Hudson’s par­ents, Hen­ry and Sar­ah Hud­son, moved to Penn­syl­van­ia when Ralph was a boy. Soon af­ter the out­break of the Amer­i­can ci­vil war, Ralph en­list­ed in the 10th Penn­syl­van­ia Vol­un­teers, and served over three years. Af­ter dis­charge from the ar­my, he be­came a suc­cess­ful mu­sic teach­er. From 1872-4, 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 song­book. 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.

Hudson’s works in­clude:

• Salvation Echoes (Al­li­ance, Ohio: 1882)
• Gems of Gos­pel Song for Sab­bath Schools and Gos­pel Meet­ings, 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
• Glad Tid­ings in Song, 1893

• Erickson, p. 317
• Hustad, p. 261
• Reynolds, pp. 321-2

1. All Taken Away
2. Behold the Bride­groom
3. Bi­ble, The
4. Blessed Je­sus
5. Blessed Name
6. Calvary
7. Child of the King, A
8. Christmas Day
9. Cold Wa­ter for Me
10. Come to the Feast
11. Follow Thou Me
12. Fountain Flow­ing
13. Glorious Church, A
14. Going Home To­night
15. Gospel Train
16. Haste Away
17. He Is Com­ing
18. He Knows
19. He Took Me In
20. His Name Is Je­sus
21. His Yoke Is Ea­sy
22. Homeward Bound
23. I Come Just as I Am
24. I Will, God Help­ing Me
25. I’ll Live for Him
26. I’m Glad I En­tered In
27. I’m Sa­tis­fied
28. Jesus Is Call­ing
29. Jesus Now Is Pass­ing By
30. Life of Trust, How Sweet
31. Little Talk with Je­sus, A
32. Look to Je­sus
33. Marriage Sup­per
34. My Dream
35. No One like Je­sus
36. Prayer for Guid­ance
37. Press This Bat­tle On
38. Prodigal Child, Come Home
39. Redeemed
40. Repentance
41. Rewarded
42. Ring, Ring the Bells
43. Rose of Sha­ron
44. Shout for Joy
45. Sing of My Re­deem­er
46. Something to Do
47. Tale of Woe, The
48. Ten Vir­gins, The
49. There’ll Be Joy in the Morn­ing
50. This Just Suits Me
51. We Will Have a Hap­py Time
52. Who’ll En­list?
53. Wonderful Love
54. Wonderful Sav­ior

1. Beautiful Ci­ty of Gold
2. Blessed Be the Name
3. Driven from Home
4. Fill Me Now
5. Half Has Ne­ver Been Told, The
6. Hidden Path
7. Hudson
8. I Will Fol­low
9. I’ll Be There
10. Jesus, Lov­er of My Soul
11. Lily of the Val­ley
12. Man of Galilee
13. Mar­tyr­dom
14. Mary Mag­da­lene
15. New Hid­ing Place
16. Safety
17. Same Today
18. Satisfied
19. Shadow of the Rock, The
20. Simply Trust­ing Ev­ery Day
21. We Mean This World for God
22. Without One Plea