Beginning at the southeast corner of section 36, township 38, range 29; thence west six miles; thence north seven miles; thence east six, miles; thence south seven miles to the place of beginning.

The township is comparatively well watered. Panther Creek and Camp Branch, with their numerous tributaries, rise principally in the township, and flow rather in a south and southeasterly direction through it. A sufficiency of timber is found on all the streams. Limestone rock abounds.

Among the early settlers of Hudson Township was the Rev. Israel Robards, a Missionary Baptist, who came to Hudson Township in the spring of 1843, and settled near the town of Hudson, in section 3. Mr. Robards was a native of Saratoga County, New York, where he was born in 1799. He had been preaching for many years, when coming to Bates County, having had charge, respectively, of churches in New Haven, Connecticut, and in the city of New York. During his labors in the ministry, before leaving New York, he had been suffering with a bronchial affection, which had been gradually growing worse, until his family physician advised him to travel for his health. He accordingly came West in the year 1842, and while passing through Bates County saw the country and was greatly pleased with it -- so much so that he purchased considerable land for his children. The next year, 1843, he returned with his family and located, as stated, near the present townsite of Hudson. Here he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in Indiana, in 1851. Mr. Robards was an extensive traveler. Besides seeing much of his own country, he visited Europe. Although suffering constantly from his throat, he preached continuously as a revivalist, and was a contemporary and friend of Knapp, who achieved a national reputation as a revivalist.

One among the earliest settlers, and one of the most influential citizens of Bates County, was Colonel George Douglas, who emigrated to America from Scotland, and came to Bates County about 1837 and located in the northwest part of Hudson Township. He was, before the war of 1861, one of the largest stock raisers in Missouri. His farm was one of the largest in the state, he owning 8,000 acres of land in a body. At the breaking out of the civil war (1861) he went to Texas, taking with him forty-five slaves. He died in Texas in 1869. He was one of the first judges of the county court. Mrs. Douglas died in 1878.

George Rains was an early settler.

Another of the prominent men who settled at an early day in Bates County, was Judge John D. Myers. While not as early a settler as some others, yet, on account of his sterling qualities, and the tact, prudence and energy that were his well known characteristics, he deserves more than a brief notice. That Bates County has reached its present high standing among the counties of Missouri, is due largely to the energetic efforts of those who, before the civil war, were busily engaged in developing its resources, and who, when the war clouds dispersed, brought order out of chaos, and reorganized society upon a basis peaceful and secure. These facts, in addition to its great natural resources, attracted immigration and capital within its borders. The name of John D. Myers must ever occupy a prominent place among this class of people. In accounts that will be given of the history of war times, and the reorganization of the county government after the war, his name will necessarily appear as a prominent actor, and in this article that portion of his history will not appear, but we give a short account of himself and family, as furnished by his daughter, Mrs. Isaac Snodgrass, of Deepwater Township.

John D. Myers was born in Pennsylvania in 1808. While a boy, lived both in Virginia and Indiana. While in Virginia, at the age of eighteen years, he married Mary Hall. They removed to Morgan County, Missouri, in 1841, and to Bates County in 1842. He bought the improvements commenced by a man named Beardsley, on what is now lot 6, section 6, in Hudson Township, where Kid Raybourn now lives. They never met with the more serious troubles that beset the earliest settlers. Indians were numerous, but did no harm. Wolves were thick and troublesome. Mrs. Snodgrass remembers that their house was used for holding elections, and that her father was first elected constable and afterwards as justice of the peace. They went to school and to church in the school house near Judge Wix's. Mrs. Myers, with the aid of her girls, spun and wove wool, cotton and flax, for all their wearing apparel except occasionally a Sunday dress of calico. As a specimen of the skill of the pioneers of those times, Mrs. S. relates that she often saw a very nice white dress that Mrs. Cockrel, wife of the postmaster at Pleasant Gap, spun and wove with her own hands for her wedding dress. Mrs. Meyers died in 1846, and in 1849 or 1850 he married a Widow Raybourn, of Henry County, who survives him and is now living in Appleton City. He was always opposed to slavery, and was not at all mixed up with the Kansas troubles in 1856. When the civil war came on, he took strong ground in favor of the Union, and thereby brought down upon his head the wrath of his Confederate neighbors. He was obliged to leave in 1861. Was orderly sergeant in Captain Newberry's company. The family moved to Smithton, Pettis County, and then to Butler, and afterwards to Dresden till the war was over. He was elected and re-elected county and circuit clerk. Resided in Butler till 1871, then removed to Appleton and died there in 1876.

