daily toil, hunger, poverty and strife. And yet, no matter what they face they never falter, they never waiver in their determination and faith that the life they envision for themselves and their children will come to pass. As the Boyle's and the Harban's lives become more intertwined, the dignity, pride and spirit shown by the residents of Nicodemus only becomes more evident.

There are many secondary characters in FIRST DAWN, all well crafted and who play important parts in this book. Jarena, who since the death of her mother finds herself questioning her faith, finds her way back through the guidance and wise words of 80 year-old Miss Hattie. There's also a bit of romance as Jarena finds herself caught between two suitors, and Truth, one of Jarena's twin sisters, finds herself courted by a newly arrived newspaper man who has a secret of his own.

FIRST DAWN is an inspiring and uplifting story taken from the pages of true history and populated with both fictional and factual figures. I highly recommend it.

Nancy Davis

*For more on the town of Nicodemus, Kansas, be sure and visit these websites: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam010.html, http://www.soulofamerica.com/resorts/nicodemus.html; and http://www.legendsofamerica.com/OZ-Nicodemus.html.