Hudson Champlin Ward, the son of Dr. Isaac Blowers Ward and Ann Vines Ward, was born July 20, 1830, on board the British ship "Hudson," Captain Champlin.
He died June 12, 1897 at Columbus, Ohio.
Fifty-five years of his life from 1832 to 1887, were spent in Zanesville, (Ohio) where his irreproachable character, sterling business methods and strong church attachments made him one of the well-known men of the Muskingum valley.
A very few of our oldest citizens will remember his father, the skillful and scholarly English doctor who died in 1843, and his mother, whose kindly gentle ways won for her a host of friends, and who after the death of her husband, opened a private school in which she taught French and music.
At the age of 16 he entered the merchantile house of Guthrie, Buckingham and Co., in Putnam, in whose employ he remained for some twelve years.
While in Mr. Guthrie's employ, Mr. Ward frequently accompanied the firm's flat-boats of stoneware as super-cargo, sometimes only as far as Marietta and again as far as New Orleans. During the cholera epidemic in May 1850, he started from Putnam on such an expedition with Jesse Smith, a well-known Zanesville pilot. When nearing Cincinnati Mr. Smith took cholera and Mr. Ward remained with him until he died, the crew, however, deserting the boat.
In 1858 Mr. Ward went in business for himself at 212 Main street, removing later to his better known location at 15 South Third street, where he remained until 1887, when he removed to Columbus to enter into business partnership with his sons.
Mr. Ward was an active member of the Putnam Presbyterian church for over forty-one years, thirty three years of which time he was an elder. At the time of his decease, he was an elder in the Broad street Presbyterian church of Columbus. He was always interested in Sunday school work, latterly conducting a large class of convicts at the Ohio penitentiery Sunday school.
He was a strong believer in the power of good of Christian institutions of learning.
Through his efforts in some cases taking the form of financial assistance, a number of young men and women have been helped to a college or seminary education.
For some years he was a trustee of Granville Female College.
In the "ante-bellum" days he was a strong abolitionist and helped to maintain a local station of the "underground railroad." In politics he was a staunch Republican.
Mr. Ward's last illness was of some fifteen months duration, the outcome of an attack of the grippe contracted in England in 1895.
Early in 1896 he retired from active business on account of rheumatism, which was followed by disorders of the heart, bowels and stomach.
To those who watched by his bedside his passing away was so peaceful, even beautiful, made so by his great faith in the Master whom he had striven so hard to serve faithfully through his long and useful life.
The widow nee Jane Parker for years a teacher in the old McIntire acadamy, three sons, Vernon C. and Harry P., of Columbus, Hubert H. of Cleveland,(Ohio) and one daughter, Annette, of Columbus, survive to mourn a tenderly devoted husband and father.

Courier, published: Zanesville, Ohio
Not dated
Courtesy of Muskingum County Chapter of O.G.S.