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First Schoolhouse marker

Near the Gazebo, you will see a rock that marks the spot of the first public structure in town. 

When David Hudson founded our city, Ohio was a wilderness.     He was the only one of the original investors to make the trip to the Connecticut Western Reserve in 1799.  It was an arduous journey for Hudson, his eleven year old son Ira, and a small group of men from Connecticut to the Western Reserve.  Forty eight days later, June 17, 1799, Hudson found the edges of the surveyed township 4, range 10.  The first spot they camped was near the western swamp.  Soon, however, they made a path into the center of town where they found high ground and a good spring.

David Hudson made the journey back east and returned with a number of pioneer families in 1800.  They gathered on what became the Green for a “service of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God for bringing them safely through the perils of the voyage,” according to Hudson’s journal.

On this spot, a log structure was built to be used for the school and the Congregational Church.

While the founders intended to have a public square from the beginning (as evidenced by early papers and journals), the Greens weren’t officially deeded to the people of Hudson until 1805 (NE, NW, SE) and 1806 (SW).  The Clocktower Green was added around 1815, possibly the result of the town growing to the north and the “tradition” of troops drilling on the Greens in the War of 1812.

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