Harness Racing

If you like seeing horses run in circles really fast, the harness racing takes place on Wednesday June 25th at 1 p.m. in the grandstand. The classes that will race will be Trot- 2 yr, Trot- 3 yr, Pace- 2 yr and Pace- 3 yr. There will not be a rain date. Harness racing has a big history at the fair. When looking at Frances Johnston's scrapbooks there were numerous articles about harness racing and it was the main form of entertainment before World War II and also the earliest. During the first fair local farmers brought their horses and would race them. I always catch a glimpse of the practice runs and if I'm lucky sometimes the races. Of course we've all seen horse racing on TV, but I am amazed at the speed of the horses and it is more thrilling in person. This is a great event for the family.
If you are interested in entering, the entry fee is $100 and the maintenance fee is $20. Wood shavings are only to be used instead of straw and entries will be accepted between 7:30 and 10:00 a.m. 72 hours before the race. The stalls will be available on a first come first serve basis and have to be cleaned before leaving the fairgrounds.

Queen History

 1977 Miss Henry County Fair Queen
 (picture provided by Cambridge Public Library)

Believe it or not, the Henry County Queen Pageant has not been going on for 155 years. The first Miss Henry County Fair Pageant was held in 1960. Isn’t it ironic that the event most associated with a fair is one of the later events to be added to the fair program? Twenty-seven girls entered in the pageant and the winner received $200 cash, a trophy, three dozen roses and a diamond ring. The pageant was a success because it drew the largest fair crowd in many years.

 In the newspapers clipping found in Frances Johnston’s scrapbook it was noted that contestants should wear “closed toed” opera pump shoes, with no ankle straps. But it was not necessary that they be new. The preliminaries were held at the Cambridge Community Center with the four finalists selected would appear in front of the grandstand where the winner would be chosen. The article noted that each of the finalists would receive a pair of hose and a flower to hold at the crowning ceremony.  

The very first Henry County Fair Queen was Glenna Lee Moore, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gleen Moore, and was crowned by Governor William Statton. Ms. Moore went on to place 9^th at the Miss Illinois State Queen Contest. If anyone knows about Glenna’s whereabouts, have photos from that event, or memories they would like to share, please post it in the comments section.

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.