Hudson, South Dakota
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Early History of Hudson
In 1868, sixteen young men who had been working on the railroad in Sioux City walked to Calliope, Iowa. In that settlement of five or six log houses, the young men stayed with the George Root family. Root consented to be their guide and the group crossed the Sioux River into Dakota. There, the young men took claim of the river bottom on the Dakota side. The men proceeded to take samples of the soil. When the soil samples were returned to Sioux City, it was said that the land could not have been better had it come from the "Garden of Eden". Thus, the name Eden became attached to the future settlement. Those original young men who started the evolution of the community were A.B. Wheelock, W.S. Peters, David Thorpe, Martin Allan, Thomas and George Peek, William Pound, Leonard Ingham, A. Kirby, Frank Kelton, Ed Cleary, Thomas and George Lynch, Thomas and George Knight and J.N. McCreeken. In the spring of 1868, ten or eleven of the men returned to their claims. A.B. Wheelock struck his claim west of the railroad tracks where the present town of Hudson is located. Peter's claim was struck on the east side of the present day tracks. The town of Eden in the Dakota Territory was located one mile west and one mile south of present day Hudson. On March 14,1868 it was originally laid out in the Northwestern part of Virginia Township. "Old Eden" was created on land owned by Frazier Gilman, originally from Maine. Gilman operated a large cattle ranch in the southeast corner of this territory. He erected a large white farm home. He plotted the town of Eden, but this was never filed. A stone building and hotel were also built. As business began to increase in the Old Eden area, a Mr. Milligan built a blacksmith shop and Frazier Gilman's brother, Theopolis, built a livery stable. Geographical Statistics
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