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.

More Henry County Fair History

This year the Henry County Fair is celebrating its 155th anniversary, but more information found about the fair dates back to 1853. If my math is correct the dates just don't compute.  I discovered it takes A LOT to cancel the Henry County Fair. Since the first fair in 1853 it has only been cancelled less than a hand full of times. It took a war, Civil War that is, a Great Depression and a cyclone. Just think the Olympics were cancelled because of both WW I and WW II, but not the Henry County Fair. It's the energizer bunny of fairs!

On July 6th, 1942 a gale force wind destroyed much of the fairground buildings, the damage wasn't able to be fixed in time and only the 4-H fair was held later that year.

In 1945 World War II came very close to cancelling the Henry County Fair. In that year, a permit needed to be obtained from the Office of Defense Transportation. Henry County applied for the permit but was turned down. The fair board proved it was a local event because eighty percent of the exhibitors were Henry County residents; the permit was then wired just days before the fair began.

So with this type of history, we can be confident that the Henry County Fair will be held for many years to come!

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.