Was William Gipson's grandson a Congressman?
Almost all of the information in my on-line pedigree was just
copied from the work of professional or amateur genealogists.
(I almost feel guilty presenting this data, which represents
a huge amount of research, almost none of which was mine.)
But there is one connection shown on this site in whose discovery
I played a role.
The parentage of T. J. Hudson is a little mystery, but William
Gipson's daughter Rachel was either his mother or stepmother.
(One clue that ioward this is that Rachel's sister Delilah
had a grandson named Thomas Jefferson Riley, as well as a son
named Thomas Jefferson Riley.)
William Gipson died 4 and a half years
before his possible grandson T. J. Hudson was born.
Hudson may have heard stories about his grandfather's brave
deeds in the War of 1776,
but doesn't seem to have passed them on or to have saved any family
records.
He named a son after his father Andrew, but if there is any biography
of Congressman Hudson which reveals even the names of his parents,
I haven't found it.
Earl Rosenberg produced a detailed family record
which includes birthdates of half grandnephews, etc., and
more biographical data on his father-in-law Thomas Hudson than anyone else.
(Here's a very brief biography
of my famous great-great grandfather.)
Yet there was no information about Thomas's ``Family of Orientation''
beyond his birthplace and birthdate.
Earl's wife Blanche was still alive and of sound mind when Rosenberg
prepared his record; perhaps she had never known the
names of her paternal grandparents, who died before she was born.
It was Rosenberg's magnificent genealogical effort
that got me interested in my family tree in the first place, but it left a big
question mark about my famous great great grandfather:
Who were Thomas Hudson's parents?
I've found no other genealogy which mentions Thomas Hudson.
This gap seemed unfortunate and even odd.
A U.S. Congressman is hardly a ``nobody.''
T. J. Hudson does show up in Internet searches
-- every Congressman has an on-line
biography -- but still there was no new information.
Eventually I obtained a copy of Thomas's obituary,
which mentions a brother Isaac.
Still no clue to their parentage.
Finally, when the 1850 Boone County Census was transcribed and placed on-line
I found the following information about House Number 905 in that County
and am confident that ``Jefferson Hudson'' was my ancestor, though this
evidence might not ``stand up in court.''
(I also show nearby Houses which have possible relatives of the people
in House 905.)
=========================================================================================================================
BOONE, IN 1850 Federal Census
This Census was transcribed by Lana Magiera and proofread by Amanda Magiera
for the USGenWeb Census Project, http://www.usgenweb.org/census.
Copyright 1999 by Lana Magiera
. . . .
CENSUS YR: 1850 STATE or TERRITORY: IN COUNTY: BOONE DIVISION: District No. 7 REEL NO: 136 ...
LN HN FN LAST NAME FIRST NAME AGE SEX RACE OCCUP. VAL. BIRTHPLACE MRD. SCH. R/W DDB
=========================================================================================================================
[Page 119B; Enumerated on 28 August 1850 by H. G. Hazelregg]
. . . .
8 822 833 Riley James 70 M None 1,200 Va X
9 822 833 Riley Delila 52 F Va X
10 822 833 Riley Rachael 13 F Ind
11 822 833 Riley Jacob 10 M Ind
. . . .
[Page 123A; Enumerated on 30 August 1850 by H. G. Hazelregg]
. . . .
32 877 888 Hudson Matilda 32 F 1,000 Va
33 877 888 Hudson Stephen 14 M Ind X
34 877 888 Hudson William 12 M Ind X
35 877 888 Hudson Mary 10 F Ind X
. . . .
[Page 125A; Enumerated on 30 August 1850 by H. G. Hazelregg]
. . . .
39 905 916 Hudson Andrew 52 M Farmer 1,200 N.V.
40 905 916 Hudson Rachael 43 F Ky
41 905 916 Hudson Jefferson 11 M Ind X
42 905 916 Hudson Nancy 7 F Ind X
Eventually I looked at the Ancestry.com census image.
Here are the preceding four lines:
[Page 125B; Enumerated on 31 August 1850 by H. G. Hazelregg]
1 905 916 Hudson Isaac 5 M Ind
2 905 916 New Daniel 22 M Laborer Ky
3 905 916 Gipson Lurana 21 F Ky
4 906 917 New Stephen F. 24 M Farmer 500 Ky
5 906 917 New Rachael 23 F Ind
6 906 917 New Mary F. A. 2 F Ind
7 906 917 New William E. 5/12 M Ind
. . . .
[Page 127A; Enumerated on 2 September 1850 by H. G. Hazelregg]
. . . .
38 936 947 Whiteman John 31 M Farmer 1,000 Ind
39 936 947 Whiteman Fanny 29 F Ky X
40 936 947 Whiteman William 8 M Ind
41 936 947 Whiteman Lucinda 7 F Ind
42 936 947 Whiteman Stephen 5 M Ind
[Page 127B; Enumerated on 2 September 1850 by H. G. Hazelregg]
1 936 947 Whiteman Sarah K. 3 F Ind
2 936 947 Whiteman Daniel 1 M Ind
. . . .
