The Business of Hudson

• A sail making hemp and duck canvas factory on Third Street was owned and operated by Seth Jenkins and Stephen Paddock. 
• An oil and candle factory on Diamond Street between First and Second Streets was operated by Thomas Jenkins and between Second and State Streets, one was owned by Cotton Gelston.
• The original shipyard was begun in 1784 by Titus Morgan who applied for a permit to build at the base of State Street. After several setbacks and delays, Abiel Cheney took over the Morgan shipyard and shipyards were subsequently built and owned by Thomas Jenkins and Cotton Gelston, Obed Sears, Abiel Cheney, William Johnson, Laban Paddock, John T. Lacy,  Elihu Bunker and others.
• Thomas Jenkins built a rope walk 600 feet long north of State Street and had the name “Rope Alley,” which supplied the ropes used on sailing vessels.
• Flour mills were operated by Peter Hogeboom and James Nixon.
• A nail factory owned by Higgins and Conklin.
• A brewery was established by Benjamin Faulkins in 1786, and produced Hudson Ale.
• A variety of stores operated by the Jenkins family, as well as Thomas Frothingham, Hezekiah Dayton and Thomas Worth.
• John McKinstry owned the first inn and tavern. There were seventeen licensed inns and forty one establishments licensed to sell liquor. 
• A pottery was operated by Joseph Shove.
• Tanneries were run by David Bunker, Redwood Easton, Robert Taylor, Nathan Sears, Marshall Jenkins and Giles Frary.  A number of tanneries were established in the new settlement, mostly along the South Bay, in the area known today as “Tanners Lane.”  Shoe leather was the primary product made from cattle hides brought from nearby slaughterhouses, but sealing ships also brought seal hides into the Port of Hudson. Both whale oil and elephant seal oil, along with the bark of the local Hemlock tree, were used in the tanning  process. 
• In the fall of 1784 Colonel John Van Alen donated five acres on the far east edge of the city for a cemetery and then became the first man to be buried there on December 15, 1784.
• The first newspaper was established in 1785 and published as The Hudson Gazette.
• By 1786 there was a school and a public subscription library.
• The first Quaker meetinghouse in Hudson was established, followed by Presbyterian and Methodist churches in 1790.

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Additional Resources (links to PDF): 

Field Guide: Rope Alley and Rope Walk

The Balance and Columbian Repository, Number 7, February 16, 1802.