This is a page of data about the Hudson family of Wendell, Massachusetts.  The status of this page is SOLIDIFYING.

according to his death certificate, Nathan E. Hudson was b. in Hingham, Mass. – parents were Joseph Hudson (b. Cohasset) and Elizabeth Eldridge (b. Cohasset)

according to the Wood family tree in Ancestry.com, Nathan Eldredge Hudson was born 12/19/1829, the third of six sons (which may explain his decision to move west in search of a farm)

from 1860 US Census:

• Nathan is listed as “Elbridge Hudson,” living in Wendell with his mother, Elizabeth
• right next door is Nathan Elbridge (49), Eliza (51), and Nathan L. (14) – uncle Nathan is listed as a “mariner”!  I’m guessing this is Elizabeth’s brother, presumably also from Hingham – his property is worth $1000, Elizabeth’s is worth $450 – in the 1850 US Census, uncle Nathan and family are living in Hingham, where he’s working as a fisherman, so they moved to Wendell sometime in the 1850s

from Mass. census:

1865:

• Nathan E. Hudson (b. c.1830 in Hingham) and his mother Elizabeth (68) are living in Wendell – Nathan is still single at 35 – he was registered for the draft in July 1863

1869:

• at 39, Nathan Hudson m. Melvina French, 33, of Ware (strangely, the record of their marriage is X’d out in the handwritten town record)

from US Census records:

1870:

• Nathan (40) and Melvina (34, née French) Hudson and Nathan’s mother Elizabeth (72) are living on a modest farm worth $475 with personal property worth $160
• they had 40 improved acres, 20 unimproved, 15 other, with equipment worth $50
• also had one horse and two milk cows worth a total of $160
• they produced 20 bushels of Indian corn, 65 bushels of potatoes, 100 lbs of butter, 9 tons of hay, and slaughtered animals worth $35, for a total of $298 farm income (definitely on the low end of the scale for Wendell farmers in that year)
• uncle Nathan Eldridge and aunt Eliza are living next to Theodore Bemis in 1870 – their land is worth $1000, personal property $400 – they had 25 acres of improved land, 20 acres of woods, 80 “other,” and $100 worth of equipment – they also paid out $50 for farm labor – they had 1 horse, 4 milk cows, 2 other cattle, 2 sheep, and a pig, for a value of $595 – they produced 30 bushels of corn and 20 of oats, 10 pounds of tobacco (the only ones growing tobacco in Wendell that year!), 125 lbs. of potatoes, 250 lbs. of butter, and 12 tons of hay – they also seem to have made 10 lbs. of molasses, for a total farm income of $474 – so they were quite substantial and progressive farmers, unlike nephew Nathan

Calvin Cushman Hudson born in Wendell 1870

Cora Laurinda Hudson was born March 27, 1872 in Wendell

1880:

• Nathan and Melvina still in Wendell, with son Calvin C. (9) and daughter Cora (8)
• a 23-yr-old boarder, Charles Wyman [sp?], a laborer, is also living with them
• ag census shows the following farm activities:
• 25 tilled acres, 30 acres meadows/pastures, 20 acres woodland – incl. 22 mown and 3 unmown acres of grassland + 10 acres of hayfield
• farm value hard to read ($100?  $800?) but definitely on low end of scale
• farm equipment valued at just $10 (also comparatively very low) and livestock at $75 (mid-range)
• no farm labor is shown as  being hired in that year – so was their boarder working on someone else’s farm?
• value of farm products “sold, consumed, or on hand” was $175, which was above the average
• just 1 horse, 2 milk cows, 1 “other” livestock
• 2 calves dropped in 1879, 1 cow purchased, 1 sold living
• the Hudsons made 100 lbs of butter (about average)
• had 12 barnyard fowl which produced 40 doz. eggs
• 1 acre of buckwheat produced 15 bushels
• 10 bushels of Indian corn, 4 bushels of beans
• 1 acre of potatoes produced 60 bushels
• 12 apple trees produced 20 bushels
• 2 pear trees produced 3 bushels
• total value of orchard products was $25, fairly respectable for Wendell
• also cut 20 cords of wood and “sold or consumed” $40 worth of forest products

1888:  Uncle Nathan Eldridge d. of heart disease at 77, leaving a widow – death record notes he was born in Harwich, Mass.

there’s quite an extensive bio of Nathan E. Hudson and his family in the 1895 Biographical review of Franklin County (pp. 372-75)

1900:

• the same family grouping, minus the boarder, is still there in 1900
• Calvin is now 29, Cora 28, both still unmarried and living at home
• page is cut off so the annual farm income can’t be seen

1901:

Melvina died (according to cemetery listing for South Cemetery in Wendell)

1904:

• Nathan died May 13 at 75 of tuberculosis – listed as widower

1905:

• Calvin died on June 14 of pneumonia and bronchitis

1910:

• Cora, now 38, is living by herself on the family farm, listed as a farmer on a “General Farm”

1920:

• Cora, 47, still listed as a farmer on a “Home Farm”
• the Wirth family is living next door by this time

1930:

• Cora, 58, still living by herself on a “General Farm”
• Wirths are on one side, Powlings (Ted Lewis’s wife’s family) on the other

1940:

• Cora, 68, has left the farm and is rooming with the Clark family on West Street
• Ray Clark is driving a school bus;  his wife Louise is a supervisor of old age pensions (a WPA job, perhaps?)
• there is another boarder, 23-yr-old Harry Pratt of Wendell, who is working as a logger/lumberman

a Cora Hudson died in Montague in 1950 – not sure if it’s the same woman

cemetery listing shows Cora’s death date as 1950