Letters written by Millard Hudson to cousins in the family in 1928-1929.
Certainly one of the most reknowned genealogists of the Hudson family was
Millard Hudson ( son of William C., grandson of Joshua and Mary Gray, great
grandson of Thomas and Nancy Collins, gg grandson of Dennis and Deborah
Jarman born about 1745. Though personal letters are not genealogical documents
I wanted to share the following letter with you. Anything inside parentheses ( )
is my notation. All the remainder of Millard’s work which I have comes from my
father Miller Newton Hudson II and the authoritative lists of all descendants of
Samuel has been compiled by Edd Painter with conributions from Sue Hair and
myself among others.
This letter is to Miller Newton Hudson I ( my grandfather ), son of Mahlon,
grandson of Samuel and Mary Ann Stines, great grandson of Jacob and Martha
Patty Jones ( married May 28, 1814 ), gg grandson of Dennis and Deborah. I have
a 1828 letter to David Reesman Hudson, ancestor of Ken Reeseman ( living ), and
a descendant of Samuel, Jacob, and Dennis. These are included in the packet that
I sent Edd, Mary Lou, Joni, Jeannette, and others but copies of the originals of the
letters are available on request.
Letter from Millard to my grandfather written on an old typewriter in 1929
2000 D. st., n.w., Room 2311
Washington D.C,
June 26th, 1929
Mr. Miller N. Hudson,
El Paso, Texas
My dear Sir: -
It was good of you to write me your letter of May 30th, and especially are
the pictures appreciated. That is the sort of cooperation which a compiler of
family history likes, but does not often receive.
I am sending you a copy of an outline of the history of your branch of the
family. ( This was received and written up along with other materials in 1941 by
my father, Miller Newton Hudson II . It forms the basis for all my work. ) It was
made before I heard from your father ( Mahlon ), so that the record of his family,
on page 5, is rather scanty, but you will understand how that came about. I have
been in Pickaway County, Ohio and am acquainted with the Hudsons there. They
are descendants of Jaquish Hudson, mentioned on page 2. The head of that
branch, Abraham Hudson, died a few months ago. He left several children and
grandchildren.
Don’t let anybody tell you the Hudsons came from Germany or from Holland (
Note that Mary Ann Stines, originally Mary Ann Stein, came from French AlsaceLorraine, not Germany, and changed her name to avoid being thought of as
German. ) They are all of straight English stock, except as they have intermarried
with others in this country.
Our relationship is rather distant but we are all descendants of Richard
Hudson, born in England about 1605, came to America and settled in North
Hampton County, Virginia, 1635, whose sons Nicholas and Henry went up into
southeastern Maryland. Nicholas left no sons, but Henry left a large family in
Worcester County, Maryland which was for many years full of his descendants. A
lot of them still live in Sussex County, Delaware, the adjoining county on the
north. Many of the Worcester County went West not long after the revolution,
including our ancestor Dennis Hudson, mentioned in the accompanying sketch.
His father’s name was Dennis ( married Sarah Jarman ) and back of that there
were two Henry’s before we come to the original settler, Richard. They have
nearly always been farmers. I have a very large collection of records, although it is
not quite complete. ( His daughter Alice Whittwer said many boxes had to be
thrown away – what a loss! ). If you should come to Washington sometime, I hope
you will give my wife and me the pleasure of a visit. We live in the country near
here, in a stone house on the bank of the Potomac River, among the trees and I
think you would enjoy it. I am a much older man than you ( about 25 years ), and
my wife and I have 2 children both of whom are married; our son is Holland
Hudson, whose business is in Boston and who lives at Walpole, Mass., about 20
miles south: and Alive Olivia who married Robert A. Whittwer and lives in
Madison, Wisconsin.
Thanking you again for your nice letter and hoping to hear from you further, I
am
Sincerely yours, Millard F. Hudson
P.S. I suppose that you know that Alvin Dudley Hudson, son of your father’s halfbrother, George Fisher Hudson, lives in El Paso.