Frontier Law / Bookcrop (ePub)

"A gang of roughs undertook to kill Bill McConnell...he danced on their graves...hammered law and order into the wilderness with a pistol butt...his routine chores among the cut-throats of Washoe Ferry and Picket Corral stand eye to eye with the steel-nerved exploits of Wyatt Earp." -Idaho Statesman, Feb. 17, 1957

"Frontier Law is the story of the adventures of Mr. McConnell...takes the reader...through the mountain deserts, into Nevada, to the Boise Basin, the founding of Boise...through a rein of lawlessness, the organization of the Vigilantes and the stirring events that followed---all a historical background for this state and the west." -Twin Falls Daily Times, April 11, 1918

"Former Governor McConnell's book 'Frontier Law'...deals with early life in Idaho and the west. As captain of a band of men in the days of the vigilantes, Governor McConnell...helped bring law and order out of the frontier lawlessness." -Spokesman-Review, Aug. 30, 1925

"McConnell swore an oath against any man who stole from him again...he would administer justice himself...he and three other armed men...followed the trail left by the rustlers...caught the criminals near La Grande...McConnell had made good on his vow." -Wicked Boise (2022)

What events transpired in early Idaho to cause a mild-mannered vegetable farmer to swing into action and form a vigilance committee, credited with wresting power from the clutches of a lawless gang that terrorized early Idaho pioneers?

In 1924, ex-Governor William John McConnell (1839 - 1925) would publish his true life story of his early life in the 1860s lawless mining camps of the West (including Nevada, California, Oregon, and Idaho) under the title, "Frontier Law: A Story of Vigilante Days."

This volume records the observations and experiences of one of the most interesting and remarkable figures of pioneer days in the Far West. Of unusual intellect, tireless energy, superb courage, he saw and experienced pioneer life in all its manifold and dramatic phases.

The book will prove interesting, not only to those who love the West, but interesting and instructive also to the students of national growth and development - to those who love to dwell upon the great achievements in our national history. There is no part of our history more tense with human interest, richer, or more thrilling in instances of individual daring and superb personal courage, than may be found in the story of the opening and development of the Far West.

It is a story which never grows old. The elements of character which all must admire are never wanting. Self-reliance, a grim and purposeful outlook on life, willingness to risk, resourcefulness in hours of great peril, and through it all a fine strain of Americanism, loyalty to the fundamental principles of free government, make the story of the pioneer one of absorbing interest and, moreover, one of inspiration.

Invading a wilderness, a region without order, a vast country without law, traveling strange paths and adopting sometimes harsh and startling methods, nevertheless, the ultimate aim was great commonwealths, a country dedicated to orderly and regulated liberty. The pioneer was not merely an adventurer seeking gold, he laid a broad and firm foundation for these great states. They are in the true sense the real monuments to the pioneer.