The first European settlement of the Hudson area occurred in 1699 when settler John Barnes built a gristmill on the Assabet River on land that would one day be part of Hudson .
Settler John Barnes had been granted an acre of the Ockookangansett Indian plantation the year before .
The first European settlement of the Hudson area occurred in 1699 when settler John Barnes , who had been granted an acre of the Ockookangansett Indian plantation the year before , built a gristmill on the Assabet River on land that would one day be part of Hudson .