Grayson County TXGenWeb

The Sherman Daily Register
Friday, April 22, 1887
p4

VOODOO SPELL
Is Claimed by Her Husband to Trouble Ella Hudson

Day before yesterday a negro woman by the name of Ella Hudson was brought to the city by her husband, and tried before Judge Gregg and remanded to the Alms House, to await transportation to the Terrell Asylum, an account of which has already been published. Yesterday afternoon Superintendent Wilkins notified Judge Gregg that she was becoming unmanageable, that she had torn every particle of her clothing off, notwithstanding the efforts of the guards and attendants to keep her from doing so. Judge Gregg went out and found everything as represented, and took with him some relatives of the unfortunate woman, and they managed to quiet her down and get her clothing replaced. Her husband is opposed to her being transferred from Sherman to the Terrell Asylum, and while he himself was the first person to report her strangeness he denies that she is crazy, but lays all the trouble to "Voodooism," and claims that a spell has been put on her by a witch.

The Sherman Daily Register
Tuesday, April 26, 1887
pg 4

The "Voodoo" Victim

Jennie Hudson, the negro woman from the Preston neighborhood, who was convicted of insanity but who was taken charge of by her husband, will be taken to Terrell at once. Dr. Wallace, of the Terrell asylum, sent a telegram to the county judge today stating that there was room for her.

The Sherman Daily Register
April 27, 1887

The negro woman, Ella Hudson, who was recently brought in from Preston and convicted of insanity, was taken to the Terrell Asylum by Officer Cam Whitesides this morning at 4:25 o'clock. She is very troublesome, and has to be carried almost bodily from one point to another. Her husband persisted to the last that she was not crazy, but that a "voodoo" doctor alleged to hold forth in the Red River bottom, had put a 'spell' on her.