In 1887 F. B. Hardman founded the small residential community. By the 1940s it was a scattering of houses around a two-story white school-house. Named for Carthage Kendall, a pioneer who homesteaded there in 1884, it was for many years a logging town, but with the cutting of the timber the settlers turned to farming on a limited scale. The quarry nearby brought additional revenue to the settlement.