HUDSON, Wilson

HUDSON, COLGON, KENT, HOPKINS, SCOTT, GREEN

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 1/19/2014 at 04:06:39

Biography ~ Wilson Hudson

"Biographical and Historical Record of
Ringgold and Decatur Counties, Iowa"
(Lewis Publishing Company (1887)), p9. 490-10:

WILSON HUDSON, general merchant, Lamoni, Iowa, was born May 2, 1842, at Summitville, Madison County, Indiana, a son of JAMES and ELEANOR (COLGON) HUDSON, natives of Connecticut and Ohio respectively. They commenced married life on the farm in Indiana, where our subject was reared, the father dying at the old homestead, in 1884, aged seventy-three years. The mother still survives, being about seventy-four years of age. They were the parents of six children, of whom four are yet living – JOHN, of Bond County, Illinois; THOMAS, living at the old homestead in Indiana; WILSON, the subject of this sketch, and JOSEPH, of Delaware County, Indiana. WILSON HUDSON was united in marriage in Madison County, Indiana, November, 1860, to LAURA E. KENT, and in the autumn of 1864 he left his native State, with his family, for Kendall County, Illinois, where he followed farming till the spring of 1867. He then removed to Lee County, Illinois, reaming there till he came to Decatur County, Iowa, in the fall of 1873, when he located on section 18, Fayette Township, on a farm containing 160 acres of almost entirely unimproved land, which he brought under cultivation. In the year 1874 he erected the largest barn in Fayette Township, being 36 x 54 feet, with 16-foot posts; this barn being destroyed by lightning August 31, 1876, but was immediately rebuilt on the same foundation.

Mr. HUDSON was bereaved by the death of his wife in the spring of 1879, at the age of thirty-five years, who left at her death five children – ADA, wife of J. F. HOPKINS, of Fayette Township; OLIVER, now engaged in his father’s store, is married to Miss ADRA KENT; ELLA, wife of W. W. SCOTT, a clerk in Mr. HUDSON’s store; HATTIE and MINNIE, living at home. Mr. HUDSON was again married in 1880, to Miss EMILY GREEN, who was born in Jackson County, Iowa, a daughter of A. J. GREEN, late of Fayette Township, Decatur County, now deceased. To this union were born three children – FRANK; JESSIE, died aged eighteen months, and ESTHER, died in infancy. Mr. HUDSON sold his farm in Fayette Township in 1882. He established his present business in Lamoni July 3, 1880, and carried a stock of everything needed for general family supplies, such as dry-goods, groceries, hardware, boots and shoes, crockery, etc., and by his strict attention to his business, he is building up a good trade and meeting with success. Mr. HUDSON is a member of the Reorganized Church of the Latter-Day Saints.

In politics he is a Republican. He has been a member of the council of Lamoni since that city was organized. The grandparents of our subject, MATHIS and SARAH HUDSON, were both natives of England. On coming to America they first settled in Connecticut, and later moved to Pennsylvania. They subsequently located in Ohio, the town site of Newton Falls, the State, being on their pioneer homestead. They lived to an advance age, the grandmother dying at the age of ninety-seven years, and to the end of her active life she could read or sew without the aid of glasses. They reared a large family and now their descendants can be numbered by scours.

Transcribed by Sara LeFleur, Decatur County Historial Society Musuem, January of 2014