History
The Portuguese in Hudson and the Hudson Portuguese Club
The first Portuguese arrived in Boston on July, 1886 on the bark “Sarah” and went to live in Hudson. The immigrant was José Maria Tavares, from the island of Santa Maria in the Azores. Young Tavares, still in his teens went to work for Mr. Stow in his farms. Stow is now a town adjacent to Hudson. In 1887 he sent for his brothers Manuel and João who arrived in May of that year. The Garcias were the first immigrants from the island of S. Miguel, settling in 1889. Before the turn of the century others came, mostly from Santa Maria. They were Chaves, Braga, Bairos, Correia, Luz and Câmara. During the next ten years the small colony was further diversified with immigrants from Madeira as well as others from the Azores. Couto, Furtado, Sousa, Pimentel, Araujo, Pestana and Grillo were the new surnames in this town on the Assabet River.
In 1908 the Lodge #19 of the Portuguese Fraternity of the USA was formed, having as its first president José Grillo.
The first Portuguese grocery store was opened to the public in 1913 by Victorino Bairos and António J. Chaves, with José M. Chaves as Clerk.
In the winter of 1914 a group of 20 Portuguese formed a brass Band that played for the first time in 1915 with the name Hudson Portuguese band. This band joined the Portuguese Club in the middle 1920s changing the name to Hudson Portuguese Club Band.
In 1915 a group of immigrants from the island of S. Miguel formed the Holy Ghost Brotherhood.
In 1917 when America went to war, and with a relatively small number of Portuguese immigrants, Hudson sent 19 Luso-boys to the Armed Forces in World War I. Of those only one did not come back. Domingos Fortes was killed in action in the battle of Argonne, France. Fortes had been in the US less than two years and could barely speak any English.
The first Portuguese Club under the name of Hudson Sport Club was formed in 1919, with headquarters at 86 Apsley Street. João Rio was its first president. This organization closed its doors in 1922, and joined another group forming the ‘Clube Portugues de Hudson”, with its headquarters at 49 Main Street, where it stayed until 1933 when it moved to the existing facilities at Port Street.
The Club was incorporated in 1928, when late in the year the land was purchased for the Port Street facility (then at Riverview Road).
The Feast of Our Lady of Fatima started in 1939, when the Ladies Auxiliary adopted the Virgin Mary as their patron Saint. There has been a feast in her honor every year since that time. The first chapel was built by John P. Rio in 1951.
The first soccer teams were established in 1923 known as the Hudson Portuguese Club and the Madeirense Soccer Ball Team. Faustino Mendes was the most famous player, to the point of playing on the US National Team.
The first Portuguese immigrant ever elected in the Town of Hudson was António D. Chaves to the Board of Selectmen in 1977. He was the second statewide, after Manuel Fernando Neto, in New Bedford.
In 2001, the new facilities opened to the public for the New Years’ Eve Celebration on December 31, 2004, and official inaugural ceremonies and festivities occurred May 1-7, 2005.
*The research was done by the late José M. Chaves
