The Late Matilida Hudson

1819 - 3 July 1887

Matilida Caroline Hudson was born in the village of Hemlock Lake, in the year 1819, of which place her father Richard Hudson, was one of the early settlers. When she was about 12 years old her father removed with his family to the town of Bristol, where he lived till his death in about 1841 or 1842. He was a bright, active man with much independence of thought, coupled with the moral courage to stand by his convictions and conclusions. In proof of this is his religious record. At one time he was a Methodist preacher, but afterwards a pronounced Universalist. At that time Ichabod A. Holden and John C. Coe of this town were prominent in this belief, and also leaders in business and public affairs. They had no superiors in anything they undertook in this section. These facts are given to show the mental atmosphere in which Matilda passed her childhood.

That it was an atmosphere of intellectual activity and of educational advantages, is most certain from the fact that at the early age of 14 she became a school teacher. This fact is very significant. In those times porficiency was the direct result of individual effort. Schools were poorly classified, text books were few and unmethodical, and, to teach a really good school, more devolved on the teacher than in our times. Not that better qualifications were demanded then than now - probably the revers; but a graded school is like a graded road. It takes a better driver to take his team and his load successfully over a new road than it does to drive over the same road after the steep places have been cut down, the streams bridged, the gulllies filled and the stones and stumps removed. The real ordeal was not so much to pass the examiner’s scrutiny, as to meet and master the difficulties of the school room.

The first term of the young teacher was the crucial test. In the light of these statements how do we find Matilida’s record? Her first school was in the town of South Bristol. How many terms she taught there we do not know; but we do know that she taught successively and successfully in the towns of South Bristol, Canandaigua and Livoinia, and afterwards in the State of Michigan. We have been particular in her school record to show that she was equal to each occasion, from the very first launch of her boat at the early age of fourteen.

Her business career began about the year 1856, when she entered as clerk in the store of L. W. Carroll at Hemlock Lake. How long she remained with Carroll is not known, but scores of people now living remember her ready, obliging manners, her business tact and her quick executive talent behind Mr. Carroll’s counters and afterwards in the stores of Lemen & Blake, and of William B. Lemen, at Hemlock Lake village. She was alson clerk in the dry goods store of W. H. Jennings, at Rochester.

While acting as clerk at Hemlock Lake she was also agent for the Grover & Baker sewing machine - probably the first in this section. During a single year she sold over 100 of these machines. She also held the important trust of postmaster at Hemlock Lake during Lincoln’s first term. At that time but few women were appointed to perform such responsible duties.

In 1862 she embarked in the dry goods and Yankee notion business for herself at Hemlock Lake, holding her own against all comers for fifteen years. She is said to have been the only dry goods merchant ever doing business in that village who did not sooner or later meet with failure. To show her enterprise it is stated that she almost invariably paid her bills in thirty days, and thereby saved a discount of from 5 to 10 per cent.

Her home for the past ten years of her life was in her native village with her sister Maria, next older than herself, who still survives her. Most happy and satisfactory were these years to these sisters.

Matilida Hudson was a true woman, and she was also as truly a character. She was endowed with strong, sterling qualities of brain and heart. She had an uncompromising individuality, that always, with perfect sweetness, preserved itself intact, with a flavor and completeness all its own. She united force and gentleness, energy and playfulness, in rare combination. She was impressive, without being exacting. Some strong characters are so abrupt and angulary, that contact with them is a trial to all the fine and gentle susceptibilities of one’s nature. Not so with her. To meet her was a pleasure and a tonic, like a burst of sunshine in a cloudy day, or a cooling breeze on a sultry afternoon. She exhaled perpetual cheerfulness from a fund of life and good nature that seemed inexhaustible. The amount of wit and humor and childish sport that bubbled and sparkled from her face and her words and her acts, was phenomenal. No one who knew her will ever forget her, and the memory will be unmixed with any bitterness. Her brain was large and of fine fibre, and her heart was the peer of her brain. Her charity of judgment and of action was proverbial. To say that she was the soul of goodness and of honesty, is no exaggerated praise. Socially, she was the moving spirit in what ever gathering of her acquaintainces she appeared. “Whenever she failed to be present,” says an old resident of Hemlock Lake, “I always went home with a feeling of loss and incompleteness.”

Miss Hudson went to visit her brother John’s widow in Rochester, Mich., in May. Here health was not good. She had an attack of pneumonia in the early spring and had suffered for two years with a kidney disease that was probably the cause of her death.

She died at her sister-in-law’s, Sunday morning, July 3, and her remains reached this town the Wednesday following, and were immediately buried. The funeral sermon was preached the Sunday following by the Rev. George M. Slaysman of this village.

She belonged to no church and was never married. The record of such a life is the richest legacy any woman or any man can leave to those who follow them. I wish to state my indebtedness to Warren Green, Esq., for most of the facts embodied in this sketch.

By H. D. K. - The Livonia Gazette, 5 August 1887.

Resolution of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Hemlock Lake

At a meeting of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union of Hemlock Lake, held on the 22d ult., the following resolution was adopted.

Whereas, it has pleased Almighty God to remove from our midst, by death, our sister, Miss Matilida Hudson; therefore,

Resolved:

(1) That we recognize in our departed sister a worthy member of our organization, a sister active and zealous in all temperance work;

(2) That while we deplore the loss our society has sustained in her death, we would consecrate ourselves anew to our cause for which she labored with so much earnestness;

(3) That we tender our heartfelt sympathy to her sister in this her hour of deep affliction, and pray that the comforting influence of the Holy Spirit may be hers in this time of need;

(4) That these resolutions be published in the Livoinia Gazette, and that a copy be sent to the family of the deceased.

Mrs. A. A. Gibbs, President.

Mrs. Wm. Wemett, Secretary.

The Burial of Matilda Hudson

The Union Cemetery in Livonia NY