An Eastonian in Bleeding Kansas

Andrew Reeder had been appointed governor of the violence-wracked territory of Kansas

From WFMZ
Written by CWRT Board Member Frank Whelan
Jul 18, 2020

If it hadn’t been that it was a matter of life and death - his, in particular - Andrew Reeder might have found the events almost comical.

Here he was, one of the leaders of the Northampton County, Pennsylvania bar and territorial governor of Kansas, with a shawl thrown over his head and a bucket in his hand, following a small group of women, tiptoeing around the prone, passed-out, snoring bodies of the Missouri lynch mob who just hours before were ready to hang him from the nearest tree.

But this was just one of the events that had become a part of the Easton native’s life since, at the request of President Franklin Pierce and at the suggestion of then-Congressman Asa Packer, he had been appointed governor of the violence-wracked territory of Kansas.

When it was over, Reeder, previously an ardent Democrat with a laissez-faire attitude toward slavery, had become a Republican, a supporter of Lincoln and a vigorous champion of the "peculiar institution" of abolition.

Andrew Horatio Reeder was born in Easton in 1807. His father Absalom Reeder’s roots in America went back to 1656, roughly when they arrived from England, landing at Long Island. His mother, Christina Smith, was from Easton.

Reeder attended high school in Lawrenceville, N.J., at what later became a well-known prep school. From here, he read law in the office of a prominent local attorney, Peter Ihrie, who was active in Democratic party politics, serving as a representative in the Pennsylvania House and the U.S. Congress.

Reeder was admitted to the Northampton County bar in 1828. Unlike Ihrie, he had no interest in running for office himself. When the Democratic Party asked for his support, he gave it but always privately. When asked by.. CLICK HERE TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE