The autobiography of nineteenth-century's Peter William Gravis focuses on the motivation that compelled circuit riders to prevail through harsh and hostile conditions as they worked to merge homesteads, villages, towns and cities in the sparsely settled central and northwest regions of Texas. This thesis fuses Gravis' life events and Texas' Civil War history to illustrate how historically contingent are notions of civilization, race, and religion; each has socio-historical significance that continues to influence our modern world's concepts of democracy and individualism. Gravis' experience explores autobiography and frontier theories in the forming of American identity in 1850–1884, through his personal moral journey with the Methodist Episcopal Church South, his experiences as a citizen of the Lone Star Republic and a soldier in the army of the Confederate States of America, and his many miles of service logged as he ventured into the Texas wilds as a circuit riding preacher.