[2] The home was built in 1855 by John Moffatt (1814 Etna, New York-1903 Hudson, Wisconsin) and his wife, Nancy Bennet (1822-1894), who had moved to Hudson from Ithaca, New York the previous year with their ten-year-old daughter.

Typical for the time, the Moffats traveled by train to Galena, Illinois where they took a steamboat to Prescott, Wisconsin.

Then they traveled by horse and wagon, north to Hudson, which was a prosperous frontier town on the Saint Croix River, benefiting from lumber and flour mills.

Moffat initially was clerk of the United States General Land Office for the Chippewa District and later practiced law before being elected a Saint Croix County judge in 1869.

[3] Their home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.