A Century of Achievement 1900-2000 

The clock is ticking away the final hours of the 1900s. Every hundred years, astronomers and others spend a lot of time trying to get across the point that the century doesn't end with '99 but with '00. And, perhaps they're right.

But, computers aside, who doesn't feel that something millennial is happening when you write the date on a check or something, and begin the year with a "2" instead of a "1"?

That change in date may plug up some computer systems, and it may cause some problems -- problems that would have been literally undreamed of the last time a century changed over, which goes to show that a lot has happened in the last hundred years.

Perhaps the most stunning fact about the twentieth century is that it only took two thirds of it to span the distance between Kitty Hawk and Tranquility Base, and if you can remember the latter, you can still realize that we've come a long way. I need say no more than point out the fact that the computer on which this is being written wasn't even a gleam in the eye of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, who were still both in high school then. And, that's only a third of a century.

Try to imagine December 30, 1899 in Hudson. Most of us would barely recognize the place, and probably couldn't relate to the the way people lived.

There are no automobiles or trucks, although we know that their first appearance isn't far off, and a Hudson bicycle company will make an attempt at building them. Virtually everybody gets around town on foot or by bicycle - perhaps one built in Hudson -  or by horsepower, and no one takes a lot of note of the smell involved with the horses -- it's always been that way. The streets are dirt or gravel, and a few are cobblestone. Mud is a problem in the spring.

If someone is planning on going longer distances, it's by train -- there are tracks leading north, south, east, and west from town, and steam-powered, smoke and cinder belching trains are fairly frequent. Still, it's an all-day expedition to go to Adrian, and most people don't make the trip very often.

And, there's not the reason to go. Hudson's Main Street is a busy place, with a great variety of stores and shops. Virtually anything most people need to live their lives is available here, and there's no need to run into Adrian or Hillsdale for some little thing. Bean Creek still powers a grist mill; down in the plain below the dam, there's a race track, as horse racing is a popular diversion.

Computers are unknown, although one Hudson man is working on a machine that will simplify tallying votes in elections, using principles not unknown in mechanical calculators. There is a telephone system, rung by cranks and switched by operators, but not a lot of people have phones, yet. Telephoning long distances, say, to Addison or Clayton, is a thing of the future; if people have to send a message any distance, they write, or send a telegram, which is handled by an operator with a key, sending it by dots and dashes. They're expensive and not often used.

For most people, school ends with the eighth grade, if they get that far; the concept of a high school is still a little strange. Most of the schools are the one-room type, especially in the country surrounding Hudson, with one teacher teaching all eight grades more or less simultaneously.

Many of the people of the area are farmers,  a much higher percentage than now, and the farms are small and relatively isolated. It's a big deal to get to town on a shopping trip, and once a week is about all most country people manage. The farms are all still powered by horse, although the ox team, familiar a few decades before, seems to have disappeared.

There is no radio, no television, no movies. People do what they can to keep an active social and cultural life, with the Grange and fraternal organizations that many people belonged to. There are dances, lectures, and a vast variety of community events, and people don't often think of themselves as isolated country bumpkins.  There is a library, though quite small, and it stocks books by Hudson's best known author, Will Carleton. Though he lives in Brooklyn, many Hudsonians knew him when he was growing up here.

There are a number of churches, some well established, and there are  church buildings that will still be used by their congregations a century hence.

There are two newspapers, the Hudson Post and the Hudson Gazette; it would be nearly twenty years before they combined.  Their presses are steam powered; much type was handset, although cast type was beginning to make an appearance.

Hudson has come a long way in a hundred years. How far will it go in the next hundred? What will it be like? I don't know. All I know is that it will be as unimaginable as life today would have been on December 30, 1899. But taking a look back may give us some perspective on the changes to come.

-- Wes Boyd 
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