Robert M. Bashford House

H.K. Lawrence was a banker and the secretary of the Madison and Watertown Railroad. In 1860 the 33-year-old native New Yorker shared the house with his wife, Pamela (age 29), their five children aged one to ten, and three servants. The children under age five had been born in Wisconsin and those over five were natives of Ohio. Lawrence owned real estate worth $10,000 and personal property valued at $8,000.

Morris Fuller worked as a distributor of farm implements. In 1870, the 49-year-old shared the house with Amelia (50), Edward M. (23, a store clerk), Sarah M. (17) and Stephen (7). His company, Fuller and Johnson, distributed thousands of "Wood" mowers throughout the Midwest by 1880 and was located in Madison.

Robert McKee Bashford was born in Fayette, Wisconsin in 1845. Bashford's first wife was Florence E. Taylor, a daughter of Wisconsin Governor William R. Taylor. The couple married in 1873 and had a daughter, also named Florence, before Mrs. Bashford died in 1886. Bashford remarried in 1889 to Sarah Amelia Fuller and moved into her parents' house on N. Pinckney Street. Bashford served as City Attorney of Madison, was elected Mayor of Madison in 1890 and served in the Wisconsin State Senate from 1891 to 1895. He served a temporary term of four months on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1908 and was on the law faculty of U of Wisconsin Madison.

In 1900, the Robert M. Bashford household consisted of Bashford (54, a lawyer), his wife, Sarah (46), his married daughter, Florence (24) and her husband and children: Culvert Spensley (27, a lawyer), Robert (4) and Sarah (2). Bashford's in-laws also lived in the home: Morris Fuller (78, a capitalist) and Anna Fuller (73). A nurse, a cook, two maids and a coachman completed the household. The same family members lived in the house on Pinckney Street in 1910 except that Florence Spensley was a widow working as a stenographer in a law office, and Morris Fuller was a widower. There were four servants residing in the house. Mr. Bashford died in January 1911 at age 65. The family sold the house in 1915 and moved out of state. Florence Spensley (43) was living in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1920 with her daughter, Sarah (22). Robert Spensley (24) was a bank clerk living in Los Angeles, California in 1920 with his wife, Dorothy (22) and infant son, Calvert.

The new owners in 1915 were Dr. Corydon and Bessie Dwight. Dr. Dwight was an eye, ear, nose and throat doctor with a practice in Madison by 1911; he formerly had an office in Janesville, Wisconsin. The house was divided into apartments and rooms in the 1930s. The front porch was rebuilt by 1942 and the house was enlarged slightly toward the side yard.

Aikens, Andrew J.. Proctor, Lewis A., eds. Men of Progress. Wisconsin: A Selected List of Biographical Sketches.... Milwaukee, WI. Evening Wisconsin Company, 1897.

Dwight, Corydon G., M.D.. Advertisement for medical practice in Janesville, WI. The Wisconsin Tobacco Reporter (Edgerton, WI) February 21st 1908. 2-2.

Dwight, Corydon G., M.D.. Advertisement for medical practice in Madison, WI. The Wisconsin Tobacco Reporter (Edgerton, WI) September 8th 1911. 7-7.

Toman, William J.. Bashford House, 1856-7, Historical Markers Database. October 15th 2020. Accessed November 2nd 2020. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=32466.

U.S. Census. Household of H.K. Lawrence in Madison Ward 2, Wisconsin, Dwelling 101, Family 100. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1860.

U.S. Census. Household of M.E. Fuller in Madison Ward 2, Wisconsin, Dwelling 32, Family 23. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1870.

U.S. Census. Household of Robert M. Bashford at 423 East Gilman Street, Madison Ward 2, Wisconsin, Dwelling 249, Family 275. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1900.

U.S. Census. Household of Robert M. Bashford at 423 Pinckney Street, Madison Ward 2, Wisconsin, Dwelling 164, Family 174. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1910.

U.S. Census. Household of Florence B. Spensley in Minneapolis Ward 5, Minnesota, Family 342. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1920.

U.S. Census. Household of Robert Spensley at 1338 Spaulding Ave. in Las Angeles District 63, California, Dwelling 95, Family 105. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1920.

Wisconsin Historical Society. Property Record, 423 N Pinckney St, Architecture and History Inventory. Accessed November 1st 2020. https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Property/HI16061.