Joseph Kennedy Hudson papers

Biographical sketch: Joseph Kennedy Hudson was born 4 May 1840 in Carroll County, Ohio to John and Rebecca Hudson. He grew up in Salem, Ohio (a Quaker community), and his father published the Western Anti-Slavery Bugle. In 1861 with the outbreak of war, Joseph enlisted in General Lane's frontier brigade in Leavenworth, Kansas. He rose through the ranks during the war from sergeant to major, serving as assistant adjutant general of the 2nd Brigade, and served on the staffs of Generals Davis and Schofield. As a major, Hudson served with the 1st Missouri Colored Infantry.

In 1863 in Wyandotte he married Mary W. Smith, also of Salem, Ohio. They had four children. She was a noted writer.

After the war, Hudson worked as farmer and stock raiser in Wyandotte County, Kansas; in 1879, he founded the Topeka Capital daily newspaper and was its editor-in-chief for almost 20 years. He continued his active political interests in the Republican party, serving as secretary for the Kansas Board of Agriculture and as a representative in the state legislature. He also remained active in the Grand Army of the Republic.

At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Hudson offered to lead volunteers and was commissioned a brigadier general. He was assigned to the 4th Army Corps and was stationed at Tampa, Florida.

Joseph Kennedy Hudson died in 1907.

Abstract: The collection consists of correspondence to and from Joseph Hudson and his wife Mary; copies of lectures and addresses given by Hudson; military papers and correspondence mostly from the Civil War; a petition to Governor Humphrey from the women of Topeka requesting that Hudson take the place of Preston Plumb in the United States Senate after Plumb died; certificates; personal papers, including wedding and birth announcements, sympathy letters and some other materials related to Hudson's death; and other related materials.