Lucy Henry Morton Hudgins
1880 - 1964
Lucy Henry Morton Hudgins was born November 15, 1880 to Jacob William Morton and Anne Jones Morton at Sunnyside in Charlotte County. Her father J. W. Morton was the mayor of Keysville for a number of years. Lucy graduated from Ward Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee and studied voice in New York for a number of years. An accomplished musician, she was a member of the quartet choir of the First Baptist Church in Richmond, and the soprano soloist at Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church also in Richmond, Christ Episcopal Church in Nashville, and the First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia.
Lucy married Edward Wren Hudgins, later Chief Justice, in 1910 and made their home in Chase City, VA. She was mother to Edward Morton Hudgins and William Henry Hudgins. MacCallum More Museum & Gardens owes its beginning to the creativity and passion put forth by Mrs. Hudgins. She started the gardens in the 1920’s, appropriately naming them “MacCallum More”, which derives from Mrs. Hudgins' Scottish heritage. She is distantly related to the first Duke of Argyle, Archibald Campbell, and the seat of the head of the Campbell clan was called "MacCallum More". Genealogy was
treasured by Mrs. Hudgins and as a result, the late Dr. Joseph Eggleston, former president of the Virginia Historical Society and of Hampden-Sydney College, once described her as “an outstanding Virginia genealogist”. Several of the dedicated plaques in the gardens are tribute to her family lineage. To see the Morton family tree, click here.
Only two women in Chase City have a street named after them and Mrs. Hudgins happens to be one of them. Thus, the reason Hudgins street is so named. She was an active member of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Chase City where she served as organist, taught Sunday school, and sang in the choir for 53 years. For over thirty years, Mrs. Hudgins served on the board of the Children’s Home Society. She was a life member of the Virginia Historical Society and the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. She was also a member of the Colonial Dames, Daughters of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Chase City Woman’s Club. Mrs. Hudgins died in a Richmond hospital on January 3, 1964 after a prolonged illness.