A History of the Hudson Family: Part II
A Tale of Two Families
Roxbury, a suburb of Boston, c. 1840s
Augustus Allen Hayes, whose “The Denver Express” introduced Part I of this history, lived a life that itself could have furnished the plot of a novel. His life story delivers intrigue, foreign adventure, and the social ambitions of a quintessential East Coast patrician. Apparently sharing a degree of the wanderlust that carried James and Carrie May across the Western Hemisphere, one striking contrast between Augustus and James is the rich record of his life from start to end that is left behind.
For Boston’s wealthy families in the first half of the 19th century, Jamaica Plain offered a quaint respite from busy city life, particularly during the hot summer months. It was here in 1837 where Augustus was born. Hailing from a family of the Boston Brahmin class, Augustus undoubtedly enjoyed a comfortable youth living in some of Boston’s most exclusive enclaves such as Brookline and Suffolk County. As was often expected among the young men of such station, he enrolled at Harvard and graduated in 1857 alongside a crop of rising notables, including future Massachusetts governor and US Secretary of Navy John Davis Long.
It was shortly thereafter that Augustus veered onto a slightly less conventional course in comparison to his peers. In 1860, he traveled to Shanghai where he would settle and live for the next 15 years. A person in 2026 can expect to spend 22 – 30 hours and over $1,000 to travel from Boston to Shanghai; in the mid 1800s, such a trip would typically take anywhere from 55 to 150 days at an estimated cost of $9,000 to more than $28,000 in modern equivalent value. In the age before the Suez and Panama Canals, a brave and very patient voyager would likely set sail from New York and head southward to hug Africa’s Cape of Good Hope before crossing the entire Indian Ocean to reach Shanghai. For those with enough means for the expedited option, a steamship may have taken them to England, from whence they could cross the European mainland, take a second steamer to Egypt, travel by rail or camel across the Egyptian desert to the Red Sea, before catching yet another chain of British steamships that pass Ceylon, Hong Kong, and finally Shanghai.
Once landed, Augustus devoted himself to research and writing, and later a lucrative career with the major American merchant house, Olyphant & Co. Established as large-scale traders in silk, mattings, and other luxury items, the company also became known for its fierce opposition to the opium trade and its role as one of the only large foreign trading firms not to engage in smuggling. As a partner with the company, Hayes helped lead efforts in the development of various railway projects in the region. Seemingly not one to shy from an escapade, one later obituary notes that Augustus participated in the defense of Shanghai against Taiping rebels during the Taiping Civil War (a horrific conflict for which Wikipedia gives estimates of the death toll ranging from 20 to 100 million people).
Amidst his time as a merchant and part-time city defender, Augustus managed to return to the East Coast on numerous occasions, including in 1871 to marry Emily Roelker Fuller, niece of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, famous American journalist, women’s rights advocate, and wife of an Italian noble. The couple returned to China shortly thereafter, where their daughter, Florence Rowan Hayes, was born. Perhaps longing for a more familiar and predictable life now that the family had grown, the Hayeses returned to the US, first ensconcing themselves in the Hotel Vendome in Boston for an extended period, before moving to New York City sometime towards the end of the 1870s.
The next chapter of Augustus’ life is largely dedicated to his literary feats, including several books, short stories, and regular articles and essays published in papers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. He had no trouble reestablishing himself in the exclusive world he grew up in, as his later New York Times obituary would later elucidate, working his way to the top of the 19th pioneer in public electric lighting, Brush Electric Light Company, becoming Secretary and acting Vice President. He also enjoyed membership in some of the most prestigious private social clubs, including the University Club of New York and the Metropolitan Club of Washington.
Before long, the call to migrate once again beckoned to Augustus. Sometime towards the end of the 1880s or early 1890s, he moved with his wife to Paris, France. Then at the height of the Belle Epoque, Paris was considered the cultural capital of the world and was consequently a magnet for artists and writers. Unlike the young and often disillusioned members of the Lost Generation who flocked to Paris following the First World War, those who came to Paris in the 1890s were often the wealthy and established high-society intellectuals drawn by what they considered the peak of global sophistication. Authors like Henry James and Edith Wharton traveled frequently to Paris during this period, making it plausible that Augustus was attracted to the city by similar motivations.
In 1892, Augustus would pass away from heart failure in his apartment, a short walk away from the Arc de Triomphe. His wife Emily would also live out her days in France, residing in Brittany on France’s northwest coast until her death in 1899.
While no doubt an interesting character with a fascinating and unusual biography, the obvious question is what relevance does the life of Augustus Allen Hayes have to the Hudson family? Officially, none at all. Only when certain details are examined further do they begin to reveal a faint and hidden thread that links the two families.
Recall the scant official information we have on James Hudson’s early life: he was born in October 1840 in Rhode Island, to parents Augustus A. Hudson and Henrietta Dana, both supposedly born in England according to James, though without a single trace of either one on record and no other family to speak of.
The early life of our Augustus Allen Hayes of this story is well documented, with both maternal and paternal lines of his family easily traced to the earliest decades of European settlement in New England in the beginning of the 17th century. His full name was in fact Augustus Allen Hayes Jr., as his father’s name was Augustus Allen Hayes Sr., and his mother was Henrietta Dana Hayes. Nor was he an only child; he had two younger siblings, a sister, Sophia, born in 1846, and a brother named Samuel Dana Hayes, born in October 1840.
Samuel Dana is thus the next focus of this history. Sharing with James the same birth month and birth year, as well as a mother named Henrietta Dana and a father named Augustus A. is indeed a curious series of coincidences. The fact that they are recorded to have been born just 50 miles apart from each other muddies the waters of a possible connection between the two men.
Like Augustus, albeit to a smaller degree, Samuel Dana’s early life can be traced relatively well. Born in a fashionable Boston suburb like his brother, he followed a relatively comparable life path, enrolling in the elite Norwich Military Academy, traveling abroad, and returning to Boston to gradually establish himself as a well-known chemist and assayer in the region. However, in an almost mirror reflection of James’ life, just as one documentary trail begins to emerge, the other suddenly becomes strangely difficult to follow. Then, around 1880, Samuel Dana Hayes disappears.
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