The Johnson County War

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The Johnson County War

1Glacierman
lokakuu 12, 2020, 7:43 pm

O'Neal, Bill. The Johnson County War. Fort Worth: Eakin Press, 2004. 296pp; illus; index.

One of the iconic events in the settling of the Old West was the conflict between the rich ranchers of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association and homesteaders, "rustlers" and small cow outfits known to history as the Johnson County War.

The original account was by Asa Shinn Mercer whose first-hand account, Banditti of the Plains was first published in 1894 but the first and apparently most of the second edition were suppressed by the WSGA. It has been reprinted several times since 1954, however.

For many years, the best book on the subject was Helena Huntington Smith's War on Powder River (1966, University of Nebraska). It was well-researched and written and told the story pretty well.

Bill O'Neal's book, however, is a worthy successor. His research was thorough and he was able to tap into resources that Mrs. Smith was unaware of. This is very well-written, BUT there is a more recent work which was able to review sources that even O'Neal missed. That one is:

John W. Davis., Wyoming Range War: The Infamous Invasion of Johnson County (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2006, reprinted 2012). One reviewer had this to say about this book: "Davis mines overlooked sources to reveal how big cattlemen, egged on by two of their number with Hardin-like sociopathic tendencies, assisted by murderer-turned-lawless lawman Frank Canton, aided by a pocketed state government and paid-for press, aimed to quickly murder 70 settlers and local leaders, intimidating other settlers to clear out. They largely failed in this end, but in their later successful perversion of the courts, did selfishly endanger Wyoming’s reputation and future. The best book on Gilded Age greed gone Wild West."

I would suggest you read them all. Having already read Mercer and Smith, I am now engaged in reading O'Neal, and Davis' book is on my list as well.

2jztemple
lokakuu 12, 2020, 9:56 pm

Thanks for the recommendations. I already have the Smith book but I've put the others on my wishlists.

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