Lawrence, Kansas
In early October 1854, Andrew Horatio Reeder, the first governor of the Kansas Territory, came to Lawrence. He had a party. He asked everyone to get along. He did not say anything about slavery. The first winter in Lawrence was difficult because it was very cold, and people did not have good houses. Two miles south of Lawrence on November 3, 1854, the first elections were held. At the elections, a man named Henry Davis attacked a pro-slavery man named Lucius Kibbee using a Bowie knife. Kibbee then shot Davis and killed him. This was the first murder in Kansas.