Hudson Mills developed as a hamlet around mills built here to use the great water power of the Huron River. Cornelius Osterhout built a sawmill here about 1827, followed in 1846 by a gristmill in which three men produced 6,000 barrels of flour a year. Later a cider mill and plaster mill became part of the complex. In 1882 the wood pulp producer Birkett Manufacturing Co. acquired the mill property. Across the Huron, the remains of the Birkett mill and dam are still visible.