The Donor: Anna Hetherington
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Anna Hetherington was born Anna Harding Lancey in Chicago, Illinois, in 1873. Anna attended Wellesley College from 1891 to 1893 as an Art Specialist. Upon her return to Chicago, she met and later married Judson Egbert Hetherington, a New Brunswick native pursuing a medical career in the city. Judson, Chair of Physiology at the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College and Superintendent of the Homeopathic Hospital, eventually retired from medicine and returned with Anna and their two young daughters to Codys, New Brunswick, in 1906. The couple purchased a 25-acre estate on Washademoak Lake. Originally intended as a summer home, the 26-room residence with additional carriage house, bungalow and boathouse, soon became their permanent home. |
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 Hetherberton, Codys, Queens County, New Brunswick, 1918, Queens County Museum, Gagetown, New Brunswick, 1998.10.6 |
 Boathouse, Hetherberton, Codys, Queens County, New Brunswick , c. 1920, Queens County Museum, Gagetown, New Brunswick, 1998.10.9 |
 Hetherberton, Codys, Queens County, New Brunswick, 1920, Queens County Museum, Gagetown, New Brunswick, 1998.10.7 |
Judson would go on to a successful political career as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for Queens County. In 1919, he became Speaker of the House and subsequently Provincial Secretary-Treasurer, a position he held until his defeat in 1925. The Hetheringtons were popular hosts, and among the people invited to their home was John Christopher Miles, a Saint John artist. He stayed with them for a summer while he painted scenes along the Washademoak. After Judson's sudden death in 1928, Anna continued to be active in the community. It was said that she once ordered a full dining room set to keep a factory at risk of closing, open over the winter. She donated to the Saint John Hospital over several years and as a result donations made to the New Brunswick Museum, Anna became a life member in 1948. In 1951, Anna donated 96 pieces of mostly American pressed glass to the museum. Despite exhaustive investigation, we are unable to establish how and why Anna Hetherington came to own such an extensive glass collection. A short time later, Anna moved to Sikeston, Missouri, to live with her daughter, Katherine Coleman, until her death in 1959. Even though she resided in Sikeston, Anna never forgot her links to New Brunswick: her estate donated $5 000 for the maintenance of the Judson E. Hetherington Memorial Library at Saint John Hospital; and Anna endowed Acadia University with two scholarships specifically for New Brunswick students attending it, in her husband's name as well as under her in-laws, Thomas and Violet Hetherington. |
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