This page contains the "This Month in Legal History"
column as published in the current Douglas County Law Library E-Mail
Newsletter. The column features a different event from the history of
law and jurisprudence of Douglas County, Kansas, that occurred during
the month. It is published monthly in the Douglas County Law Library
E-Mail Newsletter and on the Home page of this website.
Archived entries from this and previous years can be accessed by
visiting the This
Month in Legal History Archive page on this website.
January 7, 1857
- Sam Jones resigns as sheriff of Douglas County, Kansas Territory.
Samuel J. Jones was appointed as the first sheriff of Douglas County,
Kansas Territory, on August 27, 1855. He had been born in Virginia, but
by late 1854, he was living in Westport, Missouri, with his wife and
two young children. He was one of several thousand men from Missouri
who came across the border into Kansas Territory on March 30, 1855, and
ensured that the proslavery cause would win the territorial election
that day by taking over the polling places, in many cases not allowing
Free-State men to vote, and seizing ballot boxes. His efforts that day
caught the eye of Acting Territorial Governor Daniel Woodson, a fellow
Virginian and supporter of slavery, who then appointed Jones as the
first sheriff of Douglas County. Jones became notorious with Free-State
supporters in Kansas, for what they saw as his blatant use of the
office to aid the proslavery movement. The most egregious example
involved a large force of proslavery men who had invaded Lawrence, the
headquarters of the Free-State movement in Kansas Territory. The men
were originally under the command of United States Marshal Israel B.
Donaldson, and ostensibly were in Lawrence to assist him serving
warrants on several Free-State supporters. After Donaldson had
completed his mission on May 21, 1856, Jones took command of the men
and led them as they sacked and burned part of the town, including the
Free State Hotel and the offices of two Free-State newspapers. The sack
of Lawrence ushered in the most violent summer of the "Bleeding Kansas"
period, with one act of violence building on another. At the end of
1856, Jones became involved in a dispute with then Territorial Governor
John Geary. The Governor had denied Jones' request to be issued balls
and chains to put on prisoners he was holding in Lecompton, then the
capitol of the Territory. The Sheriff wanted to impose harsh corporal
punishment on the Free-state men he was holding in prison there, but
Geary wanted a more lenient, conciliatory policy, and so refused the
Sheriff's request. In response, Jones resigned as Sheriff on January 7,
1857. He soon left Kansas and moved to New Mexico Territory.
From: Samuel J. Jones (Sheriff), ca.1820-ca.1880,
Territorial Kansas Online website.
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Douglas County Law Library. All rights reserved.
