"The book is written in a free, flowing journalistic style, but with a pen dipped in gall. It does not mince words … [and] is a timely contribution to the history of the West. That it recites the facts of a deep and damning crime detracts not the least from its value." - Denver Daily News The Banditti of the Plains, first published in 1894 is an eyewitness exposé of Wyoming's Johnson County range war of the early 1890s.  The conflict between cattlemen and small homesteaders, began when cattle companies ruthlessly persecuted supposed cattle-rustlers in Wyoming.  As tensions mounted between the large ranchers and the smaller settlers, the cattlemen hired armed gunmen to invade Johnson County and destroy the competition for the limited supply of forage and water.  As the fighting spread, the homesteaders and smaller ranchers, as well as the state lawmen, formed a posse of 200 men to oppose them.  The fighting ended when the U.S. Cavalry, on the orders of President Benjamin Harrison, relieved the two opposing forces took the cattlemen and hired guns into protective custody.  Subsequent legal (and illegal) maneuvering permitted the invaders to go unpunished, but the cattlemen never again resorted to violence in their effort to control Wyoming's rangeland.  Asa Shinn Mercer (June 6, 1839 – August 10, 1917) was the first president of the Territorial University of Washington and a member of the Washington State Senate. He is remembered primarily for his role in three milestones of the old American West: the founding of the University of Washington, the Mercer Girls, and the Johnson County War. Mercer became well known throughout the West as a publisher, and eventually found his way to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he published the Northwestern Livestock Journal, a public relations vehicle for the moneyed cattle interests. As Mercer came to see the clearly underhanded treatment of individual ranchers by the cartels, he began to write more scathing accounts of the events that were unfolding on the open range. His account is told in his book The Banditti of the Plains (1894), which was suppressed in its day, and is still difficult to find in public libraries in some parts of the Western U.S. Following the events of the Johnson County War, which included destruction of his newspaper office by arson, Mercer settled into the quiet life of a successful rancher in Hyattville, Wyoming, where he died in 1917.

The Banditti of the Plains: Or The Cattlemen's Invasion of Wyoming in 1892

History

Mercer, A.S.

Americas

Independently published

<p>The true story of the Johnson County War written by the crusading local journalist who had once been on the side of the cattle barons.Asa Shinn Mercer is best known today as one of the Mercer brothers who brought pioneer brides from the east coast to the frontier town of Seattle in the 1860s. That story was fictionalized in the 1960s TV hit, "Here Come the Brides."Thirty years later, Mercer moved his family to Cheyenne, Wyoming to run the public relations newspaper for the Wyoming Stock Grower's Association. He soon found that the cattle barons were engaged in theft, extortion, and even murder to drive out small ranchers from Johnson County and claim exclusive rights to grazing and water.Turning his journalistic sights on the cattlemen, Mercer was threatened, beaten, his office taken over, and his newspaper suspended for a time. But he persevered, writing this account of the dangerous men he knew and had once worked for.The first edition of this book, "The Banditti of the Plains," was suppressed and today is extremely rare, fetching prices in the thousands of dollars. In 1923, John Mercer Boots republished the book and this edition expands on that one.Updated with an extensive new introduction and annotations about the principal actors in the drama, which did not appear in Mercer's or Boots' editions, this important work is now available for a 21st century audience.</p>

Powder River Invasion: War on the Rustlers in 1892 (Expanded, Annotated)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mercer, A.S.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mercer, A.S.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mercer, A.S.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Banditti of the Plains: Or The Cattlemen's Invasion of Wyoming in 1892

Powder River Invasion: War on the Rustlers in 1892 (Expanded, Annotated)