Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farmstead: Serving the Needs of People on the Move In these activities using primary and secondary sources, students will investigate the role of the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farmstead in the development of Olathe and Kansas through the lenses of geography, government, history, and economics. National History Standards: United States Era 4: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861) Standard 2: How the industrial revolution, increasing immigration, the rapid expansion of slavery, and the westward movement changed the lives of Americans and led toward regional tensions. o Standard 2A: The student understands how the factory system and the transportation and market revolutions shaped regional patterns of economic development. Putting . Explain how the major technological developments that revolutionized land and water transportation arose and analyze how they transformed the economy, created international markets, and affected the environment. Compare how patterns of economic growth and recession affected territorial expansion and community life in the North, South, and West. o Standard 2E: The student understands the settlement of the West. Explore the lure of the West and the reality of life on the frontier. Analyze cultural interactions among diverse groups in the trans-Mississippi region. Assess the degree to which political democracy was a characteristic of the West and evaluate the factors influencing political and social conditions on the frontier. Standard 4: The sources and character of cultural, religious, and social reform movements in the antebellum period. o Standard 4A: The student understands the abolitionist movement. Analyze changing ideas about race and assess the reception of proslavery and antislavery ideologies in the North and South. o Standard 4C: The student understands changing gender roles and the ideas and activities of women reformers. o Compare the North, South, and West in terms of men's and women's occupations, legal rights, and social status. C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards Civics o D2.Civ.10.6-8. Explain the relevance of personal interests and perspectives, civic virtues, and democratic principles when people address issues and problems in government and civil society. o D2.Civ.14.6-8. Compare historical and contemporary means of changing societies, and promoting the common good. Economics o D2.Eco.1.6-8. Explain how economic decisions affect the well-being of individuals, businesses, and society. o D2.Eco.7.6-8 Analyze the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in a market economy. Geography o D2.Geo.2.6-8. Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions, and changes in their environmental characteristics. o D2.Geo.5.6-8. Analyze the combinations of cultural and environmental characteristics that make places both similar to and different from other places. o D2.Geo.7.6-8. Explain how changes in transportation and communication technology influence the spatial connections among human settlements and affect the diffusion of ideas and cultural practices. History o D2.His.2.6-8. Classify series of historical events and developments as examples of change and/or continuity. o D2.His.4.6-8. Analyze multiple factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras. o D2.His.12.6-8. Use questions generated about multiple historical sources to identify further areas of inquiry and additional sources. o D2.His.16.6-8. Organize applicable evidence into a coherent argument about the past. Objectives To analyze the relationship between geography, history, economics, and government at the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm. To describe the role of the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm in the development of Olathe and Kansas. To examine the Mahaffies and their farmstead in terms of change and continuity over time. To compare and contrast the roles of men, women, and children on the Mahaffie farmstead. Setting the Stage (information from the Mahaffie website at http://www.mahaffie.org/about-us ) Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm offers a unique hands on experience for visitors of all ages focusing on 1860s farming, frontier life and stagecoach travel while preserving the nationally significant Mahaffie Story. Mahaffie is the last remaining stagecoach stop open to the public on the Santa Fe Trail. The stone farmhouse built by James B. and Lucinda Mahaffie in 1865 is one of the few stagecoach stops left on the Santa Fe Trail, and the only one preserved as a public historic site. Along with the farmhouse, the stone ice house (also built in 1865) and the original timber-frame barn (probably the oldest building on the site and built around 1860) are all listed on the on the National and Kansas Registers of Historic Places. The site is also designated as an official component of the Santa Fe National Historic Trail by the National Park Service. About twenty acres remain of the original 360 acre farm once owned by James Beatty and