In 1857, James B. Mahaffie and Lucinda Mahaffie moved to Olathe from northern Indiana with four children. In 1858, J.B. sold his lot in town and used oxen to move a section of the home on that property to a new farm site a mile east of town, where the family lived until late in 1865, when they built a sturdy limestone farmhouse in front of the old house. Constructed with a full cellar to serve as a dining hall and kitchen for the stagecoach trade, the new home functioned as both a farmhouse and a stagecoach stop. Farming remained James Beatty Mahaffie's main occupation, and by the end of the Civil War his operation covered almost 600 acres. He was also an entrepreneur and businessman active in agricultural organizations, served as a county commissioner, and was a board member of one of the earliest railroad companies planning a rail line into Olathe. The end of the stagecoach era in 1869 did not threaten the Mahaffies' well-being.