CHAPTER 7
The Fair
The genesis of the original country fair extends far back into antiquity. This type of celebration was nothing new to the Middle Ages. Here in America the first agricultural fair was conceived by Alkanah Watson of Albany, New York, who persuaded the state legislature in 1819 to appropriate $10,000 annually for six years to encourage agricultural production. Starting in the East and surging westward with America's conquest of the retreating wilderness, Watson's bright idea eventually caught up with prairie born El Paso where imagination of aggressive men and women then intrigued by the growing grange movement, found expression in a fair held on September 18, 1879 in Fisher's pasture north of town on the east side of the Illinois Central railway. Rightly enough, it was a Grange fair, that movement having been founded in December, 1867 by O. H. Kelley who was connected with the Department of Agriculture. John Parr now owns that land.
On June 15, 1880 the determined but relatively inexperienced El Paso District Fair Association of Woodford County, Illinois, received from William G. Randall, in consideration of $1,537.50, a deed to the parcel of land destined to be until 1927 the home of all our successive fairs. Since experience in any line of endeavor comes from patient work forged by the inexorable trial and error process, our early fair officials faced a multitude of tasks and problems before their infant organization could be expected to operate efficiently and effectively. Where an idea didn't perform satisfactorily, a better one was substituted; where friction was encountered, the oil of sympathetic cooperation was applied. Always uppermost in each official's mind was the question of how next year's fair could be made bigger and better. The proper time for holding the fair was when farmers had their oats harvest out of the way and were enjoying a breathing spell, so most of our fairs were held in early September.
El Paso and its environs responded with a wholesome enthusiasm that convinced officials they were achieving results. Gate receipts, invariably the best barometer of success or failure, proved that business was good. Early day visitors to the fair first came in carts and wagons, later in fine buggies. All weather roads were undreamed of, even in the final days of the fair when automobiles were the sole
Page 80
Go to previous page Go to next page Go to El Paso Story gateway page