The History of the VERY first Henry County Fair

I went to the Cambridge Public Library to research the history of the Henry County Fair. The fair board has said that the fair scrapbooks complied by Frances Johnston were kept there. I walked in to the library, along with my mom who likes to just tag along, and asked the librarians for the fair archives for my blog. They looked puzzled, but they politely went upstairs and retrieved the large tubs, all ten of them, full of pamphlets, brochures, scrapbooks, memorabilia, newspaper articles and pictures. I was stunned by all the information that there was, so I got to work right away. The next three hours were a joy looking through the pictures, newspaper articles and other archives that described what the Henry County Fair was like. The oldest archives I found were dated 1915, but there was a lot of information that was on the first fair in later articles.

The Henry County Fair was first held on October 5th and 6th, 1853 on the courthouse lawns .The idea of the fair was to "stimulate commercial agricultural practices". The first premiums awarded were: 1st prize-$5, 2nd- $3, and 3rd place was worth the volume of a "Prairie Farmer” (Kazlowski, 1975). An article dated December 13th 1951 from the Cambridge Chronicle explains what the first county fair was like:

“The number of entries made was much greater than was expected, and nearly all of our prominent farmers and horticulturists were represented. The fair grounds and rooms were crowded with visitors both days, and we were pleased to see many strangers attracted by the exhibition. Among them were some of your Moline Manufactures”  (The Cambridge Chronicle, 1951).

I don’t know what was meant by the terms, “Prairie Farmer” for a third place finish or “Moline Manufactures”. If anybody knows, feel free to post it in the comments section.

The very first fair board included:

Frederick P. Brown-President

Sylvester Blish and Henry G. Griffin- Vice President

Thos. F. Davenport- Recording Secretary

Benj. Graham- Corresponding Secretary

Alfred W. Perry- Treasurer (The Cambridge Chronicle, 1951).

A special thank you to the Cambridge Public Library for providing the archives and information and an even more big thank you to the late Frances Johnston for keeping track of a piece of Henry County History.