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For the first time in 137 years, the descendants of Quantrill's Partisan Rangers rode back into Lawrence, Kansas on August 12th and 13th, 2000. It had been chosen as the meeeting place for the William Clarke Quantrill Society annual reunion.

This marked the 137th anniversary of the Raid On Lawrence where the entire town was virtually annihilated. As well, all males in Lawrence were put to death in retaliation for the September 23, 1861 pillaging and buring of Osceola by Jim Lane & Jayhawkers and the August 13, 1863 Jail Collapse of the "make-shift" women's incarceration in Kansas City (which had happened a scant 8 days earlier).

The jail collapse killed 4 of the imprisoned Partisan's female family members and injured several more. Later, several drunken Federal soldies celebrating the death and destruction would be heard bragging about the sabotage and weakening of the building causing the collapse.

Quantrill's raid against Lawrence occurred between 5 and 9 a.m. on August 21, 1863. Approximately 350 Missouri Partisan Rangers came from the east and had been riding all night to make it there. They burned the town and permanently paroled approximately 150 men to meet their makers. The residents of Lawrence, Kansas would hear Captain William C. Quantrill's Confederate guerrillas shouting "Remember Osceola!

The 2000 reunion was a bit more tame, and the event was well attended. The Eldridge motel (which had been burnt to the ground in 1863) held the reunion, and many speeches, lectures and other information was on the agenda.