Thomas Hodson

He helped in establishing the Wesleyan Canarese Chapel (now the Hudson Memorial Church) at Nagarthpete in the Bangalore Petah.

However, in 1853, he returned to India, and was appointed the chairman and superintendent of the Wesleyan Canarese Mission in the Mysore District.

[5][6][7] Mary Ann Hodson, his wife, died on 10 August 1866, aged 68 years, and is buried at the Agram Protestant Cemetery in Bangalore.

In particular, Hodson intended to follow the example of the American missionaries in Ceylon and establish an extensive educational system in Bangalore.

According to Captain Woodward of the 32 NI, reporting on 4 November 1832, the Wesleyan Mission was established in the Bangalore Cantonment in 1819.

Around this time, Hodson decided to start a Mission at Gubbi, which a native town in the Mysore Kingdom.

Hodson chose Gubbi to set up the mission because in Bangalore, he found that his time and efforts were taken away in preaching to the British and European officers, and he could not concentrate on the local population.

In 1834, Hodson purchased about 20 acres of land, just outside the Bangalore Petah (the current United Mission School and College, Unity Buildings, etc.).

At this time William Arthur (an Irishman, after whom the William Arthur Memorial Church at Goobie is named after) and Peter Batchelor, laymen who came to Madras to run the Church Ministry Service (CMS) Press joined the Wesleyan Mission, and were transferred to the Wesleyan Tamil Mission at Bangalore Cantonment.

[13] Thomas Hodson recorded the experiences of the Gubbi Mission in his book Old Daniel, or, Memoir of a converted Hindoo: with observations on mission work in the Goobbe circuit and description of village life in India, which provides an excellent account of village life in the 19th century Mysore State.

The land for the Wesleyan Canarese Mission was obtained by Thomas Hodson, and was located just outside one of the town gates.

In 1840, Garrett and Jenkins were appointed as Wesleyan Canarese missionaries, with an authority to build a printing press and a mission-house.

[1] Further he describes the shops of the Bangalore petah, with mud being used for the walls and the floor, wooden pillars and clay used for flat roofs.

The shops sold sugarcane, coconut, bananas, rice, sweets which were hung on a string and various grains which were kept in baskets with were smeared with cow-dung.