On May 21, 1856, Douglas County sheriff Samuel J. Jones and a big group of pro-slavery men came to Lawrence. They burned down the Free State Hotel as part of the Sack of Lawrence. After this, the anti-slavery man Shalor Eldridge built a new hotel. He called it the Eldridge House, named after himself. This building stayed until August 21, 1863, when Confederate leader William Quantrill and his raiders burned the hotel and the city to the ground.