Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1938-06-02
SIDE LIGHTS
LOCAL HISTORY
HSSA
-O~F
(G.
NSN
By
Sf0nbery Alderman
ODD NOTES ON EARLY HISTORY
McConnelsville Enquirer

one Ol TIC early newspapers pun
lished at McConnelsville, was the
McConnelsville Weekly Enquirer,
and it was, as is stated under this
title, "a family journal-devoted to
family reading. local and miscel-
laneous, political. foreign and do
mestic news, science and agricul-
ture. and the diffusion of general
information" 1t undertook to COW
er considerable ground 1t was a
| seven column paper Of four pages,
16 II inches wide and % inches
long. But like all other papers Of
! that day, carried so little local
news as to be hardly called local
paper Advertising is more than
onehalf the paper. And patent
medicine ads lead all the rest.
Fair Premium List
The issue l first will note is that
/ Of September %, 1863. The first
page requires a little more than
four columns to print the premium
list Of the 18th annual fair to be
held on the fair grounds. near Nc
| Connelsville, On Tuesday, Wednes-
day and Thursday, September 20,
80 and October l. This list was di-
Vided into four departments with a
| total of % subdivisions The amount
of the premiums offered was about
the same as is offered by our fair
today. However, they had some
items in the list that we do not
have and that appear little odd to
us of today.
Under class 'I'' of the second de-
nartment we find the heading "Me-
chanics and Manufacturers All
the entries in this class must be
made in the county, and, with few
exceptions. are to be hand made.
We find, among other items listed,
the following: Wagon harness, car
riage harness, whips, sole and up.
per leather, various kinds of boots
and shoes, mems clothing, barrels,
grain cradle, stoves, baskets. rifle
gun, furniture of various kinds,
hats. and numerous other items.
The awarding committee on this
class were J. J. Palmer. Samuel
Price. jr., Samuel Wilson, Jacob w.
] Stanbery and George Bergman
1 Under the third department are
listed domestic manufactures. which
includes all articles made at home.
/ Under this heading we find the US
ual list of breads, pies, cakes, pre-
serves, jellies. ETC.. but also the fol-
lowing not found in list Of the
fair today: Cheese, Soap, molasses,
candles, coverlets, linen, flannel,
! WOODEN cloth of various weaves
The awarding committee for this
class were Herbert Johnson, E. NJ.
Stanbery, John Spurrier, Mrs C. B.
Tompkins and Mrs. Seth Brewster.
They had class "N' Of farm
products, but very evidently were
not going to bother with any ordi-
nary stuff as they require that there
must be a minimum of each produc-
ed to the acre, as follows: Wheat,
not less than 35 bushels to the
acre: of corn 100 bushels; of bar.
ley 40 bushels: of rye. 20 bushels; ;
of oats. 40 bushels; of buckwheat,
40 bushels. Not many farms could
/! produce enough per acre to com
pete on that basis, today.
AS with many other fair boards,
they were faced with a deficit, but
We're going to get out of some of it
at least. ITO prevent the accumu
lation of debt, the board of man.
ayers will reduce the premiums that
may be awarded, Gf necessary, so
that the expenditures of the society
since the last fair. shall first be paid
out of the receipts of this fall. John
! B. Stone was president, and H.
Dunsmoore was secretary of the
board.
Then as it is today, stress was
, laid on horses, cattle and sheep, in
the premium list. as we find that
% percent of all premium money
was devoted to horses. the same per-
cent to cattle, but little less than
! five percent to sheep. mechanics
! and Manufacturers" got 5 percent,
while Domestic Manufactures"
were allotted but eight, and poultry
was hardly considered, as less than
| two percent was allotted to that
class. However, they were strong
on awarding diplomas, especially in
| the domestic manufactures depart
| ment.
In the lists of awarding judges
we note many names that will be ia
miliar to our older readers. In ad-
dition to those mentioned, we find
the following: r. H. Dodge, James
Hawkins, J. E. Thomas, Thomas
B. Oliver, VIM. F. Hedge, James
Dickey, James Joy, J. A. C. Leland,
John Harris, VIM Monroe, Chas.
McCarty, Rufus Cotton, James K.
Jones, Ezekiel Devol. John Balm,
John Timms, Milton Seaman, James
Manly, Eli Shepherd. Samuel Bone,
Mrs. Robert Luton, Miss Jane
Brownell, Mrs Dr. Ewing, Mrs.
John Hall, F. w. Wood, John C.
Vincent, Enoch Dye, Levi Massey;
then for fear some might be dissat-
isfied with the awards, they had
special committee of review COM
posed of Hon. VIM. P. Sprague,
VIM. Barkhurst, H. R. Hughes, Mrs.
VIM. Sherwood, Mrs. P. Woodman-
sic and Mrs. j. c. Vincent.
So we see that even in that early
day the fair was one of the big in
stitutions of the county, and all the
leading citizens were willing to
lend their aid to make it a success.
Our present motto Of Bigger and
better than ever has not been a
recent thought of the directors, as
in 1863 they were thinking the
same thing, and they were willing to
back it with their money, as the
total of the premiums listed is as
large an amount as was listed for
the last fair; even greater, were we
to take from the last list the school
and club premiums.
Political Matters
We find on the first page the
proclamation of President Lincoln.
putting into effect the suspension of