Judson & Maria Smith House
420 4th St. N.
Tragedy on the River
Judson A. Smith, a 28-year-old Maine born blacksmith and his 22-year old wife, Maria, also from Maine, purchased this lot from John McKusick in August of 1857 for $350. Alas, shortly after their purchase, a nationwide speculation bubble in real estate burst, and land values plummeted.
Judson was a man of some wealth, for the 1860 Census lists his real estate holdings at $1,500. It is very likely he built at least a part of the front portion of the house at 420 North Fourth Street that remains today. The earliest extant tax assessor’s records from 1861 list the total value of the property at $400, which separates into a $600 house and $75 for the lot by 1864.
In 1869, for $3,300, Smith sold the lot with the house and some additional property to John and Henrietta Hanford, who took a mortgage from Smith. John Hanford was born in Middleberry, Summit County, Ohio in 1832. He came to Stillwater in 1856, and took up the lumbering and rafting business "buying and selling logs" in association with Edward Durant. Their firm owned or controlled six or seven tow boats. Hanford is listed in the 1870 Census as a river pilot with $4,000 in real estate and $2,000 in personal assets. His wife, Henrietta Carson, age 25, was the adopted daughter of Socrates Nelson, one of Stillwater’s founders. In 1870, the Hanford’s were living in the house with two children: Harry, age 4, and Henrietta, age 2.
The youngish couple had only three years in their home before tragedy struck. On Tuesday, August 27th, 1872, Captain John Hanford, on board the tow boat "Julia Hadley" near Dubuque, Iowa, was descending the stairs from the upper deck and, slipping on a potato peeling, lost his balance and fell into the running gears of the boat. In an instant, according to the newspaper account, both legs were drawn through the gearing as far as the knees. Fortunately the engineer was at hand to stop the machinery; otherwise the man’s whole body would have been horribly crushed.
The tow boat quickly returned to the Dubuque landing where eight physicians were waiting. Because Hanford could not bear the pain of jolting in a wagon, he was carried by hand to the Key City House, a Dubuque hotel. (This was before the time of hospitals.) Here the physicians kept the patient under the influence of chloroform while applying weights to his legs to bring them to their natural position. Meanwhile Dubuque officials telegraphed Hanford’s partner, Edward Durant, in Stillwater. Durant informed Henrietta and both of them left Stillwater immediately for Dubuque, arriving there on Thursday night. Henrietta, when leaving her Stillwater home, had plucked some beautiful apples from one of his favorite trees thinking John would enjoy them.
Despite the care, John’s condition took a turn for the worst, and on Friday, he died leaving Henrietta with three small children. The newspaper reported that Mrs Hanford, who was in feeble health, was utterly crushed and prostrated by this sudden and terrible calamity. She purchased a coffin in Dubuque, and accompanied John’s body back to Stillwater on the train.
Within three years, Henrietta had married Baron Proctor, a well-known Stillwater businessman. They moved to Proctor’s house on South Broadway where Henrietta had two more children. Eight years after John’s death, Henrietta and Baron sold the house at 420 North Fourth Street to Benjamen Judkins, age 60, and his wife, Hannah, age 55. He worked downtown at the Northwestern Manufacturing and Car Company. In 1893, Hannah died, and Benjamen sold the house to Mace and Lena Nelson. Mace worked as a lumberman and janitor.
In 1910, Eva Peterson, a widow, purchased the property for $1400. She and her husband, Frank had run the St. Paul Hotel on North Main Street. It is quite possible that upon the death of her husband, Eva used the money from the sale of the hotel, and invested it into improving her new house at 420 N. Fourth Street. A one-story addition on the rear was converted to two stories. The windows, which were almost certainly single windows, were converted to paired windows. Decorative leaded glass was added to the front windows on the main floor, and new woodwork fitted in the living room. The front portico was added around this time.
Fortunately the most distinctive features of the house were left untouched; particularly the narrow front door sidelights and transom which distinguish the Greek Revival style and date the house from the 1850s or 60s. On the north and south ends of the front part of the house is a triangular gable with decorations that is also characteristic of a Greek Revival style home. The current owners, Paul and Diane Anderson, cherish their historic house, and can be trusted to preserve it for the next generation.
— Research by Donald Empson, Empson Archives for the City of Stillwater's Heirlooms Home and Landmark Sites Program