In April 1854 Eli Thayer and others organized the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company in Worcester, MA. The company had four main aims: to secure reduced transportation fees for emigrants traveling west in companies organized by the Company; to provide temporary accommodations for those individuals while they located and built their own homes; to build or buy machinery, such as steam saws and grist mills, to help settlers in building a community; and to establish a Kansas-based weekly newspaper to act as the voice of the Company.

The first party left Massachusetts before the Company had completely finalized its organization, and over the rest of 1854 into 1855 several other parties traveled west to the Kansas territory.

In February 1855 the company was renamed to the New England Emigrant Aid Company. In addition to founding Lawrence, Kansas, the Company also aided in establishing Topeka, Manhattan, Osawatomie, and other free-state towns.

The Company's influence waned quickly. With Kansas entering the Union as a free state in January 1861, the New England Emigrant Aid Company began the process of selling all properties held in Kansas and Missouri, as originally planned, and throughout the rest of the 1860s moved its efforts to other territories newly opened to Euro-American settlers. By 1870 these efforts ceased, and the charter for the Company expired finally in 1907.