Journal
Opinion September 7, 2016
“The
county fair is about the only legalized good time left to the county people….on
one short day, at the county fair, we live and forget, happy in the company of
the county-side, absorbed in a common pleasure.” Charles R. Cummings, The Vermonter, 1910.
The
period from mid-summer to early October is fair time in Vermont and New
Hampshire and has been since the early 19th century. This column explores the
history of agricultural fairs in the region from that to the early years of the
20th century. Information was gathered from local histories, several internet
sources and newspapers of the period.
The book Agricultural Fairs in America
edited by Julie A. Avery was helpful.
The
town of Nutfield, now Londonderry, NH, clams the first agricultural fair in
America. Local farmers held a fair to exhibit their best in 1742. Other sources cite the fair sponsored in 1811
by the agricultural society of Massachusetts’s Berkshire County as the first. New
Hampshire town charters, including that of Haverhill’s, specify that as soon as
there were 50 families in town two fairs should be held annually. It is unknown if Haverhill met that early
directive.
While
each of the fairs mentioned below had their own particular features, most of
them had much in common. They were sponsored by agricultural societies and
organized to promote the best cattle and crops that farmers had to show. As
they evolved, domestic arts were included along with new machinery and farming
techniques.
The New Hampshire
Agricultural Society was organized in 1812 and the Grafton Society followed in
1818. One of these may have been involved in the earliest local cattle shows
held at Haverhill and Plymouth in 1820 and Orford in 1826.
The
first fair sponsored by the Orange County Agricultural Society was held in
Chelsea in 1847. Until its demise sometime after 1890, the Society’s fairs were
held in either Chelsea or Bradford, with some competition with the two
communities competing to be the host.
Bradford’s fairgrounds, located on
Fairground Road, offered what was called “the most natural fairground in the
state.” McKeen’s History of Bradford
included a description of the three sections of the fairgrounds: a lower level
with a half-mile track which was used for horse racing and the exhibition of
cattle; an upper level for exhibitions in permanent buildings and tents ; and a
grandstand built on the hillside between the other two sections. It had been the
site of fairs sponsored by the Connecticut Valley Agricultural Society between
1850 and 1866.
Because
the Orange County Fair was held so frequently in Bradford after 1870, local
newspapers referred to it as the “Bradford Fair” or “the fair at Bradford.”
With
the expiration of its fairground lease, the last Orange County fair was held in
Bradford in 1888. In 1892 an area-wide fund drive raised most of the $5,000
needed to refurbish the grounds and rebuild the track and grandstand. The fair was held in 1893 and continued until
taken over by the Bradford Agricultural and Trotting Association in 1900. That
association continued to hold very successful fairs until 1913, after which
regular fairs were discontinued until 1948.
The
Waits River Valley Agricultural Society began holding fairs in East Corinth in
1890. In 1895 shares were sold for $10 each to provide for improvements to the
fairgrounds. It was reported that tents
erected for the 1899 fair had sufficient canvas “to have sheltered a regiment
of the United States regular army.” Despite ups and downs, it was said that the
fair became “what Old Home Day is to other communities.” In 1908 the fair was discontinued, but was
revived in the 1930s.
As
early as 1842 an annual cattle fair was held in Ryegate for the “buying,
selling and exchanging of Horses, Cattle, and all other kinds of property.”
Beginning in 1888 the Ryegate and Wells River Dairymen’s Association held an
annual fair in South Ryegate. The
grounds featured a short racetrack and display buildings.
In 1906 The Caledonian
reported that the fairground and building had been sold to the Caledonia Park
Association and “will do away with the famous Ryegate fair which was held here
every year and which attracted large crowds of people from miles around.” Fairs did continue under the new ownership
until about 1912.
From 1886 to 1894 the Pompanoosuc Agricultural Association held a three-day fair at the Pompanoosuc Fairground. As with many fairs it was held mid-week as the concept of the "weekend" had not developed and holding events on the Sabbath was out of the question.
From 1886 to 1894 the Pompanoosuc Agricultural Association held a three-day fair at the Pompanoosuc Fairground. As with many fairs it was held mid-week as the concept of the "weekend" had not developed and holding events on the Sabbath was out of the question.
The
Grafton County Agricultural Society’s fair was an example of an event that drew
organizers, exhibitors and spectators from an extended community. Beginning in
1859, its leaders included men from Orford, Lyme and Wentworth. This annual
fair was held in Littleton until a new fairground was purchased in Plymouth. That
new location allowed the fair to grow through stages as the Union Grange Fair,
the Plymouth Fair and lastly, until its closing in 1993, as the Plymouth State
Fair.
As
early as 1846 Vermont also had a state fair.
It was held in various locations around the state including White River
Junction and Montpelier before settling in Rutland. There it was managed by the
Rutland County Agricultural Society. Its stated purposes were “the practical
education of the farmer” as well as the “dissemination of knowledge respecting the
resources of the state.”
In
West Topsham, a short-lived but successful fair was held in 1890-91. At the
second annual fair attendance was 2,000 and it was said that “the display has
never been equaled by any town fair and by few county fairs.”
Another short-lived fair was the one sponsored
by the Farmers’ Agricultural Society at Haverhill Corner in 1891. Although that
one “went off with a snap,” by 1893 the fair was discontinued.
Most
fairs were held for between two and three days with an occasional fourth
day. There were also one-day fairs held
in West Fairlee and Post Mills and a “County Fair” held in Fairlee, all in the
early 1920s. The West Fairlee event was held for a number of years, attracted
up to 700 with admission of 25 cents and offered “Rest Rooms for Mothers.”
