1948: Hudson Center Grange Holds First Fair

What has become a Hudson tradition really wasn't a big thing when it first started in fact, there wasn't even any mention of it in the Post-Gazette, which covered organizational news in great detail.

And, really, the first Hudson Grange Fair wasn't a big thing, back in the summer of 1948, something for the members to do. The Grange, basically a rural organization, had been having trouble with membership, and in the recent years, a lot of people that were basically city dwellers had joined the Grange, for the fellowship, and to help out the membership.

No one remembers now whose idea the fair was, but Art Capper recalls: "Earl Phillips was Master back when the fair started in 1948. The first fair was all in the Grange Hall. They had the exhibits upstairs."

A chicken dinner was a feature of the fair, held downstairs in the Grange Hall. Capper remembers:  "They had the dinner there to raise money for the Grange. I think they had it inside the Grange for two or three years. The first fair  that we can find in the records was 1951 when they moved outside."

The records aren't clear, but the fair moved from the grounds of the Hudson Center Grange into Hudson in 1952 or 1953. The fair was held at Thompson Field, and in 1956, an amusement company was brought on for rides for the first time. Don Bills has long been the spark plug of the rides, and the fair.

The fair stayed at Thompson Field until 1959, when heavy June rains sent Bean Creek rampaging, putting two feet of water on the fair site. As a last minute thing, the fair was moved to the Hudson Area High School grounds, where it has stayed ever since, except while the new gym was being built.

    In 1994, with the Grange Membership aging, the Hudson Center Grange was forced to give up the fair, and a community board was created to take it over. The first couple of years under the new management was shaky -- it was also at the time that the Fair had to move to the Lincoln School grounds for the  gym construction -- but it has matured, now, into a celebration of city and country, where Hudson reminds itself that it's still a country town, and still proud of it.