James Henry Lane (1814-1866) was a noted military and political leader of Kansas. He was active in his home state of Indiana, serving as a military commander in the Mexican War (1841) and later as Indiana's Lieutenant Governor from 1849-1853. Lane then entered national politics as a Democratic Congressman from Indiana, and served one term (1853-1855). The Free State Movement lured Lane to the Kansas Territory in April of 1855. He became an active leader in the Topeka Movement. In June of 1858, Lane's political career was suspended with his land dispute with Gaius Jenkins, whom Lane killed. Lane temporarily retired from politics. In 1861, the people of Kansas elected Lane as their first U.S. Senator. Upon arriving in Washington, he found the city in great fear of the advancing Southern forces. Lane quickly organized a Kansas "Frontier Guard" which bivouacked temporarily in the White House and won the respect of President Lincoln.

Lane was the real target of the event that became the Lawrence Massacre. On August 21, 1863, William Clarke Quantrill and some 450 Missouri bushwhackers rode into Lawrence looking for Lane and revenge. Quantrill’s men killed 183 men and boys, dragging many of them from their homes and executing them before their families. Lane, however, eluded them. He escaped the raid by racing through a cornfield in his nightshirt.

Over the years, Lane maintained a close friendship with the President and became one of his most respected confidants. In 1863, Lane recruited, under the President's command, a regiment of black soldiers to guard the Kansas borders. Senator Lane died on July 11, 1866 from a self-inflicted wound received ten days earlier.

In the fall of 1842, Lane married Mary Elizabeth Baldridge, a granddaughter of General Arthur St. Clair. Together they had four children, Annie, Thomas, James, and Ellie.