Hudson (Florida)

Hudson
County and state location
Basic data
State :	United States
State :	Florida
County :	Pasco County
Coordinates :	28 ° 22 ′  N , 82 ° 41 ′  W Coordinates: 28 ° 22 ′  N , 82 ° 41 ′  W
Time zone :	Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 )
Residents :	12,158 (as of 2010)
Population density :	736.8 inhabitants per km 2
Area :	16.5 km 2  (about 6 mi 2 ) of which 16.5 km 2  (about 6 mi 2 ) is land
Height :	3 m
Postcodes :	34667, 34669, 34674
Area code :	+1 727
FIPS :	12-32825
GNIS ID :	0284369

Hudson is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pasco County in the US state of Florida with 12,158 inhabitants (as of 2010).

geography

Hudson is on the Florida Gulf Coast and about 50 km northwest of Tampa . The CDP is crossed by US Highway 19 .

history

A surprising number of people visited this country hundreds of years ago. According to the diary entries of Hernando de Soto and Juan Ponce de León in 1513, both Spanish explorers, both crossed the Pithlachascotee River and the northwestern part of what is now Pasco County . Before Issac Hudson came here and founded the city, this subtropical land was inhabited by wild animals and later, from the 18th century, by the Seminole Indians. It was then plundered by the Civil War blockade breakers until Issac Hudson and the settlers he led finally arrived here. Pirates were at home here from the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century. These real pirates were experienced sailors who used the many inlets, small bays and rivers around the future Hudson for their illegal activities. They took advantage of the size of the land around the Gulf of Mexico where they were safe from persecution and arrest.

Cow River , Horse Island , Hudson Bay , Cedar Island , Bayonet Point , Fillmun Bayou , Sleepy Lagoon etc. did not exist then and the areas had not yet been explored. Many of the pirates allegedly buried their treasures in this area. "Horse Island" is mentioned particularly often. Ancient Hudson residents attest to the fact that in the past they were often harassed by treasure hunters digging. Either these treasure hunters had just followed a rumor, or descendants of the former pirates, or had bought a “treasure map”. We will never know. The fact is, however, that "Horse Island" has been dug a lot.

During the Civil War (1861-1865) Florida was part of the Confederate States fighting the United States. The Confederates used the Hudson coast to do exactly the same thing as the pirates did before. They hid and slammed out of hiding, usually during the night, to carry out their raids along the Pacos County shoreline .

At that time, the area was a wilderness with many swamps. Finally, the first white settlers from other parts of Florida came to Port Richey around 1860 to 1870 via the Old Salt Road, the only passable route through the swamps. They use the coast for fishing and began to extract salt by allowing salt water to evaporate in large natural pools.

In the 14th to 18th centuries, this area was a sacred place for the Timeuca and Seminoles, who buried their dead here. A large Indian cemetery was found in Grace Memorial Gardens, west of State Route 19, near Denton Avenue in Hudson.

In 1870 Isaac Hudson arrived here with a herd of cattle and a few covered wagons in search of better pastureland. He founded the City of Hudson in 1878 when he gave permission for his home to be used as a post office. The result was that his property was included in the official list of place names.

During the American Civil War , this area was part of Hernando County . It was not until after the war in 1887 that the county was divided, and the new part was named Sam Pasco , Pasco County in memory of a Confederate soldier who was later elected to Congress .

In the years that followed, other settlers came to the area. Daily life then differed considerably from life today. The new neighbors welcomed the newcomers, helped them find a good piece of land and help them build houses. There was a sawmill in Hudson even before 1905 and the settlers were able to build their houses from the wood of the surrounding forests. The furniture was made by local artisans and was mostly made of wood. Brooms and baskets were woven from local willows.

At that time the residents were still self-sufficient in food, as they had done for the past hundred years. There were plenty of animals and birds in the forests, and the Gulf of Mexico was an almost inexhaustible reservoir of fish. The settlers' favorite breakfasts were salted or smoked seafood with sweet potatoes.

Social life in Hudson at the time was simple but varied. For the ladies of society, the main occupation was visiting friends, neighbors, and relatives. These meetings were usually spontaneous. The ladies exchanged recipes and gossiped about this and that. The children played and romped in nature. The gentlemen sat on the veranda and talked about the harvest, fishing, or getting materials to expand the house. Food and shelter were generously shared. There are many areas in the world where people cannot feed themselves. Florida's Gulf Coast was not one of them. It was an area that had much fertile land and a productive sea. At that time, every traveler could be sure that at the end of the day he was invited to dinner and asked to spend the night in the house.

An important aspect in Hudson was education. At the time, it was normal for classes to only last three months a year. The rest of the time the children were used to work on the farm. The only school that taught through 8th grade was in Dade City. The people of Hudson did not like this and provided adequate schooling with private funds.

In the days of horses, horse-drawn carts, donkeys, and mules, there were no real roads. It was more of a beaten track. At the time, a trip from Hudson to Dade City took two days. The first roads were covered with sand, but it was difficult to drive on. A clay covering applied in 1900 became impassable when it rained. The asphalt used from 1910 onwards could not create a permanent connection with the rubble as the subsurface due to its poor quality. In the city, therefore, baked bricks were used as road paving. This was impossible outside of the city because the funds were lacking. So traveling to another city continued to be dirty and tiring. For example, a trip to Tampa took four days. So you only traveled to another city once or twice a year, if it was absolutely necessary or to do urgent purchases. As a result, there was no way to sell the harvest to the cities in the interior or to bring it to the distant railway line for further transport.

Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone failed to gain acceptance in Hudson around 1910. When people had something to say, they took the opportunity to visit them themselves and speak to them directly, as has been the case for decades. The only phone was in a retail store on Hudson Avenue. If someone outside of Hudson wanted to communicate something to a resident of Hudson, he would call, hoping that the message would get through verbally to the recipient. For many years this message transmission worked without problems and you always had something to talk about and was thus up to date.

In 1915, the main street in Hudson was also the thoroughfare, the "Dixie Highway". This had nothing to do with a freeway, because it was just a gravel, dirt road that connected all the important places in Pasco County. Today it is State Highway 595, but is still called the Dixie Highway in the surrounding area. Even in the years up to 1950 this road was never upgraded for high speeds. It wasn't until 1940 that Highway 19 was built, a two-lane road that slowly but surely changed life in Hudson.

In the 1920s, in the era of Prohibition , people in Hudson increasingly pursued the illegal work of blackburning and successfully used the many bays and inlets before the prosecution of state officials. Many Canadian ships circumnavigated America to the Gulf of Mexico and landed again in one of the many inlets around Hudson. The rum trade with Central and South America also flourished. In the inlets of the sea, the schnapps was loaded onto small boats that took it further inland. The fact that they were spotted by the coast guard from time to time did not bother the people, as the coast guard boats could not follow in the shallow waters. During the entire period, although the authorities were notified, there was never an arrest.

The Great Depression of the 1930s affected Hudson little. Life here had remained simple and there was no shortage of meat, fish, fruit and vegetables.

Between 1940 and 1950, Hudson developed into a well-known fishing town. The fishery was commercialized, a fish processing industry and warehouses built, and fishery products sold nationwide, which declined again in the mid-1950s as the waters were hopelessly overfished.

Until 1950 the rainwater was collected in cisterns or canisters and served as washing or bathing water. This was not a problem during the rainy seasons, but in the dry seasons. Up until that time, it was customary for every family member to bathe in the same water on the same day. Around 1955, a group of Hudson businesspeople (Bud Clark, Hershel Hudson, WL Hendry, Henry Dingus, and a few others) met to think about how to achieve assured wealth. Their idea was to dig canals across the city so that wealthy people had direct access to the sea from their property. As we can see today, her idea at the time was groundbreaking for the city. Today's image of the city is thanks to these business people.

Later, in the 1970s, “Sea Pines” and “Leisure Beach” were built. The dredging of new canals has been banned by the state of Florida through new laws.

In 1972 Highway 19 was finally expanded to four lanes and the city was now easier to reach. State road 54 was also built, which made the city even more interesting in terms of traffic. But the new building boom didn't begin until 1990, when the decision was made to designate a building area east of Highway 19. Until then, it had been believed that only the properties west of the highway, i.e. towards the beach, would be of interest to investors. Since the 1990s, luxurious domiciles for the sun-hungry, wealthy people from the north of the country have been built here.

Religions

In Hudson there are currently 34 different churches from 15 different denominations. Among the churches belonging to a denomination, the Baptist congregation is most strongly represented with 9 churches. There are 6 churches that do not belong to any denomination (status: 2004).

Demographic data

According to the 2010 census, the then 12,158 inhabitants were distributed over 7,848 households. The population density was 736.8 inh / km². 95.3% of the population identified themselves as whites, 0.7% as African American , 0.4% as Indians and 1.2% as Asian Americans . 0.8% said they belonged to another ethnic group and 1.5% to several ethnic groups. 5.0% of the population was Hispanic or Latino .

In 2010 children under 18 years of age and 49.6% of all households lived in 15.4% of all households with persons at least 65 years of age. 59.6% of households were family households (consisting of married couples with or without offspring or one parent with offspring). The average household size was 2.05 people and the average family size was 2.54 people.

14.1% of the population were younger than 20 years, 13.9% were 20 to 39 years old, 27.5% were 40 to 59 years old, and 44.7% were at least 60 years old. The mean age was 57 years. 48.9% of the population were male and 51.1% were female.

The median annual income was $ 34,596, with 17.8% of the population living below the poverty line.

In 2000, English was the mother tongue of 92.48% of the population, 2.85% spoke Spanish and 4.67% had another mother tongue.

Clinics

The city itself does not have a clinic. For medical treatments that require an outpatient or inpatient stay, residents can visit one of the surrounding clinics: In New Port Richey , about 15 km away, the "North Bay Hospital" or the "Community Hospital", or in Spring Hill , about 16 km away, the "Oak Hill Hospital".

economy

There is no industry worth mentioning. The main branches of employment are: education, health and social affairs: (22.4%), trade / retail: (13.4%), construction: (11.8%).

Parks and sports facilities

There is a small range of different city parks as well as several sporting facilities, as well as playgrounds and opportunities for camping and barbecuing.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 . United States Census Bureau . Retrieved May 13, 2013.
2. ↑ Language distribution 2000 . Modern Language Association . Retrieved May 13, 2013.