Power system dynamic state estimation (DSE) has always been a critical problem in studying power systems. One of the essential parts of power systems are synchronous machines. In this work, we dealt with the problem of DSE of a synchronous machine by introducing a novel state space-based least mean fourth (SSLMF) algorithm. The rationale behind the proposed algorithm is the fact that a power system may encounter non-Gaussian disturbances/state errors and the least mean fourth algorithm is proven to be better in such environments. Moreover, we have also introduced a normalized version of the proposed algorithm, namely state space normalized least mean fourth (SSNLMF) algorithm to deal with the stability issue under Gaussian disturbances. Another motivation for developing the SSLMF algorithm is its simplicity as compared to other model-based nonlinear filtering algorithms such as Kalman filter, extended Kalman filter (EKF). Moreover, we also investigate the performance of the recently introduced state space least mean square (SSLMS). Performance of the SSLMF and the SSLMS is compared with existing EKF in both Gaussian and non-Gaussian noise environments. Extensive simulation results are presented which show superiority B Muhammad Moinuddin of the proposed algorithms, and hence, it verifies our rationale behind the work.