author
A. S. (Asa Shinn) Mercer
1839–1917
Best remembered as a frontier educator and promoter, he helped launch the University of Washington and later became famous for bringing groups of women from the East to the Pacific Northwest in the 1860s. His life touched several chapters of Western history, from early Seattle to Wyoming politics and publishing.
1 Audiobook
Powder River invasion : War on the rustlers in 1892
by A. S. (Asa Shinn) Mercer
About the author
Born in Illinois in 1839, Asa Shinn Mercer moved west as a young man and became the first president of the Territorial University of Washington. Early accounts of his career describe him as a builder as much as an administrator: he taught, recruited students, and helped establish the young school in Seattle.
Mercer is most often associated with the so-called "Mercer Girls" expeditions, in which he brought women from the East to Washington Territory during the Civil War era, many of them expected to work as teachers and to help balance the region's heavily male population. That unusual and controversial venture made him a memorable figure in Pacific Northwest history.
Later in life, he worked in publishing and public affairs and spent time in Wyoming as well as Washington. He died in 1917, leaving behind a reputation tied to frontier ambition, boosterism, and the rough-edged energy of the American West.