Thomas Judd House

The Judd-Miles Home is historically significant as the home of two of Southern Utah’s most prominent individuals. Thomas Judd was a leader in the development of the area’s economy. His home was the center for the pursuit of his personal horticultural interests as the entire block was planted with fruit trees, vineyards, and vegetable gardens. George E. Miles, who lived in the home for nearly seventy years, was, because of his unusual speaking voice and his longstanding knowledge of the area, a very popular local figure.

Architectural significance of the Judd-Miles Home stems from its being an outstanding example of a residential building style characterized by the “Dixie dormer” which was unique to pioneer Southern Utah. The Judd-Miles Home, constructed of lava rock, adobe and stuccoed on the exterior, features three Dixie dormers and a large porch, both with decorative scrollwork somewhat unusual for the period and region. With the broadside facing the road, the residence is otherwise typical, in plan, construction and detailing, of better homes built in the mid-1870’s.

The Thomas Judd House is located at 76 West Tabernacle Street in St George, Utah, after being moved from 269 South 200 East in 1986. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places (#78002710) on January 31, 1978.

History The stuccoed adobe home was constructed in 1876 for Thomas Judd. Mr. Judd was born September 1, 1846 in Birkenhead, England. In 1864 he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and traveled to Utah, where he settled in Utah’s Dixie. Thomas Judd became the clerk of the Southern Utah Tithing Office and in October 1875 joined his financial resources with those of Edwin Gordon Woolley and Robert C. Lund to establish the firm of Woolley, Lund and Judd. Their store, originally established in the ST. George Hall, proved so successful that it presented a threat to the recently established Southern Utah Cooperative Mercantile Institution founded by Apostle Erastus Snow also in 1875. The Southern Utah CMI was part of the Church-wide cooperative movement to develop a self-sufficient economy thereby excluding the threat of economic domination by non-Mormons. Edwin Woolley had been manager of the Cooperative Store until his decision to form a partnership with Lund and Judd.

decision to form a partnership with Lund and Judd. As an apparent result of the rivalry, all three partners were called on proselyting missions during the Semi-Annual Church Conference in April 1876. Not without some influence on Brigham Young, the three men worked out a compromise whereby Edwin Woolley would serve a mission in the United States, Thomas Judd would return to his native land of England to try to win converts to the Mormon faith and Robert Lund would be permitted to remain in Utah to operate the business.

After a two-year sojourn in the mission field from 1876 to 1878, Woolley and Judd returned home. The silver mining boom at nearby Silver Reef provided and excellent opportunity to expand the operations of the firm and store was opened in the building which also housed the local offices of Wells FArgo and Company. With stores in St. George and Silver Reef, the firm played an important role in the economy of Southern Utah.

Expanding from his success in the firm of Woolley, Lund and Judd, Thomas Judd became involved in the development of the region’s agricultural and horticultural potential. In 1865 a Gardener’s Club of St. George was organized for the purpose of encouraging local fruit and vegetable production by disseminating information on profitable techniques and potential hazards in crop production. Throughout the 1860’s and 1870’s, Joseph E. Johnson was the primary force behind the club’s activities. According to the historian A. Karl Larson, “It would probably be no mistake to say that he [Joseph E. Johnson] contributed more to the development of the pioneer fruit industry in Dixie than any other person.” (Andrew Karl Larson, I Was Called to Dixie, p. 336.) The Gardener Club lost its vitality during the 1880’s, but in 1888 it was revived with the organization of the St. George Farmers’ and Gardeners’ Club. Thomas Judd was elected president of the Club and A. Karl Larson in comparing Judd’s importance with that of Joseph E. Johnson, the father of the Dixie fruit industry, concludes, “What Joseph E. Johnson was to St. George in an earlier generation, Thomas Judd was to the period of the late Eighties and the Nineties.” (Ibid., p. 345.)

In 1889 the LaVerkin Fruit and Nursery Company was incorporated with Thomas Judd as president. The purpose of the company was to establish nursery orchards and vineyards, manufacture wine and liquor, and promote fruit raising, stock raising, and general farming. Irrigation water for the orchards was obtained by taking water out of the Virgin River and transporting it by a canal. The canal was a difficult engineering feat as a tunnel was made through solid rock and supporting rock walls and. fills were frequently necessary. Construction in the canal lasted nearly two years and it was not until the Spring of 1891 that the fruit trees were planted.

In April 1890 the Washington Cotton Factory, constructed between 1865 and 1870 as part of the Mormon effort to develop a cotton industry, was leased by Thomas Judd for five years. A. Karl Larson writes of the importance of the cotton factory to the economy of Utah’s Dixie in the following manner: “The ijtiportance of the Factory to the people of Dixie during the time of the Judd lease would indeed be hard to overestimate. At a time when the total money supply was scarcely sufficient to pay taxes, the Factory stood ‘like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land,’ helping the people to meet their needs. It gave employment to quite a large number; it took the produce of the farm and the herd in exchange for the goods it produced; its manager, David H. Morris, sent many tons of cotton batting to Z.C.M.I, at Salt Lake City and received in exchange for this commodity store goods which were traded to the people for the general products of the area without the use of specie. The Factory issued, as it had done in the past, its due bills, and these, with tithing scrip, the scrip issued by Woolley, Lund and Judd, and the scrip of the Cannaan Cooperative Stock Company, served and circulated freely as money. The advertisement of the Rio Virgin Mills, as the Factory was now referred to, in the Southern Utah Star for July 20,1895, states that the mills ‘have on hand a general stock of Blankets, Flannels, Linseys, Woolen and Cotton shirts and underwear, Table cloth, Towels, Towelling, Ginghams, Cotton shirting, etc., which they will exchange for Wool, Cotton, Flour, Wheat, Barley, Oats, Pork, Butter, Cheese, and The General Products of the Country. Giving the Highest Market Price.'” (Ibid., p. 230).

The depression of the 1890’s served the interests of the local cotton industry well. However, the return of prosperity in the late 1890’s found the factory unable to compete with the cheaper and more attractive goods produced outside of Utah, and as business declined, Judd was forced to cancel his lease.

In addition to his active business career, Thomas Judd was active in church affairs, serving as bishop of the St. George First Ward from 1879 to 1896. The home, which was constructed in 1876, was sold to George E. Miles in 1900 and Thomas Judd moved into a new home in St. George. He lived until 1922.

The home’s second resident, George E. Miles, also left his mark on Utah’s Dixie. Born December 9, 1866, in England, he came to Utah with his family in 1878. As a young boy he worked as a store clerk in Silver Reef. At the age of sixteen he entered the St. George Stake Academy and eventually passed the teacher’s examination. He taught school for a short time before returning to Silver Reef. Later he took up farming. Active in community and church affairs, Mr. Miles served as St. George city clerk for eighteen years, juvenile judge for eight years and as justice of the peace for three terms. As patriarch of the St. George Stake for nearly thirty years, Mr. Miles became a local legend because of his speaking ability. Blessed with an unusually strong voice he shunned the use of the microphone and boomed his message to a captivated audience. Mr. Miles died in 1970 at the age of 103.