John McCarthy House

Built during the 1860s by Irish Immigrants John and Mary McCarthy, this limestone home replaced the family's previous log cabin. The couple fled Ireland in 1847 for the U.S. during the Irish Great Famine, eventually settling in what is now Edgerton in 1857. They arrived three years after the establishment of the Kansas Territory and the opening of Johnson County to settlers, an occurrence that furthered the displacement of Native Americans and led to violence in the late 1850s between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups battling over Kansas' future. Meanwhile, the McCarthy's grew to prominence as McCarthy helped build some of the first streets in Kansas City while also establishing the first Roman Catholic Church in the Edgerton area. By the time they built the limestone house, the town was on its way to becoming a "railroad town," which cemented its place as a small, but growing town.

The John McCarthy House, built sometime between 1860 and the early 1870s, is a rare surviving example of early Johnson County, Kansas settlement domestic architecture. The home serves as an unusual but clear interpretation of the American Gothic Revival made popular during the mid-nineteenth century by literature written by Andrew Jackson Downing. John and Mary McCarthy left Ireland during the early years of the Great Famine, settled in eastern Kansas just as it became a territory — amidst a slavery debate that proved violent at times, and built the home at a time when the town transitioned from a frontier town to a railroad town. 

McCarthy, born In Ireland in 1812, immigrated to the United States in 1847 with his wife Mary at a time when hundreds of thousands fled Ireland due to the Great Famine. John and Mary left their firstborn son, Florence (b. 1845), in Ireland and did not send for him until 1854, when they settled in Louisville, Kentucky. John initially worked as a laborer for railroads in Maine, Ohio, and Kentucky. In 1857, John, Mary, and their children came to southwestern Johnson County and settled in what became Edgerton, Kansas (platted in 1869, incorporated in 1883). 

They arrived at a time pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups clashed in Kansas, sometimes violently — roughly 55 people died during the "Bleeding Kansas" period of the late 1850s. In fact, the story of Edgerton speaks to the pro- and anti-slavery friction that existed. In 1858, two towns emerged near today's Edgerton: McCamish, a pro-slavery town, and Lanesfild, a free-state town. When the railroad arrived in southwest Johnson County (roughly 1870), numerous Lanesfiled residents moved their families two miles south near the railroad -- the Santa Fe Railroad; Edgerton evolved into a bonafide town. 

Before the railroad arrived and long before Edgerton's incorporation, McCarthy purchased land close to the route of the Santa Fe Trail just as white settlers came into eastern Kansas. The U.S. government opened Johnson County to white settlement in 1854, concurrent with creating the Kansas Territory — the county's Native American population, notably the Shawnee — quickly declined during the 1850s. Before McCarthy built the limestone home, he resided in a log cabin on the property, typical of most pioneers when first settling in the area. The McCarthy's evolved into a family of distinction during the early development of Johnson County. John McCarthy worked as a contractor who constructed some of Kansas City's first streets. The family also played an active role in local Irish and Catholic communities, including helping found a church in the Edgerton area. Indeed, before the erection of the first Roman Catholic church in the area, the town's first Catholic masses took place in the McCarthys' log cabin in 1857.  

Though the exact date of the home's completion cannot be determined, it is likely it arose sometime during the 1860s and likely near the time the railroad came into town, and a resultant increase in population transpired. Evidence suggests the McCarthys remained in the log cabin through the Unlike most homes consisting of log and wood framing in the area during that period; builders used native Kansas limestone to construct the building, likely quarried on the property. The McCarthy House is a vernacular version of the mid-nineteenth-century rural Gothic style. Literature written by mid-nineteenth-century theorist and author Andrew Jackson Downing inspired architects to design farm homes in the Gothic style. Indeed, In Downing's 1842 book, Cottage Residences, Downing illustrated a stone "ornamental farmhouse" that bears a striking resemblance to the McCarthy house. Still, the McCarthy House, like many rural farm homes, absorbed aspects of the style but did not fully embrace the Gothic design. As a result, homes like the McCarthy House are defined as vernacular interpretations rather than high-style examples.

John McCarthy lived on the property until he died in 1881, leaving the house and property to his son John W. and his wife, Martha. The family sold the property in 1890. Today, it survives as a reminder of several aspects of history that resulted in the erection of the historic home: the Great Irish Famine, the Santa Fe Trail and westward migration, the displacement of Native Americans, the formation of Kansas and the associated slavery debate of the 1850s, and the architectural influence of Andrew Jackson Downing's Cottage Residences. More directly, though, the home serves as a reminder of the McCarthy family and the creation of Edgerton itself.  

Angles, Steven. "A Town Between Enemy Lines: Lanesfield, Johnson County, Kansas 1858-1870." Chapman Center for Rural Studies. Spring 2012. https://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2097/41262/6688014dab1393110ff9e2e158bacfa6.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. 

Earle, Jonathan, and Diane Mutti Burke, eds. Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2013. 

Kansas Historical Society. "Kansas History." Kansapedia. kshs.org. Accessed February 8, 2022. https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/kansas-territory/14701. 

Rhodes, Joel and Rich Lippincott. "Registration Form: John McCarthy House." National Register of Historic Places. nps.org. May 2000. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/ee526fec-6a87-4d4a-99d9-7d4baf1a9c8e/.

Walkington, Lee. "An Irish Legacy." Johnson County Museum: JOCOHistory. 1997. https://www.jocohistory.org/digital/collection/alb/id/215/rec/1.