There’s an old saying about being “a day late and a dollar short.” I’m not proud to admit it, but I think that old saying was created just for yours truly — ask anyone who knows me well and they will attest to it.
No matter how much I tell myself I’m going to come prepared, do my legwork, and finish on time, I somehow manage to come up short. I like to think it’s a genuine sign of a pure genius, though others may disagree. That being said, I was recently at the McLeod County Fairgrounds to pick up some historical items that we loaned out for the fair history display. For me, the fairgrounds are a sad place to be on the first Monday after the County Fair — a place that was so full of life, so vibrant just a day before is now quiet. The few closed up food trucks that remain or the bits of litter that tumble across the open ground are like ghosts, there to remind you of the excitement that’s now dormant. It’s a haunting experience to say the least. At any rate, an experience like that prompts me to rekindle, at least in some way, the enthusiasm that was so recently prevalent. Of course, I can only do that through the written word, even if it is a day late and a dollar short.
The 2022 McLeod County Fair was significant in being the 150th anniversary of the event. Looking back on some early history of the fair, it’s safe to say that the ordeal has come a long way since the days when the exhibitors gathered under the shade of a single tent. It was from those humble beginnings that the fair evolved into one of the best (in my opinion) mid-sized county fairs in the state. After digging a little deeper, as a historian is apt to do, I found that the 2022 fair may have been the 150th celebration of the McLeod County Agricultural Association, yet the 1872 fair wasn’t the first ever to be held in McLeod County.
The year was 1859. McLeod County and the settlements within were in an infant state. The region was, for all functions, a relative wilderness. Remote as it may have been, however, it was home to several families that eked out their livelihoods on the frontier. Most were farmers who, just like their modern counterparts, took pride in the crops they grew and the livestock they tended. As a result, The McLeod County Agricultural Society was formed.
The organization adopted its constitution in March of 1859. The preamble read “To encourage the improvement of agriculture, horticulture, and the mechanic and household arts.” Its officers were John Stevens, president; Lewis Harrington, vice president; Clayton Chandler, treasurer; and Alonzo Jennings, secretary. Meeting notices appeared monthly in the Glencoe Register, the settlement’s main news source of the time.
On July 30, 1859, a notice appeared in the Register of a county-wide fair to take place Oct. 19-20 of that same year. It would be the county’s first fair, and prizes would be awarded for best field crop, fruits, vegetables, grain, bread, cattle, horses, sheep, poultry, swine, household manufacturer (furniture), dairy produce, floral arrangements, mechanics works (boots, harness and so on), and would feature a plowing match and horse show.
The fair went off without a hitch and was featured on the front page of the Register on Oct. 22. Notwithstanding the lateness of the season, and the unpropitious state of the weather on Thursday last, a large number of citizens from Glencoe and McLeod County turned out to the first Agricultural Fair ever held in McLeod County, which under the circumstances, reflected great credit upon our citizens … . The articles exhibited were not numerous, but well selected, and for the first attempt, in such a new county as McLeod, they would compare favorably with those put on exhibition east of the Big Woods.
That very first county fair in 1859 was a far cry from what we have today, yet it set in motion an expectation of a county-wide agricultural organization like the one you see today, and although their fair may not have attracted as big of a crowd as now, it’s a piece of history that’s an important part of the county and one that I had to write about, even if it is “a day late and a dollar short.”
— Brian Haines is executive director of the McLeod County Historical Society and Museum, 380 School Road N.W., Hutchinson. To view the canoe and other artifacts, the museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1-4 p.m. Saturday and by appointment. Admission is free. For more information, call the museum at 320-587-2109.
