The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1928-08-17


participating in an annual event which
is as distinctively American as base
ball or the Fourth of July or Thanks
giving day. For Elkanah Watson was
the father" of the county fair and it
was due tC his persistence in promoting
his idea more than hundred years
ago that rural America, and especial
~ the youth of rural America, can
look forward each year to going to
the fair" Insofar as the county fair
is an Institution which had partic-
ular appeal to rural America, it is in
teresting to note that its founder was
a city man. For such was the case, and
it was a man, tired of city life, who
retired to the country at the age of
fifty years to enjoy "rural felicity"
and, failing to find it, conceived the
idea which resulted in the first real
county fair.
Now, the idea of fair itself is not
exactly a new one. Fairs have been
employed in Asiatic countries from
time immemorial for the purpose of
uIlISluS llouCIS anu NuSlVLhClS loSCth-
er for an exchange of their commOd-
tiles. The great distances to be COW
cred by the Asiatic merchant with his
slow caravans, the sparsity of popula-
ton, except in the cities, and the wide
differences in language, religion and
social and trade customs made a fair
a necessity of commerce, especially
among barbaric and semibarbaric peo-
pies. Even in the European countries
where fairs have been held for hun
dreds of years they were essentially
affairs of barter and trade. So it
remained for America, where the COM
petitive spirit is so marked, to give
the idea of a fair new meaning and
to make it an exchange of ideas, rath-
er than an exchange of goods.
The first fairs of any sort held in
this country were those sponsored by
Dutch governors when New York was
New Amsterdam, but they were
modelled on the European plan. In
1641 Governor Kieft established two
fairs in New Amsterdam, one on Oc-
tober 10 "fOr cattle generally" and
the other on November l for hogs. In
164S there was also held in the Dutch
colony, late in August and at the be-
ginning of September, Dutch ''ker-
mess" which was strictly commercial,
where the burghers met to exchange
commodities The custom was con-
tinued even under English rule and
as late as 1876 had the sanction of
Gov. Edmund Andres.
But the county fair of today is not
mess" although it may resemble it in
some of it's features. 1t grew out of
the interest in agriculture which be-
gan to manifest itself early in the
history of the new nation. The leaders
of that time, such men as Washing
ton and Jefferson, were farmers and
farming was the most important bust
ness In the country Between 1885
and 1892 agricultural societies sprang
into being in Pennsylvania. Maine,
New York, Massachusetts and South
Carolina as evidence of the organized
interest in agriculture. These societies
began offering prizes for superior farm
products but they held no fairs or
exhibitions and really did but little
to stimulate better farm production.
The principal interest seems to have
been in live stock and in 1904 and
1906 three live stock exhibitions were
held in Washington. At the second
one members of congress began to take
an interest and subscribed half of the
500 fund which was raised and dis