Fairs, County and State. The first agricultural fairs in the United States were the annual sheep‐shearings held by George Washington Parke Custis, step‐grandson of the first president. Begun in 1803, Custis's shearings expressed an American desire to achieve independence from Europe in the manufacture of textiles. Elkanah Watson, the so‐called father of American agricultural fairs, had already dined with Custis at Mount Vernon when, in 1811, he organized the Berkshire County Livestock Fair in western Massachusetts. This first fair consisted of fourteen farmers parading their animals to a designated fairground, socializing, and hearing speeches on the future of agriculture.

The Berkshire Fair contained the key elements of fairs to come: exhibits, competitive judging, the award of prizes or premiums, and social events, including dances, oratory, and dinners. Women's work—sewing and preserving—was rewarded and honored. The object throughout was the improvement of agriculture, craft, and industry. The 1812 Berkshire Fair offered seventy dollars in premiums: Farmers willing to experiment with new breeds and methods were publicly rewarded for their efforts, thus encouraging others to do likewise. The fair idea stirred great enthusiasm. By the end of the Civil War, the U.S. Department of Agriculture counted 1,367 agricultural societies in operation nationwide.

Agricultural societies, often made up of businesspeople and politicians rather than farmers, organized and ran most fairs. Implement manufacturers, grocers, lawyers, and railroad executives all had a stake in the health of the rural economy and worked tirelessly to promote fairs. Such societies held title to state and county fairgrounds. Nineteenth‐century fairgrounds shared certain canonical architectural features: a peripheral fence to control entry, a grandstand and a racing oval (for “trials of speed,” which were really horse races with illicit wagering), a Women's Building (or Floral Hall), and an exhibition hall. Around these permanent landmarks clustered other temporary structures, including cook‐tents, lemonade stands, and the ubiquitous midway, with its freak shows and games of chance. Phil Stong's 1932 novel State Fair, while based on the Iowa State Fair at Des Moines, accurately describes most American fairs between 1870 and World War II.

Fairs were important venues for the dissemination of knowledge about animal and plant genetics, new techniques and farm machinery, and marketing strategies. Farmers first saw steel plows, gas‐driven tractors, cream separators, and electric lights at fairs. Their wives bought sewing machines there. Their sons and daughters, after 1903, joined corn and calf and canning clubs—the forerunners of the 4–H club movement—to compete at fairs. In this way, club organizers spread word of the latest advances from children to parents. Midway and grandstand shows helped overcome rural isolation. On their annual pilgrimages to fairgrounds in Des Moines or St. Paul or Pomona, farm families saw the same kinds of entertainment that city dwellers enjoyed.

In the 1990s, 125 million Americans annually attended agricultural fairs. Some were farmers, following in Elkanah Watson's footsteps and bent on self‐improvement, but most were city folk or suburbanites who came to the fair to stay in touch with the culture and values of a rural past, real or imagined.
See also Antebellum Era; Circuses; Early Republic, Era of the; Federal Government, Executive Branch: Department of Agriculture; Homework; Horse Racing; Popular Culture; Regionalism.

Bibliography

Donald B. Mart , Historical Directory of American Agricultural Fairs, 1986.
Karal Ann Marling , Blue Ribbon: A Social and Pictorial History of the Minnesota State Fair, 1990.

Karal Ann Marling

COUNTY AND STATE FAIRS

COUNTY AND STATE FAIRS. Originally set up on major trade routes, county and state fairs began as a venue where people could display their crafts and skills, and sell or trade produce or other items. The fairs combined socialization and amusement, but offered a more serious side of learning and selling.

America's first fairs were promoted by King George II in 1745 in Trenton Township, New Jersey, for the buying and selling of livestock and other products. The fairs, held in April and October, continued for five years until they were banned By the legislature. (Begun again in 1858, fairs were only held on a sporadic basis and in various locations within Trenton Township. After the Inter-State Fair Association was formed in 1888, land was purchased in Trenton to establish a permanent home for the Inter-State Fair.)

In 1798, the descendents of the Umberfield family, the first settlers in the town of Burton, Ohio, held what they called a "jollification," later known as a fair. Twenty-five years later the "jollification" was taken up by Geauga County, Ohio, farmers when they joined together in 1823 to form the Geauga County Agricultural and Manufacturing Society. The members organized a county fair to show the progress in agricultural products and farm-related labor saving tools and machines. Individuals brought produce from their harvests to show and share.

As activities and exhibits began to reflect wider interests and were no longer limited strictly to agricultural-related endeavors, more people attended fairs. The backbone of the fairs—competitions between gardeners, cooks, quilters, and seamstresses—has always remained a big draw to the fair events. Other competitions included livestock, crops, rodeos, cornhusking by hand, and pie eating contests. Prizes were given for the best exhibits and to event winners.

Horse races were early attractions. Then came Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show, which began in 1888, and others like it. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, as transportation styles changed, hot-air balloons were exhibited with parachutists jumping from them as an added attraction. The introduction of the automobile during the same period soon brought car racing to fairs. Carnivals—including merry-go-rounds powered by live horses—be-came a fair mainstay. County fairs are smaller than state fairs and generally have one or more permanent structures such as exhibit halls, grandstands, cattle barns, and stables. County fairs are usually held for two to four days and are run by volunteers. A state fair lasts at least a week and can go on for as long as a month. Although many volunteers are used for state fairs, the overall management is in the hands of either a state fair board or a private company.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marling, Karal Ann. Blue Ribbon: A Social and Pictorial History of the Minnesota State Fair. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1990.

Perl, Lila. America Goes to the Fair: All About State and County Fairs in the USA. New York: Morrow, 1974.

PeggySanders

See alsoCircus and Carnival .