MYSTERY PHOTO

Unk, Jess Hudson, Louis Hudson, unk, unk, unk, unk
Location possibly Butler Co., Mo, Cairo area of IL, or Oklahoma, ca. 1914-1920

Family guesses had assumed this to be a group of co-workers.  However, a physical feature of this Hudson line was the large ears (see clearly on Jess and Louis).  These are also prominent on several of their children.    Examining the photo closer there are some resemblances which might suggest not a work gathering but a family gathering.

Theory A : Group of co-workers gathered and a photo taken.  The photo, due to the youth look of Jess Hudson (who died in 1929) was probably taken about the time he married Effie Ray Conner in 1914.  They married in Cairo, IL but lived in Poplar Bluff, Butler Co., Mo til about 1918 when they moved to Oklmulgee, OK and then about 1925 to Bristow, Ok.  From about 1912 to 1925 Jess owned mules and operated his own team for hauling logs and machinery. After about 1925 he moved into a support field in the oil industry and at his death worked for Southwest Gas.

Theory B :  Children from the two families of Louis Hudson met and had a photo taken.  Louis Hudson was born 1871, Vanderburgh Co., Indiana to William Hudson (b. 1820, VA).He married #1--Victoria Waters d/o Jesse and Emily Waters. His children from that marriage were Jesse Hudson (B. 1890, Villa Ridge, Pulaski Co., Ill), Louis Eugene Hudson (b 1896, Alexander Co., Ill), and Elizabeth Hudson (b. ca. 1880-1890).

He married #2 Cordelia Holmes, c 1904 in Poplar Bluff, Mo. His children included William Everett (1904), Hezza Eugene (1908), John Hershel (1912), Bill Woodford (1913), Benjmain Wilford (1913), Herbert Chauncey (1917), Thomas Harold (1919).

Theory A is most probable as the children of theory B would have been too young.   The resemblances may be chance or they might include relatives who have been lost in the still murkey waters of this line of Hudson.

If you can identify any of these unknown men - please contact me.

The Poor Farm

Every community faces challenges presented by individuals who have no source of income due to temporary or ongoing poverty, disability, medical problems, or mental instability.  Families usually took 'care of their own' but sometimes there were multiple challenges and a family member might be sent to a local facility for the infirm, mentally handicapped, or physically limited.   

Barry Co., MO Poor Farm - where Barbara Ennis Terry was said to have died in 1883.
(Early History of Barry County, Mo)

Since communities seldom had the largess to create specific, separate entities often one place would serve several roles.  What started out as a 'Poor Farm' where the destitute or homeless might be given work and shelter morphed into the place where the insane, handicapped, or long-term ill went when a family could not care for them.  This happened with aging parents cared for by equally aging children. The family may not have been "poor" but were strapped for options.  

As fortunes ebbed and flowed conditions improved or deteriorated.  The Barry Co., Missouri Poor Farm was established to high hopes but within a few decades it had to be replaced.   The original wooden structure was superseded by a brick structure run on more a modern care home basis.   

The "Poor Farms" and the community "Pauper Graves" offer a challenge to most family historians.  Records were seldom kept, sometimes names were not even known, such locations were soon forgotten and built over, and thus locating a final resting place nigh impossible.   One person, on my husband's tree, was in a state hospital when he died from cancer and all that is known is one of four pauper cemeteries would have been used. All records of the deaths, grave allocation numbers, and similar data no longer exist. Sometimes, however, original plat books provide clues and occasionally death certificates provide addresses for the county cemetery set aside for indigenent and pauper graves.