Readers Respond: County & State Fairs
By Lynn Betlock, Editor
Last week's survey asked if your ancestors or relatives had a connection to a county or state fair. Thank you to everyone who replied. Below is a selection of reader responses.
(Editor’s note: In August I enjoyed visiting the Iowa and Minnesota State Fairs, and I am looking forward to the Big E, the fair for the six New England states, which will begin in West Springfield, Massachusetts, later this month.)
Linda McNamara, Sacramento, California: My grandmother, Ethel Champenois Johnson, was a long-time Rolling Pin Throwing Champion at the Shasta County [California] Fair for many years. Apparently, she first became the champion in 1897 when she was 16 and kept the title for many years.
Christopher C. Child, Boston, Massachusetts: My family has long attended the Woodstock Fair, in Woodstock, Connecticut. My daughters are the eighth generation of fair-goers. A 1928 article in the Hartford Daily Courant featured my great-great-grandfather, Henry Thurston Child, who served as secretary and president of the fair organization, and was also an exhibitor. The article noted that he attended the first Woodstock Fair in 1859 when he was 13 years old and “never missed its annual exhibits.”
Linda L. Mansur, Nashville, Missouri: My great-grandfather, W.J. Finley, was one of the largest mule breeders in central Missouri. He showed at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 and was a regular winner at the Missouri State Fair. I have one of his walking canes with a measuring stick in withers.
Kathryn Greene, Carpinteria, California: According to his obituary, my great-grandfather, Dwight Kent Crofoot, “became interested, both financially and personally” in the Sandwich, Illinois, Fair Association when it formed in 1888. He was on the board of directors from 1892 to 1904, supervised the floral hall, and was a member of the building and entertainment committees. As of 2010, a cousin was still receiving complimentary "Stockholder" tickets. This year’s fair is September 7 to 11.
Doug Crosby, Silverton, Oregon: I've had sporadic connections to state and county fairs spanning 70 years. My dad took photographs of our family with “Big Tex,” the symbol of the Texas State Fair, in the early 1950s. My hometown of Little Valley, New York, was the site of the Cattaraugus County Fair's permanent grounds. At this fair I received a blue ribbon for the scale model of a house I designed for my architectural drawing class in high school. In his younger days, my dad sold tickets at the gate, and I worked there in the late 1960s. Perhaps most meaningful was finding evidence of the replica village blacksmith shop, a display booth dedicated to my grandfather after his death in 1956. And I just I visited the Oregon State Fair last Saturday!
Nancy Cottrell Christensen, Oconto Falls, Wisconsin: The Horicon Argus, of Horicon, Wisconsin, reported that my ancestors had prize-winning entries at the Dodge County Fair in 1857. Horatio Roper had the best wagon of vegetables and his wife, Anna Reed Roper, had the best pair of knitted socks.
Gaila Gilliland of Tacoma, Washington: My grandparents, James J. White and Julia M. Howe, were married on September 4, 1912, in Ulysses, Nebraska, then immediately left to catch the train for Lincoln to go to the Nebraska State Fair. In 1972, to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary, they again attended the Nebraska State Fair. The Omaha World Herald published an article about them with a full-color photograph. |
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