HUDSON, HUTSON, HUDTSON

What's in a name?

If it's Hudson, it could be Hutson. Or Hudtson. Or Huetson.

Or Hudston, Huettson, Hudsan, Hudsen or Huteson.

There are a lot of similar Hudson names out there, and a number of them will be in Cape Girardeau later this month for the annual National History Hudson Family Association Reunion. The four-day event will be at the Holiday Inn July 27-30.

The main purpose of the Hudson Family Association is to gather and disseminate data regarding persons named Hudson and other variant spellings, said Tom Lett of Cape Girardeau.

At last count, more than 60 persons had indicated they would attend the Cape Girardeau meeting, said Lucy Hudson, of Slidel, La., who is helping establish the meeting program.

Of special interest to all Hudsons is a planned visit to the grave of Gen. Nathaniel Watkins, son of Elizabeth Hudson and a half-brother of Henry Clay.

Watkins was a lawyer in Jackson for about a half-century. He was a general in the Civil War. He is buried at Watkins Cemetery near Morley, a few miles south of Cape Girardeau.

Among the speakers on the schedule for the Hudson event is Dr. Frank Nichols, a professor of history at Southeast Missouri State University, who will present the topic, "Southeast Missouri: The Region and Its People." Margaret Harmon, a writer, photographer and genealogist who is a senior secretary in the social work department at Southeast Missouri State University. She is working on a degree in historic preservation.

A number of Hudson Family Association speakers will address the group on the final day of the meeting.

The late Malcolm H. Hudson founded the association in 1973. Today the association has approximately 100,000 pages of Hudson/Hutson names in its archives.

Tom Lett's ties with the Hudson name dates back to 1761 and a person named Elizabeth Hudson.

When Lett attended a Hudson Family Association reunion two years ago, he suggested that the annual event be held at Cape Girardeau.

Harmon has researched Elizabeth and her famous son the general, Nathaniel W. Watkins.

Elizabeth Hudson, of the Hudsons of Hanover line, was the mother of another statesmen well-known in American history, Henry Clay, a U.S. senator from Kentucky.

Watkins may not be as well known nationally as his half-brother, but he is well-known in the Missouri and particularly in Southeast Missouri.

Elizabeth Hudson was born in 1750 in Virginia, the daughter of George and Sarah Elizabeth (Jennings) Hudson. Her father, George Hudson, was born about 1717 and was the son of John Hudson, born about 1692. John was the son of William Hudson, founder of the Hanover Hudson line.

Elizabeth, says Harmon, was first married to the Rev. John Clay Jr., with whom she had three children: Betsy, George and Henry.

Betsy and George shared Hudson as a middle name. John Clay died when Henry was an infant, and Elizabeth married Capt. Henry Watkins. Elizabeth and Henry had four children: John, Martha, Francis and Nathaniel. The youngest, Nathaniel, was born in 1796.

Elizabeth lived with each husband on her father's plantation. John Clay purchased the plantation but died before he paid for it. The plantation was sold and purchased by Henry Watkins, who had then married Elizabeth.

In an 1844 letter, Henry Clay wrote that in 1792 Henry and Elizabeth Watkins moved to Versailles, Ky., and kept an inn in Woodford County. The two-story building, built by Henry Watkins, was called Watkins Tavern. The letter also mentions that the couple quit the tavern business between 1815 and 1820 and settled on a farm they owned three miles south of Versailles.

"Elizabeth was buried in the country graveyard near the home farm in Woodford County, but in 1851, one year before his death, her son, Henry Clay, had her remains removed to the family lot in the Lexington, Ky. cemetery."

Nathaniel Watkins became one of pioneers of Cape Girardeau County. Watkins spent his childhood in the Watkins Inn in Kentucky. He studied at a university in Lexington, Ky., and in the office of Judge Henry Davidge of Gallatin County, Ky. In 1819 he left Kentucky to seek his fortune and settled at Jackson, Mo., where he soon became one of the "best and most noted lawyers" in Southeast Missouri.

The Watkins estate, near Morley, Mo., was of the old Southern plantation type, but Genera; Watkins did not live there a long while. He moved there in the Civil War days from Jackson, where he had practiced law for 47 years.

Watkins served Cape Girardeau County as a representative in the Missouri Legislature in 1834, 1846 and 1850. He was elected speaker of the House. In 1856 he was elected to the state Senate and was a delegate to the St. Louis Convention of 1861.

During the Civil War, Watkins espoused the cause of the South and was proposed for president of the state convention in 1861, which met first at Jefferson City and then adjourned to St. Louis.

Union troops burned Watkins house at Jackson in 1862. Soon after, he moved to his Morley residence.

After the war, Watkins continued the practice of law. In 1875 he was elected as delegate from the 25th District to the state constitutional convention. As vice-president of that body. He performed his last public service for Missouri.

The general died March 20, 1876 at his home, Beechland, near Morley, and he was buried in the little cemetery that is located on what was once his plantation.