By Vickie Rhodehamel
Arcanum News
It’s that time of year again – the GREAT Darke County Fair opens this Friday in Greenville, Ohio. It all began in 1853 when Franklin Pierce served as the 14th president of the United States of America and has lived, breathed and prospered through the terms of no less than 28 heads of the state. The history of the Great Darke County Fair, very soon to see its 171st merry-go-round, is much too deep, far too wide ranging to be totally covered in these humble lines. Yet for the same reason, by selecting certain segments, one can visualize what could be called a major event.
And, similarly, when the fair hits its sesquicentennial 175th year in 2028, surely there will be more true stories, more progress, more excitement, and more of the ongoing anticipation of Fair Week that has long since become part of local life. Other counties in the area were doing it and many others were planning and it was in the latter planning category that Darke County spawned its first agricultural exposition in the late summer of 1852 when better than a score of people gather in the second edition courthouse in Greenville to say in no uncertain terms, “We want a fair of our own.’’
Dr. I.N. Gard was named chief executive officer and ably lead such men as George Coover, Alfred Kitchen and Noah Arnold to realize that dream. And so it happened that on a Wednesday and Thursday, September 7 and 8 of 1853, Darke indeed had a fair of its own.
Greenville, as the county seat, was selected for geographic reasons and thus the initial fair was held on the former Annie Oakley Festival grounds immediately east of Garst museum.
The Darke County Agricultural Society expanded to over three hundred members and the fair itself prospered. For the first five years it remained on the present-day museum grounds, then moved in 1858 to today’s Oakwood and Oak Street area in southwest Greenville adjacent to the Brethren Home where one can still see a partial outline of the harness racing track in the street curvature.
In 1973, the fair’s 117th running huge, expressly when mirrored with the 100th, 75th, and the 50th. It was eight nights with a load if icing on the colorful cake including the famed Dr. H.M. Parshall Memorial Futurities harness racing for pacers and trotters. Fair Board Chief Frank Stebbins was joined in office by his right-hand man (and future president himself) Doyle Greenhoff, horseman Lowell Lehman as treasurer with the venerable Dr. Dan Martin serving as secretary. There was an international Circus before the big grandstand for Sunday afternoon and evening performances, a demolition derby Friday evening, the all-county worship service, tons of harness racing, the big livestock and equipment parade, the 4-H activities and Junior Fair enticements, both of which had grown in popularity since 1948. Uncle Jack and Aunt Kay were very popular with the young and not so young along the midways as they twisted balloons into all manner of animal shapes, told jokes and patted hundreds of little heads, rang their Swiss bells and tolled their clanging cow bells. The former vaudevillians were to be around for many Darke fairs.
Whether you are a fairgoer or not, enjoy some of the last beautiful days of the summer and make some memories during these days. The laughter of little children, the delight and pride in the youth’s eyes as they share their projects/livestock, the look of a 2-year-old eating an ice cream cone – that is what it is all about isn’t it? Maybe your favorite is an Old-Fashioned Lemonade or an elephant ear – enjoy and share the fun and laughter!!
“A golden afternoon of August: every breath from the hills so full of life that it seemed whoever respired it, though dying, might revive.” ~ Emily Brontë
“August rain—the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” ~Sylvia Plath
