Appleton Residences Part Three

There are a few Appleton homes I neglected to include, so here they are.  First on the list is the home of David Smith.  Mr. Smith was one of the big names in early Appleton banking.  He was born in 1826 in Torthorwald, Scotland and his family followed his father to Quebec in 1844.  Young Mr. Smith then moved to Cincinnati, took a job with a wholesale grocer and met and married Agnes Thom.  From there the Smiths moved to Milwaukee where David was employed as a bookkeeper and met Robert Shiells.  Not long after that he and Shiells move to Neenah and establish a bank there.  Smith wished strike out on his own and moved to Appleton to open a bank in that city.  The bank would become the First National Bank but Mr. Smith didn't care for the restrictions placed him by the national banking laws and withdrew.  He later started the Manufactures Bank which eventually merged with the Commercial Bank.   

The Smiths had seven children and needed a suitable house to raise them in.  Mr. Smith turned to William Waters to provide the plans for there dwelling.  The house was in the Second Empire Style, an unusual style for Waters to work with.  The plan is very similar to that of the E. C. Goff residence also of Appleton but that the Goff place is Italianate in style.  The house was situated on a fashionable street near City Park.  David Smith died at age fifty, his widow and several children lived in the house for many years thereafter.

William Henry Harrison Stowell had life crowded with incident.  He was born in Windsor, Vermont, educated in Boston, took up mercantile pursuits after graduating, then moved to Virginia in 1865 to become a tax collector.  He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1870 and served until 1877.  In 1880 he went west to Appleton were he got into the the paper industry.  By 1886 he had moved on to Duluth Minnesota with interests in paper making, steel production and banking.  In 1914 he moved again this time to Amherst Massachusetts, were he died in 1922.  His time in Appleton may have been brief but it was long enough for him to commission a house by William Waters.  The building was never constructed. 

Rush Winslow was born November 7, 1843 in Koshkonong, Wisconsin and received his early education in Fort Atkinson.  He tried a carrier in business but decided to study medicine in the office of his father.  Young Winslow went on to school in Chicago and New York and received his MD in 1870 from Bellevue College, New York.  In 1873 he settled in Appleton and was recognized as one of the leading professional men of the city.  He also believed in public service and was first elected alderman and then four teams as mayor starting in 1887.  He too secured the services of William Water to plan his abode.  The house was  Queen Anne Style with porch at the front and side of the building and sat on a corner lot one block south of College Avenue and just across the street from the Methodist church. 

A short notice in an Appleton Post of 3/14 1889 reported that stones for the foundation had arrive at the site of C. S. Little's new house on Park Street.  It also states that Wm. Waters prepared the plans for the very cozy and artistic house which was to cost between three and four thousand dollars  Little's house still stands on Park Avenue in Appleton, not far from City Park.  It has been altered from the original but the Waters design is unmistakable.  A simple Queen Anne, it is based on a cottage design Mr. Waters used to great success for many years.    

The last house on the list is the rectory built for All Saints Episcopal Church.  That church had had a long history in the city of Appleton, first as Grace Episcopal and later as All Saints.  By 1891 the church was getting settled after having moved the church building the site at the corner of Drew and College.  A proper rectory was called for and the church sought out Mr. Waters to make the plans.  The architect delivered a beautiful and well proportioned Queen Anne Style house which was erected on Drew Street just next to the church.  The rectory served the parish until 1959 when it was raised to make way for another building.