Introduction

Biography

Ralph was the son of Hen­ry and Sar­ah Hud­son.

The fa­mi­ly moved to Penn­syl­van­ia when Ralph was a boy. Soon af­ter the out­break of the Am­eri­can ci­vil war, he en­list­ed in the 10th Penn­syl­van­ia Vol­un­teers, and served ov­er three years.

After dis­charge from the ar­my, he be­came a suc­cess­ful mu­sic teach­er. From 1872–74, he was Pro­fess­or of Vo­cal Mu­sic at Mount Un­ion Col­lege, and for the next quar­ter cen­tu­ry lived in the Mt. Un­ion-Al­li­ance, Ohio, area.

For a while, he was in a real es­tate part­ner­ship with Rev. D. D. Waugh. How­ev­er, he was best known as a hymn writ­er and mu­sic pub­lish­er, and for ev­an­gel­ism and tem­per­ance work. He was a lay preach­er and mem­ber of the Mt. Un­ion Me­tho­dist Epis­co­pal Church, and was one of the few sup­port­ers of the Sal­va­tion Ar­my when it strug­gled to gain a foot­hold in Al­li­ance in the mid-1880’s.

In 1897, Hud­son moved to Cleve­land, Ohio, where he con­tinued to pub­lish mu­sic, and to tra­vel as an ev­an­gel­ist and tem­per­ance work­er.

In late May, 1901, he left Cleve­land for an ex­ten­sive trip to pro­mote his lat­est song book. He stopped in Up­land, In­di­ana, to at­tend com­mence­ment ex­er­cis­es at Tay­lor Uni­ver­si­ty, where he was a trust­ee. He stayed there se­ver­al days and de­liv­ered a lec­ture.

Shortly af­ter, he fell ill and died. At the time of his death, he was a mem­ber of the Lo­cal Preach­ers As­so­cia­tion, the Ep­worth Me­mor­ial Church in Cleve­land, and the Pro­tected Home Ci­rcle.

Works

• Salvation Ech­oes (Al­li­ance, Ohio: 1882)
• Gems of Go­spel Song, 1884
• Prohibition War Songs
• Quartette
• Songs for the Home
• Songs of Peace, Love and Joy (Al­li­ance, Ohio: 1885)
• The Tem­per­ance Song­ster, 1886
• Songs of the Ran­somed, 1887
• Gospel Jew­els (Cleve­land Ohio: Pub­lish­ing House of the Ev­an­ge­li­cal As­so­cia­tion, 1890)
• Purest Gems (Al­lia­nce, Ohio: 1891)
• Glad Tid­ings in Song, 1893