The History of the Hillsdale County Fair - In the Eyes of the Woman's Congress Ladies and Friends

THE HILLSDALE COUNTY FAIR
In the Eyes of the Woman's Congress Ladies and Friends

1900 - To prepare for the 50th year new covers for two wells were made. The 50th Annual Hillsdale County Fair was held October 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (Five full days). The Secretary's salary was for the first time in several years raised to $500 per year. The officers were a President, Treasurer and Secretary with Directors one each from the eighteen Townships plus two Directors from the City of Hillsdale. Committees were the Executive, Finance, Buildings & Grounds, By-laws & Rules, Premium List and Election.

Superintendents were named for cattle, horses, sheep, swine, poultry, Carriage Hall, Mechanics' Hall, Machinery, Agricultural Hall, Pomology (fruit), Floral Hall (General), Needle Work, Art Department, Flowers, School Exhibits, Track, Horse Stalls, Forage (food for the animals), Grand Stand and Police.

The name remained "The Hillsdale County Agricultural Society" and its object remained to be for the improvement of Agriculture, Horticulture and the Mechanic Arts in the county. Dues for membership were to remain at not less than $.50 and not more than $1.00 but for this year would be $1.00. Members were considered Stockholders. Life Membership could be bought for $20.00. However, Life Memberships were to be limited to no more than 200 persons at any one time. Such members their wives and children under 21 had free ingress (admission) at the gates during the Fair. Only one gate would allow those Life Members by foot and another for those by team free entrance. However, Life Members needed to provide team tags and grand stand tickets the same as other persons.

Single admission tickets were twenty-five cents; for children under age fifteen years, 15 cents; children under eight years of age, free. Team (cars were not on the scene yet) tickets were required with a single mare or gelding over one year old, 15 cents; double team or stallion, 25 cents; and such team tickets were to be good through the fair. A limited number of stalls for animals could be rented for the week, which included hay and straw but you had to water and grain your own animals. A stall 8 foot for a larger horse at $1.00 and 6 foot stalls at $.75.

It was specifically stated in the General Rules of the Fair Society - "No pool selling, immoral shows, cider or liquor selling, or any games of chance, will be allowed on the grounds during the fair. The Society will pay a reward of fifty dollars to the person or persons who will furnish evidence which secures the conviction of any person or person violating the laws of this state in the sale of intoxicating liquors upon the ground during the Fair." There are reports just prior to 1900 and into the mid 1900s of side shows and circuses traveling thru & stopping to give performances not only in Hillsdale but in such county communities as Jonesville, Pittsford, Ransom, etc. These shows displayed wild aninlals in steel cages drawn by horses and decorated circus wagons, clowns, horseback riders, steam calliopes, trapeze artist in scant attire and girly shows. These shows were not always held on the fair ground, while traveling sideshows are no longer found in Hillsdale County but the Circus even in 2007 is often a summer feature on the Fair grounds. The circus today is sponsored by a local organization, which rents the Fair Grounds for the seasonal show. One senior today tells of her childhood days when the sideshow came to her community and how she wondered why so many men stood outside of one specific tent waiting to enter for the performance and why her mother forbid her to go near that tent - she now understands that the girly show was in town. We can see by the General Rules of the Fair Society such shows were not nor are they allowed at the Hillsdale County Fair itself.

One other type of traveling show reported to have been on the ground between the Grange Hall and Floral Hall that became popular around 1890 and for the first ten years or so of the 1900s was the "Wild West Shows" lead by Buffalo Bill (William Frederick Cody). The show included a number of Indians in deerskins and decorative feathers. In Ransom, Hillsdale County lived General John Cook who had taken part in the Civil War, had then become a Government Agent for the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota and got to know Buffalo Bill while at the reservation. When the Indians in Buffalo Bill's show came to Hillsdale to give a show they saw and recognized their old friend General Cook and gave him a loud war whooping hero's welcome - it was said that they remembered General Cook for his kindness to the Rosebud Reservation Indians when serving as their agent. We note a group listed as the Wild West Show still paid privileges in the 1920s but we don't know if they were connected to the Buffalo Bill Shows.

Written by Cinda Walton and gifted to the Hillsdale County Agricultural Society for publication in 2009.