Judge Myers' family consisted of Jacob, who died in Palmyra, Missouri; Mary married James Cockrel, who dying, she afterwards married --- Case, and now lives in New Mexico; Dudley died in California; Catherina married Oliver Sutsenhgir, and died in 1880; Susan married Isaac Snodgrass, of Deepwater Township; John was killed in a skirmish near Butler, in 1862; Woodford was drowned while in the government service on the plains; Rebecca, the wife of Judge Steel, of Hudson Township; Van. died in California. His children by his second wife were: Clay, who lives in Appleton City; DeWitt died in 1880; Oscar died in 1881; Sackie died at the age of seven years.

The Gilbreaths are generally known throughout Bates County as large land holders, and were among the early settlers of Bates County, Their father, John Gilbreath, was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina in 1785. In 1808, he emigrated to what is now St. Clair County, Illinois, just opposite St. Louis. He with his family and one other man came through the woods from Vincennes, Indiana, that trip having been made only once before by white men. He was a farmer and owned considerable land and did much towards clearing and improving the country. The Indians gave them trouble during the war of 1812. A settlement of two or three families named Lively, were attacked and all killed except one girl, whom the Indians carried off captive, after having burned and destroyed whatever they could not carry off. Mr. Gilbreath was one of a party that pursued the Indians, and coming suddenly upon and charging at them, they ran for the timber and the girl jumped from a pony she was riding, and ran back, when an Indian threw a tomahawk and struck her in the back, cutting one rib loose from the back bone. She however recovered.

The settlers were compelled to take up their residence in a fort for some time during the war. Mr. Gilbreath was one of a party that went under the command of Governor Ninian Edwards to an Indian village at Peoria Lake and destroyed it. Mr. Gilbreath's oldest child, Polly, was born in the fort in 1812, she is now Mrs. Harriman, of Rockville, Bates County. Three sons, William, Simeon and Stephen were born between 1814 and 1821. In the fall of 1839, William started alone on horseback for a look at the Western country. Crossing the Mississippi River at Chester, sixty miles below St. Louis, he followed a mail route through Farmington in Southeast Missouri, to Little Rock, Arkansas. The legislature being in session, there was much going on that interested him and he remained some time, took his horse on a steamer that was going up the river with some Seminole Indians, that were being forcibly removed from Florida to the Indian Territory by the government. He landed at the mouth of Horse Creek, having concluded to pursue his journey on horseback. As the steamer was turning from the landing the boiler burst, making a complete wreck of the steamer, and leaving but few alive, that were on board. The pilot's body was thrown upon the bank. After this narrow escape, two days ride brought him to an uncle's near Van Buren, Arkansas. Another uncle lived near by and he remained with them the rest of the winter. While here, he wrote to his father to come on with the rest of the family, and he would meet them at Springfield, Missouri. They came on with two two-horse wagons, and three yoke of oxen to the third wagon. Upon meeting at Springfield the elder gentleman had such a strong desire to see his brother that the whole party went on to Van Buren, Arkansas. In the spring of 1840, they started north, intending to go to the Platte Purchase in North Missouri. Camping at the famous spring at the head of Spring River, in Lawrence County, Missouri, they found their oxen so lame from traveling over the sharp flint rock that they could travel no farther. They built cabins and stayed there until February, 1841, when William started out for Harmony Mission, Bates County.Two days' ride brought him, just at night, to Collies' ford, and crossing over he put up for the night at Collies. He found Collies' wife had been raised in the same neighborhood with himself, and each knew many of the same people. This made him at home at once, and he was treated in so friendly a mariner, and hearing such a favorable account of the locality, made him quite inclined to settle somewhere near by. Looking around he selected a spot, now in section 11, township 39, range 29, where E. K. Gird now lives. A half breed named Hunt had located a claim there, and Gilbreath bought him out, paying him $160 in gold. This money was paid simply for his claim and his good will. The improvement consisted of nearly an acre in the edge of the brush, inclosed by tying hickory bark from one sapling to another, to keep the ponies out so the squaw could raise beans, sweet corn, etc. The half breed and his family kept the little hut he had built of poles, and remained in it some years; sometimes working for the Gilbreaths. William went for the family, and returning in March 1841, they built the west room of the house, in which E. K. Gird now lives. Building the walls with logs they then roofed and sided it with boards, riven out by themselves, most of which are yet on the house. Their first years were spent in building, fencing, breaking, etc., after the manner usual with the first settlers. No particular hardships were suffered or remarkable incidents occurred up to 1844.