Lucinda. The farm is located on the "Westport Route," which actually carried traffic of all the trails leading out of Westport, Missouri: the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails. Arriving in Olathe in 1857 from Indiana, the Mahaffies purchased this farm site in 1858 and used oxen to move a portion of the wood frame home from their downtown lot to their new holdings - at that time, about a mile outside of town. The family lived in that home until the new, stone house was finished in 1865. The family owned another 200 acres in land around the community. The Barlow and Sanderson Stagecoach Line contracted with the Mahaffie family to provide one of the stops needed for their coaches, running between Fort Scott and Fort Leavenworth, and carrying passengers and the U.S. Mail from Independence, Missouri all the way to Santa Fe. By 1865 and until 1869, hungry passengers took their meals in the basement of the stone farmhouse, built to serve as a kitchen and dining hall. In 1867, Lucinda, her daughters, and hired helpers might have served as many as 50 to100 meals a day. While the passengers ate, the incoming teams of horses were switched for fresh animals. The scope of the Mahaffies' inn-keeping business for other travelers (in the first, smaller home and then out of the 1865 stone house) is not entirely clear, and is the subject of ongoing research. James Beatty Mahaffie was first, and foremost, a farmer and is listed in census records as such. The family did not suffer when the railroad arrived in Olathe in 1869 and ended local stagecoach operations. J.B. helped to incorporate, and then served on the board of directors, of one of the early railroad companies. The Mahaffie home and adjoining property was purchased by the City of Olathe in 1979 to insure its preservation and to operate as a historic site. In 1997, the city purchased the properties to the east and south to further protect the site from encroaching development, and to provide park facilities and a location for a support facility in the future. Today, the site is administered by the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Olathe. The Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm Foundation supports fundraising efforts for the preservation of the site and public programming. Locating the Site Essential Questions: How can a map reflect continuity and change in a place over time? How does a map reflect the dynamic relationships between people, places, and the environment? Sectional map of Johnson County from the 1874 Atlas of Johnson County - http://www.jocohistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/atlas/id/90, p. 8. This map shows townships, cities, ranges, churches, schools, school district numbers, projected railroads, existing railroads, wagon roads, landscape features, and bodies of water and includes inset maps and charts with additional data. Map of Olathe Township from the 1874 Atlas of Johnson County - http://www.jocohistory.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/atlas/id/90/rec/2, p. 34. This map shows towns, townships, sections, ranges, property ownership, railroads, private and public roads, churches, schools, school district numbers and borders, residences, orchards, groves, forest, vineyards, nurseries, stone quarries, cemeteries, elevations, and bodies of water. Use the National Archives map analysis worksheet online at http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/map_analysis_worksheet.pdf to analyze the maps. Discussion question: How do these maps reflect the history, economics, government, and geography of their time? Readings Excerpt from Taverns & Travelers; Inns of the Early Midwest by Paton Yoder – 1969; Indiana University Press. Yoder was Dean and Professor of History at Heston College. He never heard of Beatty Mahaffie, and did not include him in this book, but this description of an eastern innkeeper compares well with Mahaffie’s role as an innkeeper. The Mahaffies and their stagecoach stop/inn/tavern by Tim Talbott, 2014. This article synthesizes a selection of primary sources to paint a picture of the Mahaffie family and their lifestyle. Living History –by Elizabeth Hobson, 2016. This article describes what living history is and how historical interpretation is done. Excerpt from the National Register Nomination for the J.B. Mahaffie House, 1977. Primary Source Evidence The Mahaffie Farmstead by Miss Ella Mahaffie - – This four page article is an interview of Ella Mahaffie as told to Jessie Benton. Ella Mahaffie died June 23, 1958, so this may have been written for the Olathe Centennial celebrated in September 1957. The recollections are of the period of time when the farmstead served as a stagecoach stop. Carrie Stearns’ account of stagecoach travel from Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier by Joanna L. Stratton (1981). (We have no traveler’s specific account of stopping at Mahaffie, but this woman almost certainly did, given the date, the route, and the coach line – Sanderson.) A portion of page 101 from the 1874 Atlas of Johnson County depicting the farm of J.B.