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Construction on the Kendrick House began in 1849 and was completed in 1854 by the Rankin family who arrived from Ohio in 1842. For the time period, the home was considered a mansion by area residents who mostly resided in log homes. Most of the materials used in the construction process were taken from the family’s hundreds of acres of land, which ran along Spring River.
The Rankin family was most likely the first to commercialize the process of quarrying limestone and sandstone in the Jasper County area. They would pull the stone up from the bluffs along Spring River up to the area that is now known as Kendricktown to build fireplace bases. Little did they know how their efforts would impact the entire Carthage area.
A neighbor of the Rankin’s, Thomas Dawson, was hired as the building contractor during construction of the home and later purchased it from the Rankins in 1856. Dawson in-turn rented the house to William Kendrick from Neosho in 1857 and in 1860, the Kendrick’s purchased the home. It remained in the Kendrick family for more than 125 years and was purchased by Victorian Carthage in 1990. For some time, the home was seen by many as one of the finest residential establishments between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Many travelers coming through the area made the Kendrick’s home a stopping point.
During the Civil War, most of the Kendrick family chose to remain neutral and kept their doors open to both sides, which probably saved their home as many near the Kendrick house did not endure. The home site was established as a cavalry campsite with Col. Shelby, CSA, on Oct. 18, 1863, and it was during that time that the Kendrick family stood on the second story veranda and watched as Carthage was torched during the battle of Carthage. Later, that veranda was burned by soldiers. Many generations of the family that lived in the home afterwards had considered replacing it, but decided not to because they felt it paid homage to the Civil War.
The Kendrick House has many unique features. For example: major supports for the house are two large oak trees that are each two feet in diameter and less than thirty feet long and rest on piers of Carthage stone, and the drawers in the built-in cabinets on each side of the fireplace in the parlor were used to feed the horses of the officers during the Civil War. Some of the corn cobs were actually kept in the family from the feeding. And when some old paint was removed from a stairwell, the name Noah Wilson along with the date June 8, 1850 appeared.
Wade Utter is a columnist for The Carthage Press
Zooming In! is a column dedicated to the history of Carthage. Every Wednesday since July of 2009, Wade Utter has photographed and exposed the history behind new and century-old structures in the Carthage area.
