John Calvin McCoy (September 28, 1811 – September 2, 1889) is considered the "father of Kansas City."
McCoy was born in Vincennes, Indiana. He studied at Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky, during 1826-1827. He accompanied his parents Isaac and Christiana (Polk) McCoy to Kansas City to perform Baptist missionary work in 1830.
In 1833, John McCoy built a two-story cabin at what is today 444 Westport Road on the northeast corner of Pennsylvania. McCoy opened a store for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail and Oregon Trail. He named the area Westport because it was the last location before travelers ventured into the Territory of Kansas.
McCoy's store was three miles from the Missouri River in the hills away from the Missouri River which was prone to floods. He established a dock at a rocky point in the river between Main and Grand Street that came to be called Westport Landing. He followed a trail that was to become Broadway to reach it.
The dock proved to be quite popular but the land surrounding it belonged to a farmer. In 1850 he and other residents banded together to buy the farm. Their company was called the Town of Kansas because the port area was the last inhabitable area before the flood-prone confluence of the Kansas River and Missouri River.
A statue of McCoy is today in Pioneer Park at Westport and Broadway. Also depicted in the statue are Alexander Majors and Jim Bridger.
He is buried in Union Cemetery.
John married Virginia Christiana Chick (December 20, 1820 – April 28, 1849) on January 23, 1838. She was the daughter of William Miles Chick (August 31, 1794 in Virginia – April 7, 1847 in Kansas City, Mo.) and Ann Eliza Smith (1796 in Virginia – 1876 in Kansas City, Mo.). They had children; Josephus (December 6, 1838 – September 2, 1843), Eleanor (December 2, 1840 – ?), Juliette (February 16, 1842 – ?), Spencer Cone (July 25, 1844 – January 8, 1863 in Springfield, Missouri as a Confederate soldier), William Chick (February 21, 1846 – May 12, 1848) & Virginia (August 22, 1848 – ?).