The historical marker celebrating the contributions of Isaac McCoy to the founding of Westport has been mothballed for a while. While St. Luke’s Hospital was expanding, the marker was out of sight, but it will be rededicated in a ceremony on Sunday. Photo courtesy Jackson County Historical Society.
Isaac McCoy, or at least his historic marker, returns to Midtown on Sunday.
The pioneering missionary and father of John McCoy, developer of what is now Westport, had a home in the 1830s at the present-day location of St. Luke’s Hospital.
In 1961, a marker honoring him and his home, Locust Hill, went up but had been placed in storage during the renovation and expansion of St. Luke’s that was completed last year.
On Sunday, the marker will be rededicated at a ceremony from 1:00 to 1:30 p.m. in the courtyard area outside the hospital chapel, 4401 Wornall Road.
The public is invited to attend the ceremony and the reception that will follow. Speakers will include David Jackson from the Jackson County Historical Society and Dan Smith of the Westport Historical Society.
Isaac McCoy came to what was then the Town of Kansas in 1831, and he and his wife and family lived in the two-story log home near the corner of 43rd Street and Wornall Road.
McCoy, who died in 1846, was a Baptist minister known for extreme efforts to help Indians, which included the concept of creating an Indian Canaan west of the Mississippi River where they could live and escape corruption and exploitation by whites.
He, his son John, and son-in-law, Johnston Lykins, moved to what is now Kansas City to do missionary work for tribes, according to Wikipedia.
John McCoy established the trading post at Westport and was a founding father of Kansas City, and Lykins was among the city’s first mayors.
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