One of the oldest houses in Lakin has graced the northwest corner of Waterman Avenue and Kansas Street since its completion in 1900. Originally the home of Daniel Patrick Kearny, the structure’s historical charm is undeniable.
Born in 1846 in Brooklyn, N.Y., D.P. Kearny moved with his parents at an early age to Racine, WI where he grew to manhood. He married Eliza McKenna in 1868, and their family moved to several different states before coming to Kansas and settling on a claim 20 miles north of Syracuse in 1887. Mrs. Kearny died in 1889, leaving behind D.P. and their three children: Edward, 23; Evelyn, 12, and William, 10. Kearny then moved his family to Hartland where he operated a blacksmith and wagon shop on the west side of Hartland’s Main Street.
In November of 1893, Kearny relocated again, this time to Lakin. He purchased a residence and blacksmith shop on East Waterman Avenue, and by December of 1894, his business had become so successful that he was building an addition to the shop. Soon he was selling carriages, buggies, plows and other implements. By 1899, Kearny had expanded into the hardware trade, and customers could purchase stoves, tinware, windmills, and more at D.P. Kearny & Co.
In 1899, work began on Kearny’s new residence which sat just to the east of his booming hardware business. The Oct. 18, 1899 Investigator reported that Kearny was “sparing no pains to make his new dwelling elegant and comfortable, Mr. Kearny is one of Lakin’s most successful business men.” By the end of January 1900, the fine residence was near completion. “He has been careful to have all the work done in first class style, and this has taken a little longer than was at first expected.” The cottage was eye-catching with its gingerbread trim, tin roofing and cupola. In 1906, Kearny constructed a three-room addition “to his already extensive and handsome mansion.” D.P. spared no money when it came to his lawn either. He recruited expert floriculturists from Topeka and Manhattan to lay out flower beds and plant flowers.
In October of 1903, the beautiful residence was the scene of Kearny’s wedding to Florence Amelia Caton who was 34 years his junior. In February of 1904, daughter Evelyn married John J. (Jack) Nash at the Kearny home. “The house was handsomely decorated with carnations and roses, which were sent by friends from Hutchinson, and the most beautiful the florists of that city could provide.”
In November of 1904, P.D. and Florence joyfully welcomed a daughter they named Mary Frances. A few months later, D.P. received word that his eldest son had died in the Philippines where he had been sent in 1898 to fight in the Philippine-American War. Daniel Patrick Kearny died February 14, 1910 at his East Waterman residence. At the time of his death, his youngest son had not been heard from since 1894 and was presumed dead; however, it was later learned that William died in Montana in 1930.
D.P.’s widow and young daughter continued to live in the Kearny house, and it was the site of yet another pretty wedding when Florence remarried in February of 1914. Her second husband, Homer Allyn, hailed from Washington State, and the couple soon moved to the west coast where Homer raised Mary Frances as his own. The Allyns also had a son, but he died in infancy. Mr. Allyn died in 1938, and Florence married again in 1944 to Ora Penning. She died in 1962 at Centralia, Washington. Mary Frances was 24 when she married Dayton Van Vactor. The couple had one son, and Mary Frances died in 1995 at Portland, Oregon.
After Homer and Florence Allyn went west with Mary Frances, the Kearny home was utilized as a boarding house/hotel. In 1919, Joseph and Martha Dunkle purchased the home and ran it as the Dunkle House. In 1922, Orren and Lydia Francis began running the Francis Hotel out of the building, and they resided there until the 1940s. About 1947, Arthur “Pete” and Gladys Marx began operating it as the Marx Hotel, but many Lakinites will remember it as the home of their son Vernon “Dutch” Marx, his wife, Vicki, and their two children, Marc and Kathy. The home remains in the Marx family.
SOURCES: “Diggin’ Up Bones” by Betty Barnes; Ancestry.com; Archives of Lakin Investigator, Kearny County Advocate, Lakin Independent and Garden City Telegram; and Museum archives. Special thanks to the Kearny County Appraiser’s Office.