Historic Murphysburg
The John Johnson House aka Schifferdecker Gardner’s House
A circa-1890 Schifferdecker estate cottage associated with gardener and property manager John R. Johnson—and with two of Murphysburg’s enduring mysteries.
At a Glance
- Address
- 419 S. Jackson Avenue, Joplin, Missouri 64801
- Year Built
- 1890
- Architectural Style
- Tudor Revival cottage
- Current Use
- Private residence
- Public Access
- Exterior viewing only
- Preservation Status
- Standing
- District / Designation
- Murphysburg Historic District
Story
Built by Charles Schifferdecker around 1890, the house at 419 South Jackson Avenue stands directly west of the Schifferdecker mansion at 422 South Sergeant Avenue. It is commonly known as the Schifferdecker Gardener’s Cottage or caretaker’s house. Research and restoration are ongoing, and the building may also have served as an office for Schifferdecker’s business and property interests.
John and Louisa Johnson
The house’s best-documented early residents were John Richard Johnson (1882–1946) and Louisa K. Martens Johnson (1884–1985). Born in Sweden, John came to Girard, Kansas, as a child and moved to Joplin at age twenty-one. He found work as Charles Schifferdecker’s gardener and eventually supervised the family’s extensive property holdings.
John married Louisa, Wilhelmina Schifferdecker’s niece, in 1903. After Charles and Wilhelmina died in 1915, the Johnsons became heirs to part of the Schifferdecker estate. John became a naturalized United States citizen in 1920.
A Family-History Puzzle
John’s obituary in the Joplin Globe reported that he had been orphaned at age seven after the deaths of his parents and siblings. Census records complicate that account: both the 1910 and 1920 censuses list a man named Andres Johnson—identified as John’s father—living with John and Louisa at 419 South Jackson. The contradiction remains an intriguing subject for further research.
The Petticoat Ghost
Several years after the deaths of Charles, Wilhelmina, and Wilhelmina’s mother, the Johnson family briefly moved into the Schifferdecker mansion. According to family descendants, Louisa was uneasy there because she heard what sounded like petticoats rustling on the staircase. She believed the sound belonged to the ghost of her late aunt, and the family’s stay in the mansion was short-lived.
The 1916 Davis Mystery
The cottage is also connected to an unsolved 1916 killing. Samuel C. Davis, a wealthy Tulsa oilman of Creek heritage, came to the house while Daisy Carter was living there. Contemporary accounts linked their relationship to an adultery case. Shots were fired inside the residence, and Davis was found dead. The case became entangled with the era’s larger disputes and schemes involving Native American oil lands, adding another unresolved chapter to the history of this small house.