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Thomas Jefferson Hudson

Politician. Democrat/Populist. Born: October 30, 1839, Boone County, Indiana. Died: January 4, 1923, Wichita, Kansas. Served in U.S. House of Representatives, 3rd District: March 4, 1893, to March 3, 1895.

Born October 30, 1839,in Boone County, Indiana, Thomas Jefferson Hudson attended Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, and then removed to Nodaway, Missouri, in 1854. He went to Kansas, settling first at Coyville, Wilson County, in 1866, and taught at a country school; subsequently, Hudson studied law and was admitted to the bar at Iola in June 1869. That same year, he moved to Fredonia where he worked for the adoption of the 15th Amendment, served on the school board and as mayor, was a member of the 1870 state legislature, and organized the Wilson County Bank in 1871; he also graduated from the law department of the University of Cincinnati in 1874. Hudson served as prosecuting attorney of Wilson County during the mid-1880s and was active in the Democratic Party, severing as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1884 and 1888, as well as 1896. He was elected to Congress in 1892 (member of the Fifty-third Congress, March 4, 1893-March 3, 1895) as a Populist but was not a candidate for renomination in 1894. He resumed his law practice in Fredonia and served as a regent of KSAC from 1897-1898. Hudson died at Wichita on January 4, 1923.

Entry: Hudson, Thomas Jefferson

Author: Kansas Historical Society

Author information: The Kansas Historical Society is a state agency charged with actively safeguarding and sharing the state's history.

Date Created: June 2011

Date Modified: May 2012

The author of this article is solely responsible for its content.