433 Bushaway Rd
Wayzata, MN 55391, USA

433 Bushaway Road, Wayzata, MN, USA

Excerpt from the History of Bushway Road and Its Neighborhood (1858-2009) by Irene Stemmer, of the Wayzata Heritage Preservation Board (HPB) as a means of preserving the history of the Bushaway Road and its neighborhood.

1928: The Wilcox & Nash House – 433 Bushaway Road

This two story, side gabled, Colonial Revival style house, covered in wood clapboard siding was designed and built for Ralph Dewitt Wilcox and his wife, Jessie Crocker Wilcox for their summer home on the lake. Records indicate that Henry and Clara Carpenter sold the lakeshore lot to Jessie Wilcox in 1926.

The interior of the house is resplendent in high style millwork with 10 to 12 inch coves, cathedral style windows and carved doors which could be directly attributed to the family owned J. F. Wilcox Millwork Company.

Wilcox Family History
Ralph’s father, John Wilcox, and his family were among the many early entrepreneurs of Minneapolis/St Paul. The Wilcox family had a summer home at “Old Orchard” beach on Tonka Bay. In addition to the sash and door company, they also founded Wilcox Motor Company, which designed and built the Wolfe car, Greyhound buses and fire truck chassis. (Wayzata Fire Department’s fire truck from Wilcox was purchased in 1924.)

Ralph Wilcox also had a love of airplanes and while the Wright Brothers were building and flying their planes at Kitty Hawk, he and his cousin, A. C. Bennett, tried their hand at building planes. They built two but neither one traveled more than a few feet before crashing. The Wilcox brothers, however, did have a successful “Airplane on Ice.”

After his father’s death in 1918, Ralph took over as president of the millwork company while his brother Harry managed Wilcox Motors.

Ralph married Jessie Crocker in 1914. Jessie was the daughter of Silas and Elisabeth Crocker of Clarence, Iowa where Mr. Crocker was a partner in the Crocker & Wilcox (Albert) Company, patentees of the wrought iron fence post and many other inventions. Jessie moved to Minneapolis as a young girl where she had Crocker relatives and also the John Wilcox family who were relatives of her father’s partner, Albert Wilcox. This may well be how Jessie Crocker met Ralph Wilcox!

Ralph and Jessie had one son, William Crocker born in 1917. They maintained their summer home until 1934.

The photo of Jessie Crocker Wilcox on the right hints of her prominent place in Wayzata society. While her husband invented all kinds of technology, she played an active leadership role in the Locust Hills Association, a powerful social club that for years owned most of the property on Carpenter’s Point.

Robert L. Nash purchases the Wilcox House
Robert was the son of Fred P. Nash, founder of the Nash Finch Wholesale Food Company. Robert’s father, Fred P. Nash, had a summer home on Shady Lane, Arlington Heights, Wayzata. Nash added the porch on the west side overlooking Wayzata Bay. The first tennis court was originally near the shore of the Lagoon on the southwest corner of their property, but after flooding during high water seasons or pumping to raise the water level of the lake, a new tennis court was constructed on higher ground in 1945.

Robert L. Nash married Marcella Marfield in 1931. And they had four sons, Robert, John, Charles and David. All have fond memories of growing up on Bushaway Road and Lake Minnetonka. Although not boating-enthusiasts, they do recall cruising around on the lake in a small 16 foot outboard motorboat to visit friends in the 1950s. All four boys and their parents were avid tennis players.

Nash Family History
The Nash family immigrated to America from England settling in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1884, Fred P. Nash came west for new opportunities homesteading in Stump Lake, North Dakota west of Grand Forks. He soon discovered farming was not one of his greatest talents and he abandoned that career in 1885. He moved to Devils Lake, North Dakota and with brothers Edgar and Willis, founded the “Confectionary & Tobacco Store” with $400.00 and a penchant for hard work. A few years later, they opened a fruit store in Grand Forks.

A “quirk of good luck” led Fred and his brothers into the wholesale produce business when a boxcar of fresh peaches arrived in Grand Forks, North Dakota without a particular designation. The Nash brothers borrowed money, (James J. Hill was one of the lenders) purchased the load of peaches and wholesaled them out to area grocers. Thus began the “Fortune 1000 Nash Finch Company” of today.

Harry B. Finch was taken into the company at age 14 to wash fruit, eventually becoming a full partner in the company. In 1919, the company moved from Grand Forks to Minneapolis, where they expanded to being a wholesale supplier to grocery stores under their own “Our Family” label and in 1921 developed the famous Nash Coffee Brand. Robert L. Nash, son of Fred P. Nash, was vice-president of the Nash Finch Company and in later years, he was chairman of the Nash Holding Company.

Robert Nash sold the house at the lake in 1968 for $108,500 to William P. and Virginia Moyles, General Counsel for Control Data. After Moyles left Control Data in 1973, the House was sold to the Christopher Dahl Family. The present owner purchased the house in 1977 and built an addition on the south side of the original structure.