Edgerton is a "railroad town" in the truest sense. Had it not been for the railroad coming through in the late 1800s, the town would never have existed.

The story begins in 1858 in the neighboring pro-slavery town of McCamish and the neighboring free-state town of Lanesfield, a community of about 100 persons. When the railroad came through southwest Johnson County, residents of Lanesfield packed up their belongings and moved their families south one-by-one to be nearer the railroad.

During this same period, Judge David Martin arrived and owned a farm in the area where Edgerton exists today. For this reason, Edgerton was originally called Martinsburg. But residents renamed it Edgerton in 1871, in honor of the railroad's chief engineer of the same name.