20 940 951 Hudson Ahyah 33 M Farmer 500 Ky X
21 940 951 Hudson Candise 23 F Ind X
22 940 951 Hudson William 3 M Ind
23 940 951 Hudson Mary 1 F Ind
. . . .
[Page 128A; Enumerated on 3 September 1850 by H. G. Hazelregg]
. . . .
2 945 956 Emmert Simon 46 M Farmer 1,500 Ten
3 945 956 Emmert Mary 46 F S.C. X
4 945 956 Emmert William W. 17 M Farmer Ind X
5 945 956 Emmert Francena 15 F Ind X
6 945 956 Emmert Stephen 13 M Ind X
7 945 956 Emmert Slarissa 11 F Ind X
8 945 956 Emmert Mary 6 F Ind X
9 945 956 Emmert Martha 4 F Ind
. . . .
[Page 129A; Enumerated on 3 September 1850 by H. G. Hazelregg]
[a few heads of household shown; poss. relatives of Simon and Mary Emmert]
. . . .
3 958 969 Emmert William 34 M Farmer 2,000 Ten
. . . .
33 963 974 Kennedy Solomon 41 M Farmer 900 S.C.
. . . .
37 964 975 Emmert David J. 22 M Farmer Ind
. . . .
39 965 976 Kennedy William 35 M Ind X
. . . .
[Page 140B; Enumerated on 9 September 1850 by H. G. Hazelregg]
. . . .
3 1125 1138 Perkins Jesse 50 M Farmer 1,500 S.C.x
4 1125 1138 Perkins Mary 45 F Ky
[Omit five children, age 7 - 15, surnamed Perkins]
10 1125 1138 Herndon Elliott 19 M Laborer Ind
11 1125 1138 Patterson Edecl 17 M Laborer Ind
12 1125 1138 Patterson Mary K. 15 F Ind
13 1125 1138 Patterson Margaret 13 F Ind
14 1125 1138 Patterson Lavina 8 F Ind
15 1125 1138 Patterson Levina 5 F Ind
. . . .
=========================================================================================================================
I think my ancestor was the ``Jefferson'' in House 905:
The brother Isaac matches.
(I don't know why Thomas is listed under his middle name ``Jefferson.''
Also, the census taker, H. G. Hazelregg, visited House 905 two
months before Thomas Jefferson's 11th birthday, but perhaps it was
normal then to ``round up'' the age.
Any experts care to comment on whether this match would be considered
``almost certain,'' ``probable,'' or what?)
In addition to father Andrew, mother Rachael, and three children,
the household seems to have had two young adults with distinct
surnames, both from Kentucky as was Rachael.
As explained below, I think Lurana was Rachael's niece.
Later I found that these two young people registered
marriage a few weeks before the census; perhaps Lurana gave the
census taker a maiden name just to help out a future genealogist!
I have shown all people with the Hudson surname in the County census,
though I have no evidence connecting the three households.
There are 1799 House numbers listed in the Census so the households
shown here, with House Numbers ranging from 822 to 965, were presumably
relatively near neighbors.
(From Hudson's biography we know this was ``near Jamestown.'')
The family in House 940 had a son born in 1861
also named Thomas Jefferson Hudson.
(This family has a genealogy on the Internet.)
We may assume that when this Thomas J. Hudson was born, the neighbor
T. J. Hudson was an admired young man; nevertheless
the fact that these two households were relatively close to each other
and gave sons the same name is suggestive.
Ahyah came from the same state as Andrew's wife; he might have been
Andrew's nephew, cousin, young brother, or even son by a first
marriage.
There are several Internet sources for Ahyah and Candise
Hudson of Boone County; their names are given as
Ahijah (sometimes Abijah) Hudson and Candees nee Emmert.
Candees is seen, in the Internet records, to be the daughter of
her neighbors (House 945) Simon and Mary Emmert.
Mary's maiden name is given, on the Internet, as Canady.
It seems likely this is a corruption of Kennedy:
I have given some more families just to indicate the closeness
of the Emmerts and Kennedys in that particular section of 1850
Boone County.
The Thomas J. Hudson born of Ahyah and Candise, eventually married
Lucinda Viola Jane Whiteman, daughter of the William Whiteman
(then 8 years old) in House 938, and Mary A. Duncan.
(Lucinda's grandmother Fannie, by the way, was Fannie New before
marriage.)
In the third Hudson household (House 877), the founding
father is missing but he can be safely identified as John Hudson,
who appears in the 1840 Boone County census, aged 30-40, with four
other family members of the appropriate ages.
The plot thickens.