The crops were good and wild game plenty. A fair article of pork could be gotten from the droves of wild hogs descended from those that escaped from the Harmony Mission years before. In 1844 they planted corn over and over, until for the fourth planting they went to Warsaw for seed, paying $3.25 per bushel, and then did not raise one bushel. For three months there were not twenty-four consecutive hours that it did not rain. On the third of July, as a party, of which William Gilbreath was one, was going to Balltown to celebrate the Fourth of July, they crossed the Osage at Papinville in skiffs and canoes, and when over the bottom prairie, on the south side, they were met by a strong southwest wind that raised waves capped with foam that dashed into their boats so that they were compelled to row to some pecan trees for protection, and hold to the branches while they bailed the water out of their crafts. One, Robert Belcher, who was with the party, remarking that he would leave a high water mark that could be seen for ages, took a tomahawk and cut a notch in a tree that can now be seen thirteen feet above the ground. That year is still remembered over the country as the great flood year. It was also very wet in 1845, and but little grain raised. In 1844 all the wheat that was saved in that quarter was by Rev. M. Robards, who lived on the hill west of Hudson Post Office. He and his family took the wheat, a shock at a time, into the house, dried it by the fire and beat it out with sticks.

Mr. Gilbreath referred to a small class of people who are ever to be found a little in advance of civilization, and upon its approach, they push further into the wilderness, after the fashion of Daniel Boone. As a specimen of this class, he described John A. Walker, who lived near Pleasant Gap. He dressed in a hunting shirt and leggins of deer skin, and a coon skin cap. His hair was cut short, was as coarse as the hair of a horse's tail, and stood straight up all over his head. His wife wore a dress of cotton or tow, with a draw-string about the waist. He soon left because, a few families had settled in the region, saying he could not bear civilization. He located on Clear Creek, and when Samuel Collins moved on the creek, six miles above, he moved again to avoid such near neighbors. There was also a lone man lived in a cabin near the Marais des Cygnes, who kept himself secluded from society. He raised a fine herd of horses, about eighty in number, and after a time he was found dead in his cabin and half of his horses gone. It was supposed he was killed by horse thieves. Honey bees seemed also to precede civilization. Mr. Gilbreath remembers being once at the Osage village, near Papinville, when the Indians had a day of mourning over the fact that a swarm of bees had been found, and they thought the white men would soon dispossess them entirely. Horse flies also kept pace with the advance westward of the settlements, the traders with Santa Fe being never troubled with them after passing beyond the last line of pioneers.

The years passed on, settlers became more numerous, the three boys each getting possession of and improving large tracts of lands, and between 1852 and 1855 they all married. William married a Mrs. Walls, a widow, who had one son (Dalton) by her former husband. He is now a farmer in Hudson. William has now one son living in Round Prairie, near his father. Simeon married Margaret Huffman, and has five boys and one girl. The oldest, John, is a lawyer in Appleton City, Missouri. Stephen G. married a Miss Enkel, whose children (twins) are France (farmer in Hudson Township) and Louise, wife of Fritz Pipemier, of Appleton Township, St. Clair County, Missouri. Stephen's second wife was Charlotte Robards. She had two sons, Fritz and Earl. The Gilbreaths kept a few slaves, but were opposed to the further extension of slavery, and therefore differed from many of their neighbors. They took no part in the border troubles of 1856, nor were they disturbed on account of their opinions. William says he never knew more honest and upright people than his slaves were; that he never locked up anything, even leaving large amounts of money in a trunk in the house unlocked and in the care of the negroes, but never lost anything by trusting them. His present housekeepers were his former slaves. In 1859, a severe drouth set in -- some hay was cut, but the corn failed, except a very little in low, wet spots. On the fourteenth day of August William Gilbreath went with a hog-buyer to Monegan Creek (to purchase hogs, which were got for a dollar a hundred) and did not see a single stock of green corn on the way. It was as dry as it is in December. A great portion of the settlers moved to the river and camped on the bottom, so that they would be near water. Stock lived there without feed. Douglas, who lived on the hill north of Round Prairie, did not move, but used three teams all the time hauling water. They could make but one trip a day. In the spring of 1860 the seed corn planted a year before was plowed up as dry and sound as if it had lain in a good crib. A great many forest trees died. Phillip Zeal and James McCool were selling goods in 1859 at Papinville, and took for goods a large quantity of corn, which they shelled and sacked, expecting to ship down the river when the spring rains came, but instead of the spring freshet, the river-bed was dry and dusty, and the corn being kept in the country helped the people through.

