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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Phillips County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Obadiah B. Hudson is the son of Henry Hudson, who was born in Scotland about 1774, and after his marriage emigrated to the United States, locating in Kentucky, where he died in 1850. His second wife, Nancy Williams, was born in Tennessee in 1796, and became the mother of fourteen children, of whom O. B. Hudson, the principal of this sketch, is the only survivor. Mr. Hudson was the father of four children by his first marriage. Obadiah B. was born in McCracken County, Ky., February 8, 1836, and remained in that State until thirteen years of age. He never attended school but one day in his life, and all of the education which he received was by studying at home and by practical experience with the world. At the age of thirteen he went to Louisiana and was employed on a boat on the Mississippi River for three years. In 1858, returning to Kentucky, he commenced farming in Ballard County, and in the fall of that year was married to Susan A. Williams, a native of that county, who was born in 1844. She was a daughter of James and Cinda R. Williams. They are the parents of eleven children, seven living: Rosella (wife of John T. Moore), Mittann (wife of William F. Carliss), Imogene, Joseph S., Fred G., William T. and Maggie B. Mr. Hudson remained in Kentucky only one year after his marriage, when he removed to Arkansas and located in Phillips County, buying a house and lot at La Grange, and was employed as a brick mason for about twelve years. At the beginning of the war he enlisted in the Confederate army and served about three months, when he was taken sick and received his discharge. In 1867 he purchased a farm of 820 acres in Phillips County, at which time he was elected collector of the county, a position the duties of which he has ably discharged for twenty-two years. In 1872 he sold his farm and removed to Helena, where he resided until 1882, then buying 160 acres of land, with 125 acres under cultivation. He has had a number of narrow escapes while performing his duties as collector, having been shot at a number of times and hit six times, once in the face, causing the loss of the right eye, twice in the body and once in the right leg, just below the knee. He is a member of the Knights of Honor and of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to which his wife also belongs.

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This family biography is one of 103 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Phillips County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Phillips County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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