Looking into the past through Miles-of-View in Leawood

By Diane Euston

 South Kansas City looks little like it did 25 years ago. Slowly but surely, the acreage that still included farming implements and small frame houses built 100 years ago are being replaced by rows of grey two-story homes with three car garages that sit inside well-manicured subdivisions on freshly-paved, winding streets.

  Leawood, Kan. Is a perfect example of the quick shift from subdivisions nestled near rolling farmland to rolling farmland being replaced by more housing. The same shift that hit Leawood 25 years ago is now making its way to Belton and Raymore. 

  Thousands of people live within these subdivisions, but at one time, the same acreage that holds hundreds of homes once was the homestead of one family. If you look really closely, some of these homes still stand today. 

  One such home sits as a time capsule in Leawood, yet many people fail to recognize its historic significance to the area. The home, built over 140 years ago, was built by a local pioneer, shifted to a well-known Kansas City businessman and now – miraculously – stands on a patch of  valuable land at 143rd and Kenneth Rd.

Before White Settlement

  Prior to white settlement and the state of Kansas, the area where Johnson County is today was simply Indian Territory and the home of the Kanza Indians until 1828. 

  As white settlement crept closer, especially after Missouri became a state in 1821, the government was keenly aware that the lands just to the west were valuable. Tribes were still being relocated from the east under imbalanced treaty agreements, and under the Treaty of St. Louis, the Shawnee tribe of Ohio and Missouri migrated to 1.6 million acres, including Johnson County. 

  Up until the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the Shawnee lived peacefully on their reservation lands – but their time was limited. The mere mention of opening real estate in what would be Kansas Territory had Missourians just east of there salivating. In 1877, it was claimed that regardless of the land not being open up for settlement, this “did not deter scores of patriots from coming over from Jackson and the adjoining counties of Missouri to take claims.” 

  “Taking claims” meant building a shanty and calling the land yours. These settlers stealing Shawnee land were squatters.

  Starting in 1856, every member of the Shawnee could pick 160 acres of land, and the rest of the land was to be opened up for settlement. Johnson County was established a year prior, and the area was divided into seven townships. The southwestern edge of the county originally took the name Santa Fe Township after its neighboring proslavery town, New Santa Fe at current-day 121st and State Line. The name was changed later to Oxford and included lands just east of Olathe up to 95th St., south to approximately 159th St. and west to the state line.

  The Shawnee, resistant to taking the 160-acre option set aside by the government, fought as part of the treaty made in 1854 to remain on lands to be held in common by the tribe. Thus, Black Bob Reservation just to the south of Oxford Township and also bordering Aubry and Olathe Townships was established. This 33,400 acres was one of the last concentrations of Native Americans in the western portion of the territory.

  On the eve of the Civil War, Oxford Township was overflowing with mostly proslavery settlers who had kinfolk living just over the state line in Jackson County, Mo.

William Albertus McKinney

  Born in 1827 in Estill County, Ky., William Albertus McKinney was the oldest son of John and his wife, Cinderella Sharp (1808-1903). Two additional children, Francis and John, joined the family in 1829 and 1831.

  In 1831, William’s father passed away, and his mother, Cinderella (pronounced Cin-drella), remarried. She and her second husband, Archibald Stewart (1812-1885) went on to have nine children.

  William grew up on a farm in Estill County, especially connected to his mother’s side of the family. After Cinderella’s father, Moses Sharp, passed away in 1850, her family looked for a place to settle that may have better opportunities and cheaper land. 

  Cinderella’s older brother, Tilman (1806-1889), had already left for Jackson County, Mo. where other extended family members had settled in the southwestern portion. Around 1851, Cinderella and her husband, Archibald along with her children – including 25-year-old bachelor, William Albertus McKinney- uprooted and moved to Missouri.

  William’s stepfather, Archibald Stewart purchased land hugging the western border of Missouri, including the land which today comprises State Line Station shopping center where Target and World Market are today. He built a home for the family near 140th St. and the state line. Just over 200 acres of land was purchased for $2,670.

  The land was purchased from John Mercer Wells (1826-1893) whose farm was at the current site of Avila University. On January 8, 1857, William McKinney married John Mercer Wells’ wife’s sister, 19-year-old Eliza Jane Rippeto. A Tennessee native, Eliza had come to Jackson County in the late 1840s with her father and siblings.

  In 1854, William McKinney made his own claim to land 15 miles south of Lawrence, Kan. When he was needed by his family in Missouri, he left his claim and a widow jumped it in his absence. 

  Like most of the settlers in this area of what is now south Kansas City, the Wells, McKinney, Sharp and Stewart families were all proslavery. Archibald and Cinderella held three enslaved people in 1860, and the Wells family held two people in enslavement. 

McKinney Moves to Kansas Territory

  In 1858, William McKinney and his wife purchased land just across the state line in Oxford Township, Johnson County, Kan. and moved there with their daughter, Kate (b. 1858). The couple went on to have 10 more children: Mollie (b. 1859), George (b.1861), Lizzie (b.1862), Cinderella (b.1865), Francis (b.1867), Susie (b. 1869), Hugh (b.1871), Henrietta (b.1874), Oliver (b.1876) and Anna (b.1879). 

  When the Black Bob Reservation to the south of the McKinney homestead was officially opened up to settlement in 1867, white settlers came in droves. One story retold in the newspapers years later recalled that young George Washington McKinney, then just about seven years old, was a “strong husky lad” who would assist wagon trains “when they got to that red clay hill near the McKinney home.” The trains would get stuck, and people would approach the William McKinney home where “George and his faithful ox team” would dislodge the stuck wagons so they could head on their way.

  The land included quarries, an orchard, livestock and farmland on its rolling hills.

  About 1880, the family needed a larger home to accommodate their large family. On the land at 143rd and Kenneth Road, which was the Leavenworth military road running through the southern portion of the county, William A. McKinney built an impressive two-story white frame home. He called it “Miles-of-View” due to its impressive viewpoint overlooking the rolling countryside of both Missouri and Kansas.

  He continued to buy land, possessing over 400 acres.

  After William McKinney’s stepfather, Archibald, passed away in 1885, William’s mother, Cinderella, moved to Texas to be closer to a group of her children who chose to move there.

The Foundation of a Community: Santa Fe Christian Church

  Even with the establishment of so many connected families in the area, the nearest church for many of them was at Hickman Mills. 

  In 1869, a group of families living on the western border between Missouri and Kansas opted to start their own church in the town of New Santa Fe. These families, many of whom came from the stock of some of the first white settlers in southern Jackson County, included William A. McKinney and John Mercer Wells.  

  It took years to raise the funds to establish a church building. In February 1881, John Mercer Wells and his wife, Catherine Rippeto Wells, took three lots they owned in New Santa Fe, totaling just about 2/3 of an acre, and deeded it to the “Christian Church at New Santa Fe.” 

  Eliza Rippeto McKinney, William’s wife, became terminally ill in the early 1880s. There were burial grounds nearby, but the value of land and the uncertainty of their future had these pioneers rethinking their final resting places. Eliza’s own brother, Tilman Sharp, was buried in 1873 at nearby Mount Pleasant Cemetery at current-day 125th Pl. and Wornall Rd.

  With the land in New Santa Fe near State Line and 121st St. originally stacked to be the site of the church, John M. Wells and William McKinney, trustees of the church, took a portion of these lots and formed what would be known as New Santa Fe Cemetery. A cemetery would be safer for generations if it was attached to a church.

  The first person buried at New Santa Fe Cemetery was Eliza Rippeto McKinney (b. 1839), who died December 29, 1885 inside Miles-of-View.

  A peaceful, idyllic white country church was finally dedicated in 1892 on the site. 

  William Albertus McKinney continued to live at Miles-of-View with his children nearby. It was a custom for many years for the family to gather at the house to celebrate birthdays, and several of William’s children were married in the parlor of their homestead. 

  On January 12, 1900 at the age of 73, William Albertus McKinney took his last breath inside Miles-of-View. The Olathe Mirror reported, “He witnessed the growth and development of one state and shared in making another. He was one of those who took possession of this frontier as it was half a century ago, and wrought it into the magnificent civilization that now surrounds us on every hand. He shared all his labors, privations, trials and discouragements and with a heart that never doubted… He looked forward and labored on until he shared fully in the prosperity he had seen from afar.”

  A large funeral was held two days later at William’s beloved Santa Fe Christian Church, and he was laid to rest next to his wife in the quaint little country cemetery behind it. Just days later, his youngest daughter, Anna (1879-1958) was married inside the parlor of Miles-of-View.

  The Santa Fe Christian Church stood until 1971 after it was demolished under protest of many of the members – many of them direct relatives of William Albertus McKinney; a small fire had damaged the little church in 1969.

  In October 2017, a plaque was placed at this location, commemorating its importance to the early pioneers who once ensured their community had a church to worship in. Many extended families are attached to the McKinneys, including the Klapmeyer family who once owned the land where Timber Trace and Blue Hills are today.

Onto the Next Generation

  After William McKinney’s death, the land comprising Miles-of-View was divided among family members. Daughter, Susan (1869-1946) and her husband, John Summers Lawson (1863-1936) moved into the home. The couple was married in 1890 inside Miles-of-View in the presence of family.

  For years, John Lawson worked on the land as a dairyman, stockman and farmer. The family kept up the custom of celebrating birthdays with family; year after year, the descendants of William Albertus McKinney would gather on November 14 at Miles-of-View to celebrate their father’s birthday.

  In 1917, John Lawson closed out his work and sold much of his livestock so he could retire. A son was set to continue the farming and work at Miles-of-View while John and Susie McKinney Lawson looked forward to retirement inside their home.

  In April 1930, the McKinney family after over 70 years of ownership of the land, decided to sell out. John and Susie Lawson sold their “country home place,” Miles-of-View along with 120 acres. Even as secluded as it was then, it was too busy for them. They wanted to be in a comfortable, quiet location that was “farther out.” They settled in Lone Jack.

Miles-of-View Under Outside Ownership

  The purchaser of this new property was 52-year-old George Baker Longan, president and general manager of the Kansas City Star. Born in 1878 in Holden, Mo. to George, Sr. (1848-1911) and his wife, Emma Lard, George’s father was the assistant superintendent of Kansas City Public Schools.

  George was quite sentimental and loved his own personal connection to the area where Miles-of-View stood. The Kansas City Star wrote, “His choice of his Miles-of-View farm was influenced by the fact it was in sight of the ‘Little Santa Fe’ area where his parents taught school even before his birth.” His parents both were teachers in New Santa Fe in 1869. 

  In the 1930s, George expanded Miles-of-View, his country home, to include 440 acres. He purchased land on the Missouri side on the Blue River with bluegrass perfect for his pure-bred shorthorn cattle he raised.

  The focus of Miles-of-View was on raising the best stock in the country, and Longan spared no expense doing just that. In 1936, a bull born at Miles-of-View won best bull at the American Royal and took first in the grand championship at the International Livestock Exposition in Chicago. He also held Sir Norman at Miles-of-View, the half-brother of Kentucky Derby winner, Lawrin.

  George B. Longan, a city man, was not doing the heavy lifting at Miles-of-View. The herdsman and superintendent of his farm was very familiar with the old homestead and the neighborhood. His name was Alexander Majors Wells (b.1886), and he was the paternal grandson of John Mercer Wells and great-grandson on his mother’s side of Alexander Majors.

  Longan’s record breeding pure-bred Shorthorns was unmatched. He studied different pedigrees and types of livestock; he would even go as far as Scotland to buy the best in the industry.

  In the late 1930s, George Longan’s daughter, Georgette (b.1912) was living at Miles-of-View with her second husband, William L. Huggins and her two children, John and George. William Huggins would host an annual breakfast at Miles-of-View when there was a fox hunt in the valley. The event would cover over 30 miles.

  In June 1941, George B. Longan, then the editor of the Kansas City Star and director of the Associated Press, used his connections to bring Lord Halifax, British Ambassador to the United States, to Miles-of-View to talk “over farm problems.”

  At the age of 60 in 1942, George Baker Longan tragically died of a heart attack. The farm was then sold to Cornelius J. “Neil” Giblin (1891-1968), general manager of Kline’s Department Store. Neil came to Kansas City in 1933 to operate Kline’s; he had worked prior at clothing stores in Detroit and for a short time in Cleveland. Neil intended to use Miles-of-View as a country home.

  A lot of the livestock left after Longan’s ownership ended. Over 100 head of Longan’s shorthorn cattle were purchased by L. Russell Kelce, owner of a 542-acre farm in Grandview called Merryvale. A top bull named Prince Peter was purchased for $5,000.

  The Giblin family still owns the historic home, but much of the land has been sold off as prices of real estate boomed in the 1990s. Regardless, the house remains intact and one of the oldest standing landmarks of life before subdivisions and suburbs.

A House is More Than a Home

  The Kansas City area is especially lacking in historic preservation. More often than not, older structures aren’t repurposed or reimagined. They are leveled to build high rises or apartment complexes. In the suburbs, the value of a historic home is rarely considered when there is acreage attached to it.

  The survival of William Albertus McKinney’s Miles-of-View is nothing short of a miracle. The historic home has been lucky that the ownership after the McKinneys have remained dedicated to being a caretaker of the property.

  Leawood has few examples of this, and each year, more and more seems to disappear. There have been efforts to preserve some places, such as the Oxford Schoolhouse (once at 135th and Mission Rd.), the country school for the area from 1877 to 1955. The building now stands at Ironwoods Park. In 1918, the McKinney family and their cousins, the Klapmeyers, made up nine students of the small school.

  Another carefully preserved farmhouse remains on 12 acres of land at 132nd and Mission Rd. Constructed in 1877, the Sharp Farm was built by William A. McKinney’s nephew, showing yet again the close connection of all of these early pioneer families.

  It’s hard to imagine today what once was as we zip in our cars over busy suburban roads in South Kansas City, but there is evidence – albeit limited – to give us gentile reminders of the deep connections to the past. Their relics in our early history still survive despite development and modern progress. 

  Miles-of-View has stood the test of time.

  Diane writes a history of the area. To read more of the stories, go to www.newsantafetrailer.blogspot.com.