Edward P. McCabe
Politician, land agent, immigration promoter. Born: Troy, New York on October 10, 1850. Married: Sarah J. Bryant, Clinton, Iowa, October 27, 1880. Died: Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, March 12, 1920, Chicago.
Edward McCabe was born to Lloyd and Elizabeth P. McCabe in Troy, Rensselaer County, New York, on October 10, 1850. Largely raised by his mother, McCabe moved with his family frequently from New York to Fall River, Massachusetts, and Newport, Rhode Island. He and an older sister, Harriet, were two of the family’s four children who lived to maturity. McCabe attended school in Bangor, Maine, where a growing African American population had access to higher education.
McCabe worked as a clerk in New York City in 1870, a clerk on Wall Street, a clerk for hotelier Potter Palmer in Chicago, and a clerk in a Cook County treasury in 1872. He saw opportunities in western Kansas. He joined with Chicago Conservator editor Abram T. Hall, Jr., to open a law and real estate office in Nicodemus, Graham County, Kansas, where African American colonists from Kentucky were establishing a new community. McCabe was appointed clerk of Graham County in 1880.
A staunch Republican, McCabe was a Kansas delegate-at-large at the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1880. McCabe married Sarah J. Bryant of Clinton, Clinton County, Iowa, on October 27, 1880. They had four children.
Edward McCabe was elected state auditor in 1882, the first African American to hold a statewide office in Kansas. He was reelected to a second term in 1884.
McCabe announced his plans to leave politics in 1888 and turned his attention to establishing a Black community in Oklahoma Territory. With Sarah and daughter, Edwina, the McCabes settled in Logan to found the city of Langston on April 22, 1890. The community, one of only about 50 African American towns and settlements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Langston was named for John Mercer Langston, Black member of the 51st U.S. Congress from Virginia and brother of Charles Langston. W.L. Eagleson, Kansas newspaper publisher, established the Langston City Herald in the new community.
Considered for territorial governor, McCabe was instead appointed deputy auditor of Oklahoma Territory from 1897 to 1907. As a result of McCabe's efforts, the Oklahoma territorial legislature passed a bill establishing the Colored Agricultural and Normal College in 1897, which later became Langston University. The Kansas State Historical Society selected McCabe of Oklahoma for its honorary board in 1897.
McCabe's family remained in Oklahoma, while he returned to Topeka then to Chicago. He argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1908 against separate railroad cars in violation of the 1906 Enabling Act. McCabe died in Chicago, Illinois, in March 12, 1920. He was buried in Topeka Cemetery.
Entry: McCabe, Edward P.
Author: Kansas Historical Society
Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.
Date Created: May 2009
Date Modified: February 2025
The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.
