Veterans Memorial Park
This marker, placed by the Hudson Bicentennial Commission in 1987, in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, reads:
Dedicated to the members of the Havens Settlement who entered land in present Hudson Township in January 1830. Jesse Havens, Benjamin Wheeler, Jacob Moats, Hezekiah Platt, David Trimmer, John Smith, and their families. And founders of the Hudson Colony Horatio N. Pettit, Jacob Hicks Burtis, John Gregory and George I. Purkett who formed the Illinois Land Association and located and entered land in Hudson Township on June 16, 1836.
On June 20, 1836, Pettit, Gregory, Samuel P. Cox and John Magoun arrived at the Havens Settlement where they boarded during the time required to survey and plat the Colony. Elbert Dickerson, County Surveyor, with the aid of the Colonists, surveyed the land and laid out the Village which was named Hudson. Each member of the Colony paid $235 for a share in the company for which he was to receive 160 acres of prairie land, 20 acres of timber land, four lots in the Village, one outlot, and a share in the net profit. On July 4, 1836, the Colonists drew lots for their share of land. Other Colonists were James Turner Gildersleeve, who had constructed a house by December 1836, Joseph Darling Gildersleeve, James H. Robinson, John Magoun, Samuel Lewis, Alfred S. Weeks, Samuel P. and George Washington Cox.
In commemoration of the Bicentennial of the signing of the United States Constitution, this marker is placed by the Hudson Bicentennial Commission, 1987