Celebrating 175 Years!
This year we are celebrating 175 years of the Hillsdale County Fair!
And we want to take a trip back in time to look at and celebrate the amazing fairs we’ve had. We will add more history each week!
The Very First Hillsdale County Fair
On January 10, 1851, farmers gathered together to form the Hillsdale County Agricultural Society. On January 14th they officially printed the first Constitution of the Hillsdale County Agricultural Society and soon thereafter formed the idea of presenting a fair of sorts for farmers to participate in. Many people questioned why they should put on a show of agriculture. They asked what benefit this had for people in the county. The Society’s reasoning was as agriculture was progressing quickly at the time, their goal was for farmers around the county to show what they had produced and how they did so. With that knowledge from each farmer, other farmers can be educated and use the different techniques on their own farm to produce more.
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The very first Hillsdale County Fair was held on October 15-16, 1851 on the Courthouse Square in Hillsdale. The entries included many kinds of animals, such as oxen, beef cattle, sheep, swine, horses and poultry, many different crops and articles of clothing, rugs, quilts and blankets. The following year, the fair was held in Jonesville on the public square, and entries doubled, making the show quite popular. The location of the fair would alternate between Hillsdale and Jonesville until 1860 when there were finally permanent fairgrounds.
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During the fair of 1861, the people noticed there was a lack of men around as they had all gone to war, so this was the year that the first side shows were allowed. One of the first side shows was a fat woman and another was a glass blower. There were others as well, but the people loved them so much that in years to come, it would grow to the common entertainment we have today at fairs all around the country.
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Over the next 50 years, the fair would continue to grow and become quite popular thanks to the railroad that first came to Hillsdale in 1843. After the fair was established, people would come from Lansing, Ypsilanti, Toledo, Jackson, Elkhart and Fort Wayne to see “The Most Popular Fair on Earth”. By 1865 the first race track was built with the first harness races being in 1892 and the first grandstand was built in 1872.
WEEK 2 - Hillsdale County Fair History (continued):
As the Hillsdale County Fair became increasingly popular and the location of it often changed year to year, the Ag Society decided they needed to have a permanent place to hold the fair. People were not satisfied with the fair changing location every year, so the Ag Society bought 17 acres of land from John P. Cook and Chauncey W. Ferris.
John Cook & Chauncey Ferris were originally from Cato, NY, but drove the Sauk Trail down to Jonesville, MI and planned to start the first general store. When Hillsdale became an official county, John Cook was appointed treasurer and Chauncey Ferris was appointed secretary. John Cook would become the first treasurer of the Hillsdale County Fair, along with being a member of the Board of Education and a Trustee of Hillsdale College.
After the purchase of the land, some people in Jonesville and the northern half of the county weren’t happy with the permanent location of the fair being in Hillsdale, and decided not to exhibit that year. They would then form a rival association called the “Farmers, Mechanics and Stock Breeders Association”. This association held their own fair for about 10 years before the stock holders sold their land to the Lakeshore & Michigan Southern Railroad branches in Lansing and Jackson.
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In 1861, an appeal was put in the newspaper asking the people of Hillsdale county to help in making the fairgrounds the most beautiful in the state. They wanted to clean up the grounds and plant every species of tree that had ever grown in the county. By 1865, the first race track was built and the first grandstand was constructed in 1872. Not long after the first harness races would debut in 1892. By the late 1900s, the dirt race track was considered one of the finest in the state. Familiar buildings would slowly be built in years to come. Those buildings that we all know today would become the Grange Hall, Merchants Hall, Women’s Congress building and 4-H Dining Hall.