There were also numerous church and grange
fairs, but they were generally one-day events and did not feature extensive
agricultural displays.
The
fairs were not without controversy. The early Londonderry Fair was discontinued
when it became a “moral nuisance…with scenes of vice and folly in some of their
worse forms.” In 1893, The United Opinion mentioned “a gang of sharpers are
working the fairs with games, fakes, etc., and a considerable amount of
counterfeit money is said to have passed around.” In 1895 a Vermont law gave
fair officials the power to control horse trading and games of chance both
within the fairgrounds and along the roads leading to it.
As the temperance movement grew there were prohibitions
against the sale and use of intoxicating liquor as well as pool and games of
chance. In 1885 The Women’s Christian
Temperance Union met the challenge of thirst by furnishing a barrel of ice
water at the Bradford fair. The
following year it was mentioned that “if the exhibits cannot sustain [without
liquor] better dispense with the shows.”
With
horse racing common there was bound to be controversy. In 1859 a tongue-in-cheek flyer appeared
announcing the second annual fair sponsored by the Salt River Valley Gouging
and Sponging Association to be held in Bradford. With announced seating for 6 people, premiums
of $3.50 and a prize of six cents for the “biggest Humbug,” this fair was being
held “owing to mismanagement last year.” Gouging and sponging were terms
associated with cheating in races. It is
interesting that the Association is named in an 1861 transaction in which a
piece of adjacent land was sold.
Newspaper
columns often mentioned when individuals from one community visited a fair in
another. Some towns gave students a day
off to attend the fairs. Railroads offered special prices for tickets to
stations adjacent to fairgrounds and hundreds took advantage of this.
Many came by horse and buggy. A Piermont
elder writing in 1948 recalls going to the Bradford Fair in the early 1880s.
She described “long lines of teams filled the dusty roads until we came outside
the Gates.”
Poor road conditions prompted the following
Bradford comment in 1895: “We take the liberty to suggest to the town of
Corinth that they get mad and declare the annual fair off until the road
between there and here is put into decent shape. Everybody would make such a kick out of the
prospect of a year without a Corinth Fair as would make the voters of both
towns do some hard thinking.”
It
was not uncommon for there to be up to 6,000 spectators on a single day at
these local fairs depending on the weather and the programs offered. In 1871
New Hampshire reported 100,000 attended fairs and 5,000 head of cattle were displayed.
As “horse trots were the great feature” of local fairs, large crowds turned out
for them. In 1906 10,000 were in
attendance for race day at the Bradford Fair.
Locals
sometimes travelled out of the local region to attend fairs. After 1835 fairs were held in St. Johnsbury
and after 1880 in Tunbridge. The
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 and the Chicago World’s Fair in
1893 were attractions for some local residents, some of whom wrote of their
experiences for the local newspaper. After 1916 some took the train to East Springfield, MA for the Eastern States Exposition.
Fairs
offered remote farm families an opportunity to share techniques as they
socialized with others from the area. Improved practices and new equipment for
both farm and home were showcased. This
was especially important as there were major innovations in agriculture by the
mid-nineteenth century. These included new farm implements and improved growing
techniques that drew the interest of farmers looking for ways to improve
efficiency and yields.
Competitions among both farmers and housewives
were key. Those competitions were divided into departments and classes in many
fields. There was horse, cattle and poultry judging along with produce,
domestic items and floral displays. There were ploughing matches, bicycle and
foot races and even a baby contest looking for the “best, handsomest and
smartest babies.”
Some fairs offered special divisions for boys and girls to show their own produce and handiwork. In local newspapers, premiums were promised beforehand and winners announced after. Local champion animals appeared at local fairs before being presented at larger fairs throughout New England and New York.
Some fairs offered special divisions for boys and girls to show their own produce and handiwork. In local newspapers, premiums were promised beforehand and winners announced after. Local champion animals appeared at local fairs before being presented at larger fairs throughout New England and New York.
Dozens
of town oxen teams competed annually in early fairs. Most fairs featured concerts by bands such as
the Bradford Brass Band and the Newport Cornet Band. In 1901 a baseball game
between the Woodsville and Bradford teams was “one of the leading attractions
on the first day in Bradford. It was not
uncommon for there to be speeches by local dignities. A merry-go-round was a money-making feature
at several fairs.
Professional
shows include acrobatic acts, mini-circuses and the popular balloon accession
with parachute drop. One frequent
performer was the balloonist Professor Bonet, “a young man of rare nerve and
skill.” There was no mention of a burlesque show or the type of sorted sideshow
found in some larger communities.
Why
were these fairs discontinued? There was
the constant need for funds for upkeep and improvements to the fairground, a
need that was sometimes overwhelming. As with many ongoing activities where the
burdens of work and responsibility fall on a few, those few give up the burdens
after a time. With no one to fill their
roles, the activity drew to a close. Increasingly there must have been
competition from motion pictures that provided star-studded entertainment, from
automobiles that could take folks farther away and radios that kept them at
home.
The
authors of the History of Ryegate, writing in 1913, expressed the sadness that
many must have felt when the local fair was no longer held. They further wrote “We believe in home fairs and
the friendly competition of neighbors in
prizes given for merit, when the average farmer feels at home and knows he has
a fair chance to get a square deal.” Add
to that an entertaining program and an over-all good time and it makes a
believer of us all.
At
local fairs today one can see an update of the early fair experience including this
1880s child’s summary of fair day. “It was a day of anxiety and fatigue for Pa
and Ma, but the children rode home tired, but happy, with their hands clutching
balloons, whips and candy, a large amount of the latter adorning their faces.”