Early Settlers
The family names of Havens, Moats, and Wheeler were the first to come to Hudson Township in 1829. They settled west of what is now the Village of Hudson, naming the settlement Havens Grove. The Hudson Colony was developed in 1836. Horatio Petitt, set a plan for the division of lots. Most of the colonists came from the Hudson River Valley and Long Island in New York, hence the name Hudson was chosen for the colony.

The Gildersleeve House
Erected in 1836, the James Turner Gildersleeve home on Broadway Street was the first house in the Hudson Colony. It also served as Hudson's first post office. Thomas W. Stevenson (brother of Adlai Stevenson I) and wife, Mary Gildersleeve Stevenson, resided there in 1936. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977; razed in 2000.

Birthplace of Melville Stone -- founder of the Chicago Daily News and general manager of the Associated Press.
On August 22, 1848 Melville Elijah Stone, son of Rev. Elijah Stone and Sophia Creighton Stone, was born in the James Turner Gildersleeve house. He died February 15, 1929. He is buried in the Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.

An historic stone honoring Melville Stone originally erected on the Gildersleeve property was moved to Hudson's Veterans Park when the Gildersleeve house was demolished.