Memory-1855

   That he [Governor Reeder] was unduly suspicious of plots against his life and subject to alarm will appear from an incident that occurred while he was yet governor and hedged by the dignity of his office, and before the vindictive feeling toward him had arisen. The bogus legislature was in session at the Shawnee mission, near Westport. Rev. Thomas Johnson, superintendent of the mission, was a pro-slavery man and member of the council, and many of the legislators boarded with him. While the mission was also the executive residence, the governor, for prudential reasons, during the session spent the nights at the American House in Kansas City. General Stringfellow had previously made a personal attack upon him in his office, and the friction between the governor and the legislature was increasing. Reeder was alone among this crowd, and as the one free-stater member allowed a seat in the legislature had repudiated it by resigning. The governor was in constant fear of assault, though the treatment accorded him had been rather ignoring contempt than threatened violence, and one morning asked Colonel Coates and myself to accompany him to the mission. In preparation for an emergency we went well armed. The forenoon passed with only a display of studied reserve in his presence. When dinner was called the governor took the head of the long table and Coates and myself a seat on each side of him, while the Rev. Mr. Johnson occupied the further end. Reeder, while adjusting himself in his seat, loosened his revolvers and brought them to the front, concealed by the tablecloth. Observing this, Coates and I did likewise. When the table was filled by the guests, who gave us only the recognition of a vacant stare, his reverence raised a huge carving knife and brought it down with such force as to startle us. When we had recovered our nerves it was seen that the startling rap was not a signal for assassins but a call of attention while he invoked the divine blessing.

Col. Shalor Winchell Eldridge, Recollections of Early Days in Kansas, p. 40.