Isaac Hudson

The gentleman whose name introduces this review is one of the old settlers of Texas, who has probably seen more of the western country and at an earlier day than the great majority of men now living in this part of the state. He is a native of Alabama, and was born on the 7th of February, 1854.

His father was Edward M. Hudson, while the mother bore the maiden name of Martha Gray, and both were natives of South Carolina. Edward M. Hudson died in 1861, having for three years survived his wife, who passed away in Alabama. In 1859 Edward Hudson had removed to Texas, settling in Grayson County on the Red River about four and a half miles northwest of where Denison is now located. At the breaking out of the Civil War, he enlisted in Colonel Young’s regiment and was a member of his staff. In the first year of the war he became ill with pneumonia and died in camp. In his family were four children, three sons and a daughter, two of whom, Isaac Hudson and F. G. Hudson, are still living, the latter being a prominent lawyer of Monroe, Louisiana.

Isaac Hudson was about five years old when he came to Texas in 1859, and he resided in Grayson County until 1870, when he secured a cowboy outfit and spent some time upon the plains herding cattle in the regular western fashion. He also engaged in other pursuits of a similar nature and continued in this manner of life from 1870 until 1882, during which time he visited the counties of Taylor, Jones, and adjoining districts. At that time, however, there were no county organizations nor had such a plan been formulated.

In 1882 Mr. Hudson came to what is now Jones County and located where he has since resided. He brought with him from Grayson County a bunch of cattle, but the hard winter that followed caused much suffering among his stock, and many died. In 1885 he sold the remnant of his herd and bought the place where he now resides, just west of Anson. Here he has a quarter-section of land, and he also owns two thousand acres on Clear Fork on the Brazos River, nine miles southwest of Anson. Of this tract he has six hundred acres under cultivation, and it is of the best farming land in the county.

In 1891 he built a cotton gin on his place, which was the second gin in the county. Since then another mill is on the east side of the town. The gin on the Hudson property was destroyed by fire in 1899 but was immediately rebuilt. The capacity of the present gin is about seventy-five bales of cotton per day, and its cost with the complete outfit of machinery was about ten thousand dollars. The gin on the east side of the town is smaller, having about fifty bales. During the season just closed, Mr. Hudson ginned sixty-two hundred and eighty bales of cotton from the mill on his place, while the product of the east gin was eighteen hundred bales. This is an excellent cotton country, and the business which Mr. Hudson is conducting is proving quite profitable.

In 1880 occurred the marriage of Mr. Hudson and Miss Anna J. Potts, who was born and reared in Louisiana, near Lebanon. They have a family of four sons and four daughters, as follows: Edward F., a graduate of Austin College, is now a student of medicine in the State University at Galveston, Texas. Thomas P., who completed a course in Austin College, is likewise a medical student in the State University. Sumner is a student in the Texas Christian University at Waco. Isaac, Florence, Murray, Elva, and Willie are at home.

Mr. Hudson has been a Mason for about twenty years, taking the degrees of the lodge and chapter. He relates many interesting incidents of pioneer life in Texas from the days when he was a cowboy on the plains up to the development of the state. In his business affairs he has prospered, carefully conducting his interests so that his labors are now returning him a gratifying measure of prosperity.

[Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 477-478.]