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Western Frontiersmen Series
About the Series
Biographies of the pioneers, explorers, and important early settlers in the West are collected in this ongoing series. Including many award-winning studies, the manuscripts that are included are selected on the basis of their original contributions to our understanding of the Western experience, the depth of their research, the skill of the author’s presentation. From mountain man Jedediah Smith, to lawman Bill Tilghman, to Mormon pioneer John D. Lee, these are books of unique figures from the frontier.
For years Robert Newton Baskin (1837–1918) may have been the most hated man in Utah. Yet his promotion of federal legislation against polygamy in the late 1800s and his work to bring the Mormon territory into a republican form of government were pivotal in Utah’s achievement of statehood. The results of his efforts also contributed to the acceptance of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the American public. In this engaging biography—the first full-length analysis of the man—author John Gary Maxwell presents Baskin as the unsung father of modern Utah. As Maxwell shows, Baskin’s life was defined by conflict and paradox.
When Horace Plunkett left Britain for the American West in 1879, seeking relief for lung problems, he launched a ranching career in Wyoming that influenced the cattle industry and altered the...
In the mid-1800s, Andrew Dawson, self-exiled from his home in Scotland, joined the upper Missouri River fur trade and rose through the ranks of the American Fur Company. A headstrong young man, he had come to America at the age of twenty-four after being dismissed from his second job in two years.In This Far-Off Wild Land, Lesley Wischmann and Andrew Erskine Dawson—a relative of this colorful figure—couple an engaging biography of Dawson with thirty-seven of his previously unpublished letters from the American frontier.
Alexander Ross, the pioneer recorder of the early fur trade in the far northern West, led a beaver trapping expedition in 1824 into the vast, unfamiliar territory east of trading posts in the Pacific Northwest. He and his men ventured deep into Snake River country in present-day Idaho and Montana. In this narrative, based on the accounts left by Ross and others, historian and legal scholar John Phillip Reid describes the experiences of the earliest Hudson’s Bay Company fur-trapping expeditions—ventures usually overlooked by historians—and explores the interaction between the diverse cultures of the Pacific Northwest.
Bidwell's life finally receives a thorough and unbiased treatment in this new biography. Combining narrative and extensive use of Bidwell's voluminous written legacy, John Bidwell and California...
The almost incredible diversity of Asa Mercer's experiences is striking. In adventures spanning the American continent, Asa was a surveyor, teacher, immigration promoter, collector of customs,...
In the western cattle industry, John Clay's name looms large. The young scotsman entered the field in the late 1870s, and he was soon employed by Scottish investors, purchasing and overseeing...
American Autobiographers in Mexican California, 1829–1847
by Charles B. Churchill
Working from the autobiographical writings of influential and legendary pioneers to California, the author weaves a rich tapestry of the California landscape in the 19th century. Kit...
Virtually unknown today, Stillman's observations have eluded even historians who have sought nineteenth-century travel accounts of Texas and the South. Stillman was a full-fledged member of...
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