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Andrew Horatio Reeder was born on July 12, 1807 at Easton, Pennsylvania. His ancestor, John Reeder, emigrated from England to Long Island before 1656. Four generations later a lineal descendant, Absalom Reeder, the father of Andrew, served in the Revolution, became a merchant at Easton, acquired a competence, and in 1788 married Christiana Smith.
The son attended the classical school of the Rev. Mr. Bishop at Easton for several years and was then sent to Lawrenceville, New Jersey, for further training.
In 1825 he entered the law office of Peter Ihrie and three years later was admitted to the bar.
He had neither sought nor held office before his appointment as governor of Kansas Territory on June 29, 1854. He was a successful lawyer and a reliable popular-sovereignty Democrat. He was, however, little fitted by experience or temperament to govern a frontier community in which bitter factions were struggling for mastery. Not until October 7 did he arrive at Fort Leavenworth, where he established temporary executive quarters. The proslavery Democracy of Missouri expected his cooperation, but he assumed an attitude of independence.
In his first speech on Kansas soil he pledged himself to preserve law and order and to protect the ballot box. Accompanied by other officials he made a tour of inspection to acquaint himself with the territory and, incidentally, to invest in land. In November he called an election for delegate to Congress, and the proslavery candidate, John W. Whitfield, easily won a three-cornered contest. A census was taken the following winter, and a legislature was chosen on March 30, 1855. There was illegal voting on both sides, but the proximity of Missouri aided proslavery candidates.
At Shawnee, whither the executive office had been removed, Reeder rejected returns of six districts from which protests had been received and ordered special elections. In April he went east to confer with party leaders and found the administration unsympathetic. Pierce suggested another appointment but Reeder declined. He returned to the territory and convened the first legislature on July 2 at Pawnee, in whose "town company" he was financially interested.
After unseating antislavery members chosen at special elections, the general assembly passed a bill, over the governor's veto, reëstablishing the seat of government at Shawnee and adopted a memorial requesting Reeder's removal. The president had already determined upon dismissal, and among other reasons cited his belated arrival in the territory and his speculation in land. He attended the Big Springs convention in September and wrote the report of the resolutions committee. This embodied a violent attack upon the legislature, which had passed a stringent slave code since his removal. The radical tone of the resolutions brought him the unanimous nomination as delegate to Congress. At separate elections in October he and Whitfield were chosen by their respective parties, but Congress eventually rejected both.
In March 1856 the Free State "legislature" elected Reeder and James H. Lane to the federal Senate. The ex-governor was soon indicted for treason but, disguised as an Irish laborer, he escaped by way of the Missouri river and arrived in Illinois on May 27. His diary from May 5 to May 31 was later printed in the Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society. He was enthusiastically welcomed at Chicago, and on May 29 he addressed the Republican state convention at Bloomington.
A month later he presided at the Cleveland convention for Kansas aid and throughout the summer and fall took an active part in the Frémont campaign. At the close of the presidential contest he resumed the practice of law at Easton. In 1860 he headed the Pennsylvania delegation to the Chicago convention, and on the first ballot for vice-president he received fifty-one votes. There is some evidence that Lincoln tendered him a brigadiership in the regular army, but if so it was declined. He was chairman of the Pennsylvania delegation to the Baltimore convention in 1864.
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In appearance he was corpulent and erect, in manner generous and sincere, in business methodical and industrious.
He was married in 1831 to Amelia Hutter of Easton, who with five of their eight children survived him.