William Gilbreath sold timothy hay for $12.50 per ton, to be taken to Fort Scott to feed the horses of army officers. In the spring of i860 Mr. Douglas, who was a Presbyterian, proposed to the neighbors that he would go to Father Jones, of Harmony Mission, and get him to hold a meeting and pray for rain. He did so. Dr. Jones set the day -- preached and prayed fervently that a season might begin that would fill their barns. On Tuesday following it rained. William Gilbreath asserts that he firmly believes that those prayers brought the rain, and that without them the country would have been desolated. The rains were not very plentiful and the crops were light that year. When the civil war of 1861 came up, the father, William and Simeon took the side of the Union, and Stephen espoused the cause of the South. William with his stepson, Dalton Walls, and his son, John, went into the militia, as did Simeon also. Since the war they have been farming in Hudson Township. The elder Gilbreath died in 1865, aged eighty years.

The little town of Hudson was located April 10, 1867, by Judge Charles I. Robards, who purchased the land for a company of men -- twenty-one in number -- and who took shares to the amount of $100 each. The town site occupied the east half of lot 5, northeast quarter and east half of lot 6, and northeast quarter and east half of the west half of lot 6, and the northeast quarter and east half of the west half of lot 5, and northeast quarter of section 3, township 39, range 29.

The first building in the place was erected by Smith Bros., of Clinton, in Henry County. William E. Brinkerhoff and V. A. Wallace took charge of the store -- general merchandise -- for Smith Bros. The second building was a private residence, built by Judge Charles I. Robards. The second business house was owned and operated by James Hodkins and E. M. King (Hodkins & King).

The first blacksmith was Alexander Gordon.

Joel Pratt was the first postmaster, and was succeeded by James E. Mathews.

The Presbyterians erected a church edifice in 1869 (frame building) in the town. This, however, was taken down and one-half of it was moved to Appleton City, three and a half miles east. The building was a large one, and in order to move it more easily it was cut into two pieces. One-half of the building was taken to Appleton City and the other half was started with, but was destroyed by fire at night before it reached the town. S. G. Clark, a Presbyterian minister, now at Rich Hill, preached for them. The church was organized with the following members: Mrs. Sallie A. Taylor, E. S. Chapin and wife and E. K. Gird and wife.

The present business of the place is done by David Connell, who is a merchant and is the present postmaster. Dr. H. H. Taylor is the blacksmith.

The town was nearly depopulated when Appleton City sprung up.

The Missionary Baptists and M. E. Church South have houses of worship also in the township; the Baptists have their building in what is called Round Prairie, and the Methodists theirs in the southeastern part of the township. William Melton and wife and Mrs. M. A. Page are among the original members of the former, and James Hook and wife among the membership of the latter.

The first school in the township was taught by Cynthia Tousley, a sister of Judge Charles I. Robards. This was in 1843, and was taught at the residence of Richard Stratton, near the present town of Hudson.

About the year 1877 a postoffice was established, called Lahai, in the township, but after being kept up for about four years was discontinued in 1882. John W. Brown was the first postmaster, succeeded by Clark Wix.

There is an abundance of coal in the township, which has been developed in different localities of the same. The vein on Panther Creek is four feet in thickness and crops out for a quarter of a mile.

Bates County Missouri MOGenWeb