Asa Mercer left quite the legacy. As a young man, he was one of the early settlers of Seattle—where he helped found and became the first president of The University of Washington.
Mercer later imported women from the East to be potential wives for the overwhelmingly male population—the famous Mercer Girls.
He also became an important newspaper publisher and writer. In 1892, he covered the Johnson County (WY) War, offering the anti-cattleman perspective in The Banditti of the Plains (hi

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus