Moved to new home, Westport covered wagon discovered to be older than anyone imagined

The historic Conestoga-style wagon that for 61 years was a fixture at the Old Westport Shopping Center, before its deteriorating wood body was hauled away last month and replaced, has been discovered to be older than anyone imagined.

Long presumed to be from the 1860s, the wagon has revealed itself, according to an axle imprint, to have been built in 1838. The date is significant as the year that John McCoy invested in what would eventually become Kansas City.

“What happened is when they removed it, that’s when the date of 1838 showed up on the axle,” said Marty Wiedenmann Jarvis, president of the Westport Historical Society. “I’m not sure anyone would have noticed it before, because it would have been under the bed of the wagon.

“The evidence is stamped on both axles.”

In June the wagon was lifted by crane and removed from its outdoor rocky perch at Westport Road and Southwest Trafficway. Its parts didn’t go far.

Its front wheels, axle and part of its shaft are now on display barely a half a mile east on the grassy lawn of the 1855 Harris-Kearney Historical House Museum , 4000 Baltimore Ave., owned and run by the Westport Historical Society.

Constructed in 1855 at Westport Road and Main Street on the site of what would later become the old Katz Drug Store, the Harris-Kearney House was moved west to its current location in 1922 and exists as the oldest brick home in Kansas City. Last week, on Friday, July 19, the home was opened anew after being closed since December 2022 for renovations.

Renovations included a gift from Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid and his wife, Tammy, to pay for fresh and historically accurate wallpaper in the home’s foyer, staircase wall and upstairs landing. The paper had not been redone since 1982.

The society also worked to update the historic focus at the house.

For years, visits to the home centered primarily on three narrow narratives. They included the story of the family of Col. John “Jack” C. Harris, the founder of Westport’s first hotel; on the family of his son-in-law Charles E. Kearney, who married Josephine, one of Harris’ seven daughters; and on Harriet “Hattie” Drisdom, a girl who was bought in 1854 as a slave by the family at age 11.

Freed two years later, she spent her lifetime with the family and in 1927 would be buried at Union Cemetery in the Kearney plot. Drisdom was the first Black woman buried in the white section of the cemetery.

“Our goal is to expand so that it (Westport’s story) covers everyone in Westport’s history,” Wiedenmann Jarvis said, “starting with the Indians, who gave up their land, not by choice; the enslaved population; the different immigrants who settled here, in addition to the founders.”

“History is dirty,” agreed Diane Euston, a historical society board member who teaches English, broadcasting and KC history at Grandview High School. “The trend of history now is revisionist, but that does not mean erase.

“We want to make sure that what we are giving is the full story that involves more than these people who came from Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and the South for cheap land. There is a reason they came here. It’s not just about those people. It’s about everybody.”

“We want to tell the rest of the story and we want to tell it accurately,” Wiedenmann said.

The interior of the museum and home contains period furniture, including what is believed to be the oldest piano in Kansas City, historic maps, books and other artifacts. The museum is currently featuring two exhibits. One is on the history of Steptoe, a Black neighborhood established south of Westport after the Civil Wars and which existed for decades. The other highlights historic depictions of Kansas City through the work of artist R. Gregory Summers.

Once removed, the Conestoga-styled wagon at the Old Westport Shopping Center was immediately replaced with a replica. Purchased in South Dakota by the shopping center’s owner, Cooper Weeks, the replacement wagon is painted blue and was built to celebrate the 1976 United States bicentennial.