The Alexander Majors House

The Alexander Majors House is one of the few Antebellum period structures surviving in Kansas City and is on the National Register of Historic Places.¹ The house and the grounds served as the center of operations for Russell, Majors and Waddell, a freighting firm famous for serving the American West and Southwest in the 1850s.

Location

The house is situated approximately sixteen feet from the Missouri-Kansas border, which–at the time of construction–also served as the western boundary of the United States.² Majors, an astute businessman, chose a strategic location for his homestead; Kansas Territory was not yet a state, meaning that Majors owed no taxes on his corrals, grazing lands, oxen pens, barns, wagons, and blacksmith shops. The Santa Fe Trail also ran right past the property, granting Majors and his firm easy access to one of their economic lifelines.³

Who Was Alexander Majors?

Alexander Majors (1814-1900) was born in Kentucky and moved with his parents, Laurania and Benjamin Majors, to Lafayette County, Missouri in 1819; they later moved to Jackson County.⁴ In 1827, Majors’ father returned to farming after trying his hand at silver mining. His tales impressed upon the younger Majors the numerous possibilities beyond the American frontier, inspiring Alexander to explore the developing Santa Fe Trail. At the age of 21, Majors was married to Katherine Stalcup and together they joined his father’s farming operation.⁵ Since he had no son to help around the farm, Alexander looked for other ways to make a living.⁶

In August 1848 Majors started carrying freight from Independence, Missouri to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a distance of 800 miles.⁷ Majors became the first Missouri traders to freight supplies to Santa Fe after the Mexican War, taking six wagons there and back in a record time of 92 days. The increased military presence in the Southwest made the journey safer.[^Godfrey1994B] The opening of Oregon Territory for settlement in 1848 and the California Gold Rush in 1849, and the expansion of military forts in the West throughout the 1850s presented Majors with many opportunities to expand his business.⁸

Majors made his workers pledge that they would treat his animals with kindness, use no profanity, stay sober all the time, and behave like gentlemen while they were his employees. Majors had a great work ethic, but he rested his oxen and men from Saturday afternoon to Monday morning and held worship services on Sundays. By 1854 Majors had earned a reputation as one of the most successful freighters on the Western frontier.⁹

Russell, Majors, and Waddell

In 1855 Majors partnered with William H. Russell and [William B. Waddell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_B.Waddell(Pony_Express_founder) to win a government contract to supply Army posts along the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails.¹⁰ Together they controlled 4,000 men; 3,500 wagons; 1,000 mules; and nearly 40,000 oxen.¹¹ Shipments were usually composed of twenty-five wagons, twelve oxen, and a teamster (with additional oxen, mules, and men in case of emergency). Russell, Majors, and Waddell made about $300,000 profits in 1855-56.¹²

Pony Express

The Pony Express marked the first attempt at large-scale mail delivery in America.¹³ In late 1859 Russell, wanting a large mail contract from the federal government, convinced his partners to go along with the idea. Originally named the Central Overland California & Pikes Peak Express Company, the Pony Express offered service between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California. A large stable of horses and evenly spaced relay stations allowed the Express’s riders to deliver the mail in only ten days–a record that would stand until the first transcontinental railroad arrived after the Civil War.¹⁴

Closing of Freighting Firm and Other Changes in Majors’ Life

In 1862 Russell, Majors and Waddell closed due to bankruptcy and a dispute with the U.S. Department of the Interior. Later Majors’ marriage and family fell apart, causing his second wife and child to move and change their names. Majors left Nebraska and spent time in Salt Lake City, where he witnessed the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 while he was working in the support of Union Pacific Railroad’s drive west. He later lived in Denver.¹⁵

His old friend Buffalo Bill Cody arranged the publication of Majors’ memoirs, Seventy Years on the Frontier, in 1893. Alexander Majors died in January 1900 in Chicago and his body was buried in Union Cemetery next to his first wife in Kansas City.¹⁶

Majors’ House

The house was built in 1856 on a 300-acre farmstead on the Missouri-Kansas border. This property served both as family home and headquarters for Majors’ freighting company.¹⁷ Two years later, when the contract system changed and Majors’ wife died, he remarried and moved his family to Nebraska City to oversee shipments to Utah; he gave away the state line property to his daughter Rebecca. ¹⁸¹⁹

Architectural Style

The Majors House was built in a Classical revival style. It employs a “T” shaped floor plan and contains nine rooms and two stories of light wood frame construction. This house is one of the oldest houses with light wood frame construction in Kansas.²⁰

Outbuildings and Grounds

The outbuildings next to the house no longer survive. There is a barn is approximately 100’ to the southeast and a smokehouse around 40’ to the north to the house. There also remains a well, a cistern (to the south of the house), a shed (20’ north to the house), and a cottage (60’ north of the house).²¹

Alterations to the House

Mr. and Mrs. A. Louis Rhul owned the house from 1904 to 1924. who later built additions to the house and owned it till 1924. ²² The Rhul family made several additions to the Majors house, such as enlarging the dining room and master bedroom on second floor.²³

Majors’ House Bought by His Descendant

In 1930 Louisa P. Johnston, Majors’s great grand-daughter, travelled to visit her ancestral home and found the house abandoned. She bought the house in 1932 and, for the next forty years, worked to transform the property into a memorial for her ancestors. In 1945, then-Senator Harry Truman initiated a bill to purchase and maintain the house but it never passed. Finally, in 1970, the American Historical Association got the house listed on the National Register of Historic Places.²⁴

In 1976, Kansas City adopted a plan to develop between Ward Parkway and State Line Road, leaving a six-acre park surrounding the house; unfortunately, the plan did not proceed for another decade. In 1979 Louisa Johnston died, leaving the house to Terry W. Chapman who worked as the restoration architect for the house. The structural work was finished in 1983.²⁵

Today’s Museum

In 1984 the Alexanders Majors House Museum was opened to the public for tours and events. In 2010 the house partnered with the John Wornall House and Museum to reinforce the area’s historic importance.²⁶ The Wornall-Majors Museum has organized events and celebrations like weddings, event rentals, on site photography, school field trips, summer camps, field trips, holiday candlelight tours, birthday parties and private and group tours.²⁷

The Majors House hosts ghost tours between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. ²⁸.

Visit the House

Alexander Majors Barn, 8201 State Line Rd (east side of road near 85th street), Kansas City, MO 64114

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Bibliography

Federal Writers’ Project, Missouri: The WPA Guide to the “Show Me” State. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 1998.

Godfrey, Anthony. [Historic Resource Study: Pony Express National Historic Trail](http://archive.org/details/historicresource00godf). Washington, D.C.: United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1994.

Kusiak, Martha. “Alexander Majors House.” National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination Form. Jefferson City: Missouri State Park Board, 1970.

Morton, LaDene. The Waldo Story: The Home of Friendly Merchants. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2012.

Pony Express National Museum, “Pony Express Historical Timeline”(accessed November 5, 2019).

Wood, Toni and Jilian Mincer. Wow!: Where Families Can Find Awe & Wonder in and Around Kansas City. Kansas City, Mo.: Kansas City Star Books, 2000.

Wornall Majors House Museum. “The Majors House”(accessed November 28, 2018).

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