The Hudson House - 1832

The Hidden Silverware ...

During the Civil War, the house served as a Union Hospital. While discussing the arrangements for the wounded with Mrs. Wood, one soldier asked her young daughter Georgia to sit beside him. The little girl declined, saying the family silverware had been sewn in the hoops of her dress and she had to stand. The soldier convinced Mrs. Wood to remove the silver and he protected it for her until the close of the war.

William Henry Wood, the enterprising son of a Virginia planter came to Hardeman County in 1832 where he engaged in the mercantile business for several years. In December of 1835 he purchased several town lots and erected a two-story southern colonial house of wood in the Georgian architectural design, with the proverbial four rooms and a great hall.

In 1849 Mr. Wood sold the property to his brother, Dr. George Wood who sold it to his renter Dr. Archer Allen Coleman in 1869. Dr. Coleman died here in 1878 in the yellow fever epidemic and his heirs later sold the house in January 1896 to Dr. Benjamin Vernon Hudson. The Hudson family then occupied the home for nearly a half a century, adding a two-story wing and a front veranda.

The Hudsons' sold the house in 1945 and the turnover of property owners were numerous. In 1971, Terry Fish and his family began a restoration process to return the house to its former glory.