Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 12/01/10

SUMMARY

The Martin- Hudson House of Jacksonville is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion A, for its association with the early history and settlement of Jacksonville, Arkansas. The property where the house sits was originally bounty land granted to Jesse C. Summers for services in the War of 1812. Though Mr. Summers never lived on the property, it was sold for back taxes on August 31, 1847 to Newton McIntosh. The property was then sold to Nicholas and Elizabeth Jackson in 1869. Jackson purchased several pieces of property in the area following the close of the Civil War. His purchases included the property where the house was to be built. He sold right-of-way to the Cairo and Fulton Railroad on June 29, 1870 with the agreement that the railroad establish a depot at or near station 615 of said railroad. Jackson had a plat drawn and sold lots thus establishing the town of Jacksonville. Following the town becoming platted, the property was developed and incorporated in the town plat shortly thereafter.

ELABORATION

Settlement in the Little Rock area began shortly after the turn of the nineteenth century. Although surveying land and offering it for sale did not begin until 1815, a few settlers were in the area prior to then.Edmund Hogan, for example, who was originally from Georgia and came to Arkansas via Missouri, was living on the north bank of the Arkansas River opposite Little Rock where he operated a ferry by 1812. Another distinguished early settler was Wright Daniel who settled at the base of Big Rock Mountain prior to 1814 and opened a gristmill in 1815. When the Arkansas Territory was created in 1819, the state’s first capital was at Arkansas Post. However, it was not the best location since it often flooded and was far away from the majority of the territory’s population. In 1820, a new centrally-located site for the capital was chosen on the south bank of the Arkansas River at the Little Rock.[1]

With Little Rock and Argenta being the only communities of considerable size throughout Pulaski County into the late 1880s, the now City of Jacksonville, was still a small village.[2] The post office located within Jacksonville was not established until 1871.[3] As late as 1889, Jacksonville still only had a “few business houses, located on the Iron Mountain Railroad, about thirteen miles from Little Rock.”[4]

The property where the house sits was originally bounty land granted to Jesse C. Summers for services in the War of 1812. Though Mr. Summers never lived on the property, it was sold for back taxes on August 31, 1847 to Newton McIntosh. The property was then sold to Nicholas and Elizabeth Jackson in 1869. Jackson purchased several pieces of property in the area following the close of the Civil War. His purchases included the property where the house was to be built. He sold right- of-way to the Cairo and Fulton Railroad on June 29, 1870 with the agreement that the railroad establish a depot at or near station 615 of said railroad. Jackson had a plat drawn and sold lots thus establishing the town of Jacksonville. Following the town becoming platted, the property was developed and incorporated in the town plat shortly thereafter.

In 1872, the Hudson House property was sold to John Martin. The property was not on the original town plat but was added to the town in 1875. Martin is said to have built a log cabin on the property to house railroad workers. The property passed though three different owners between 1875 and 1880. On December 11, 1880, it was sold to Elihu C. Stone. It is believed that the current house was built c. 1881 in the Folk Victorian style of architecture, based on the foundation of the Martin’s log cabin.

The Folk Victorian style of architecture was specifically used between c.1870-1910. It is a style based on the “presence of Victorian decorative detailing on a simple folkhouse form, which are generally much less elaborate than the Victorian styles that they attempt to mimic.”[5] Many of these details have been applied to the porch or along the cornice line. “Like that of the National Folk forms on which they are based, the spread of the Folk Victorian house was made possible by the railroad. Homeowners such as the Stones may have been able to update their older folk houses with new Victorian porches. “After about 1910 these symmetrical Victorian houses, as they are sometimes called, were replaced by the Craftsman, Colonial Revival, and other fashionable eclectic styles.

Following the building of the house, Elihu Stone established a general merchandise store in the town of Jacksonville. The store was a very successful business and after 25 years was transferred to Elihu’s son-in-law Peter W. Dupree. The Stone and Dupree families were very involved in the community as Elihu Stone was a school director and Pete Dupree was mayor of Jacksonville in 1942.

On January 7, 1913, the property was deeded to Charles Hudson. Hudson was a young doctor when he purchased the property. Hudson established a medical practice and drug store in the business section of Jacksonville where he practiced medicine for 43 years. Mr. Hudson would then follow Mr. Dupree as mayor of Jacksonville during World War II from 1943-1945. The World War years were very trying times for Jacksonville. The building of the World War II Arkansas Ordnance plant brought many problems for the town and the sudden population explosion connected with the war plant brought unique problems for Mayor Hudson and Jacksonville to face.Charles Hudson would live in the house until January 7, 1972, when William and Wanda Lehman purchased the property. The Lehman’s have owned the house since that date.

[2] The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Central Arkansas (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889), 404.

[3] Russel Pierce Baker, From Memdag to Norsk: A Historical Directory of Arkansas Post Offices 1832-1971 (Little Rock, AR: Arkansas Genealogical Society, 1988), 115.

[4]Ibid.

[5] Virginia McAlester and Lee McAlester, A Field Guide to American Houses (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2005), 309.

SIGNIFICANCE

The Martin-Hudson House of Jacksonville is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion A, for its association to the early history and settlement of Jacksonville, Arkansas. The property was directly associated with several leading townspeople that helped develop the town through the railroad industry, business entrepreneurship, and leading town politics up through the 1940s.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baker, Russel Pierce. From Memdag to Norsk: A Historical Directory of Arkansas Post Offices 1832-1971. Little Rock, AR: Arkansas Genealogical Society, 1988.

Beach, Abstract & Title Company, Abstract of Title

Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Central Arkansas, The. Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889.

Hampton, Sr., Roy, F. and Charles Witsell, Jr., with Cheryl Griffith Nichols. How We Lived: Little Rock as an American City. Little Rock: August House, 1984.

Little, Carolyn Yancey Editor, Sifting from Jacksonville’s History, 1820-1980. N.P.: Jacksonville, 1986.

McAlester, Virginia. and Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 2005.

The Jacksonville News, October 22, 1954, Incomplete Copy.