Herman Demosthenes Hudson opened Hudson's General Store in Stroud, Alabama around 1924 after serving with the United States Army for several years. Hudson married Lila Thompson shortly before opening the store. The couple had three children, Elwyn, Oleta Sibyl, and Marilyn, who most likely helped run the store when they got older. The store appears to have closed in the 1940s.

General stores at this time served many purposes in small, rural towns. They functioned as social spaces, sold pharmaceutical drugs, offered meals for sale, and provided goods and clothing. Additionally, Hudson's General Store had a telephone that customers could pay to use. Like most other stores in the South, Hudson's General Store allowed farmers to purchase items on credit and kept a record of their crops. These records are found on the last few pages of the daybooks. Most Hudson's General Store customers had individual accounts, but the store had business accounts as well and also supplied local schools with merchandise. Favorite products that customers purchased regularly from this particular store include snuff, tobacco, cigarettes, coffee, flour, onions, and overalls.