Dudley was a railway station on the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad in the northwest quarter of section 17 in Clifton Township. It was platted on Dec. 20, 1901. The village was named for Dudley village and township in Massachusetts. The following information on the history of Dudley is from the 1912 History of Lyon County by Arthur P. Rose.

When the roadbed was being graded in the summer of 1901, it was rumored that one of the stations would be in Clifton Township, and in November the railroad authorities announced that such a station would be established and that its name would be Dudley. A townsite of four blocks was surveyed by F.R. Cline and platted on December 20, 1901, by the Western Town Lot Company, of which M. Hughitt was president. The lots in the several plats along the new line of road were sold at public auction by the town lot company in April of 1902. A few were sold at Dudley at an average price of $100.

Train service on the new road was established on August 13, 1902, and two grain firms erected elevators to handle the season’s crop. In the spring of 1903, the voters of Clifton Township decided to build a town hall at the station and it was announced that the Hayes-Lucas Lumber Company would put in a lumberyard. Mrs. J.W. Castle conducted a store there for three years. A village did not materialize at Dudley. The railroad station was closed on March 3, 1904. The grain business continued, a store, and a post office were maintained for a time.

The photograph featured this week is the cover of a report in the Lyon County Museum’s collection. This report is the Dudley Farmers Co-operative Co. Annual Report dated May 31, 1959. The officers and directors are: Maurice Castle, president; Richard Marcotte, vice president; Wilbur H. Nylen, secretary-treasurer; Francis Verdeck, director; Walter Heiser, director; Gordon Snyder, Director; Emil Coudron, director; and Frank Marks, manager.