The family records I obtained from a Gipson descendant show
Rachel Gipson and Andrew Hudson marrying in 1847; this would be
after the births of all three children in the household.
The on-line Indiana and NSDAR records show 1841 as marriage
date, early enough for Nancy and Isaac, but this still leaves
``Jefferson'' as a possible child from a previous marriage.
Another detail adds confusion:
The death certificate of the Jacob Riley in House 822,
presumably Rachael Gipson's nephew,
shows Rachael as his mother rather than Rachael's sister Delilah.
This probably just reflected a foster-parent relationship,
but I sure do need to get my hands on the 1840 census.
If there was a divorce involving one of T.J. Hudson's parents
it might explain his apparent reluctance to discuss his parents with
his children.
T. J. Hudson's first wife Mattie Patterson was from Indiana
and would have been a young girl in 1850; is she in the Boone County
Census? The only young Patterson girls in Boone County are shown
in House 1125; they seem to have been adopted by a Perkins family.
No Mattie or Matilda, but there is both a Levina and Lavina.
Mistake? perhaps one of these was Mattie.
The census original shows Andrew's birth state as ``N.C.'' (North Carolina)
although the transcriber has this as ``N.V.''
Lacking Rachael's maiden name, and, at first, Andrew's birth state,
it seemed unlikely I would ever learn more in
this line, but I kept looking anyway.
Little did I know that another genealogist was also examining House number
905 of this Census sheet, having approached it from the ``other direction.''
One day, at
Ancestry.com,
I found Dee Townsend's records showing
an ``Andrew Hudson'' married to a ``Rachel Gipson.''
That's the same last name as the female tenant in House 905,
making Lurana a probable cousin of my famous great-great grandfather.
The information was compatible with mine, and
contained the remark:
``I [Dee Townsend] found Rachel Gipson on Page 125
of the 1850 Boone County Census.''
.... Eureka!!!
Dee Townsend is the great granddaughter of the Jacob Riley in
House 822; his mother Delilah was surnamed Gipson before marriage
and was the sister of the Rachael Gipson shown as ``Jefferson'' Hudson's
mother (or step-mother).
Indeed Jacob's parents died in about 1854 and it is likely that
he was then adopted by his aunt Rachel Gipson Hudson.
The biographies of Thomas Hudson mention no stepbrother but it is
interesting that both Jacob Riley and Thomas Hudson are known to have
lived in Nodaway County, Missouri, during the late 1860's.
Jacob Riley was a soldier in the Confederacy.
None of Thomas Hudson's biographies mention any involvement in the
Civil War, except that he made an unexplained trip to Nevada during that
time.
There's no evidence of any family schism due to the War, but if there were,
it might help explain why Hudson provided his children no family records.
Dee Townsend and I had both zeroed in on the same household
in the 1850 census from different directions: she was researching her
Gipson cousins, I was looking for a Congressman's parents.
And thanks to the fine efforts of the USGenWeb Census Project
and Ancestry.com, two amateurs stumbled across each others' efforts
and reconstructed part of the
lost pedigree of a U. S. Congressman.
Thomas J. Hudson in other censuses
Once Thomas J. Hudson settled in Wilson County and became
a prominent citizen, there are plenty of records of his activities,
but how we will every reconstruct his early life or even determine the
names of his parents? Not knowing where else to check, I keep
looking for him in census records.
There is an Andrew Hudson of the right age
in Ninevah, Bartholomew County of the 1840 Indiana census,
along with five other males (15-20, 10-15, 5-10, two 0-5)
and three females (40-50, 15-20, 5-10). This suggests Thomas
may have been one of many children from Andrew's earlier marriage,
but where did those other children go, and is the Boone County
birthplace incorrect?
I have located Thomas Hudson in the 1860 census of Nodaway
County, Missouri. He is shown in a household of one
(living in a rooming house?), occupation
school teacher, age 21 from Indiana. With all these details
matching Hudson's biography, this can hardly be a coincidence.
Comparing with his biography, this must be after he sent his
wife and child back to Indiana, but before he made his trip to
Nevada. Situation unclear!
Andrew Hutson (age 62) is still in Boone County in 1860, along
with Rachel (51), Nancy (16), Isaac (15) and a William Moffett (18).
These dates are compatible (except that Rachel is aging a little
slowly!).
In 1870, Hudson's biography shows him in Wilson County, Kansas,
but I find no likely-looking Thomas there. I'll look in the
index again, checking for --- Hudson or --- Hutson.
In 1880, he appears in the Wilson County census. (I just checked
the LDS index, without examining the image or even other household
members.) His age is shown as 39 (he was born in '39 and was 41),
his occupation is Lawyer, his birthstate Indiana, his
father's birthstate is shown as KY and mother's is blank.
I haven't checked 1890, 1900, 1910.
In 1920 he appears with Emma and others.
His father's birthstate is shown again as KY, mother's as NC -- opposite
to our assumption.