The 175th Madison County Fair opens amid damage and sadness for the county!

The Madison County Fair will be celebrating its 175th run starting tomorrow and running until Sunday.  The event is an opportunity for young and old alike to savor the era of small county fairs that are a nostalgic view of rural America's past.  The early Fairs were the hi- light of the year and for many the only time chores could wait a bit and entertainment took the forefront.

This weeks unfortunate weather and storms has reeked havoc for the Town of Brookfield and the surrounding Madison County area ad the Fair.  Strong storms and a Tornado have managed to set the minds of all to the question of "is the weather changing"?  Actually no...weather is very cyclical and the early 18oo's brought many storms and freezing cold winters to this upstate rural county.

Tornados have occurred in our area in the past, one in Beaver Meadows (near today's Brookfield) wiped the small community off the face of the earth in the 1800's.  The storm was 2 miles  wide and struck in the middle of the night.  The locals called it "The Big Blow" and for many years would mark time by it saying.."This was the year before the Big Blow..or that happened 5 years after the Big Blow!"  The storm was so wide it looked like the end of the world coming toward the locals as one black wall of clouds.

Brookfield isn't just remembered for that event but if you attended an event at the the Madison County Fairground in 1945 you would have known about the tornado that tore apart the grandstand and did much damage that May!  As a matter of fact for the 170th Madison County Fair which I was one of the directors, I was notified that a possible tornado was bearing down on us that Saturday and the fierce wind made us all uneasy..Luckily it missed.

There have been many "Blows" as they were called but few were actually recorded as "Tornados" because there was really no way to know or spread the word.  We have actually only been keeping official track of these storms since 1950. 

The Church St. Mary's in Hamilton was hit by a tornado and today it is rebuilt in stone.  Areas in Smithfield have been know for severe thunders tomes many of which acted like a tornado...and how do we know?

The best we can do is to learn the weather patterns, mourn for our neighbors and their loss, congratulated the Town of Brookfield and the Madison County Fair group for getting it together and taking the time to visit and become part of its long and well remembered history...It was once called the "Biggest Little Fair in NYS".

Tell them I sent you!   http://www.madisoncountyfairny.com/#!schedule-of-events/cigq

PS... Of interest....during the 1945 tornado a barn was severely damaged.  Some Amish families from Pennsylvania took the train to Hubbardsville and proceeded to the farm to help rebuild the farmer's barn!

Come to the FAIR! Madison County is celebrating its 175th Edition!

This year marks the 175^th time Madison County has put on a County Fair.  In itself this is quite an accomplishment for a rural area that in recent years has seen itself in a new light.  Before now a Fair was guaranteed to bring in local people who look forward to it and planed it into their yearly events.  Not so today as events and fancy destinations seem to steal families with glitzy rides and amusements that once were taken for granted attendance to attend the Fair.

The little group that puts this event (not the county) on each year, struggles to find ways to attract people and to think of ways to entice “Fair-goers” to drive to the country to view animals and learn of the Fair’s agricultural “Hay-day”.

Picture Kevin Orr

The Fair has managed to sustain itself with courage and the conviction that small county fairs must not disappear… fairs that represent the fiber of Rural America.

From its early purpose of not only showing animals and rural products, but as a way for farmers to learn of new methods and see new products that included remedies for animal ailments…(the day of the traveling veterinarian…did not exist) fairs have evolved into an opportunity to look at rural America the way it is today.

The past’s farmwomen were able to share their home crafts and ideas as well as to win a prize. I remember a friend telling me that her grandmother went home from the fair …took a jar and filled it with beans then emptied it and counted them one by one so she could win a prize at the fair… which went to the closest guess of number of beans in a jar!

Children brought their favorite pet to enter into contest…something the 4-H clubs still do today!  They got to ride rides and see shows and tour mid-ways...Wheelock Rides will be there this year!

All-in-all today’s Madison County Fair still represents family values with the “Youth Tent and rural values with agricultural and animal displays.  The Tractor pulls and Demolition Derby still sends the crowd to the Grandstand.

The Fair is still a great way to take a deep breath and walk away from our busy world that just keeps spinning. Help keep it alive!

So go to the Fair! Drag grandma and the kids… Tell them I sent you!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Madison-County-Fair/279778981693

How about a little Madison County Fair History..some fun facts!

Picture by Gwen Lacell

It is getting close to Fair time again and stories of the Madison County Fair abound among the older residents of rural Madison County’s southern hills. The once well-known fair, called in the 1930s and 40s the “ Biggest Little Fair in New York State” attracted crowds estimated between 40,000 and 50,000 people. Today our modern cars, fast-paced life-style and our yearn for all that’s electronic, has left our rural roots behind. America it seems has become beautiful color pictures and oh so much nostalgic talk to a generation of text messagers and computer “geeks." But all that said, it has been a joy to read through the stories of the Madison County Fair’s past glory.

In the early fairs wrestling was the fair’s highlight of physical endeavors and the wresters were well remembered including some that made it into the Professional Wrestlers Hall of Fame. One such lad was John Bonica who worked the fairs as a wrestler in the summer to pay his way through college. (Later he became a famous Doctor.)

The best remembered story about John is the one telling how he pulled the famous Professor George Keller out of a ring of wild cats and helped resuscitate him. The story account actually came from an article in the Saturday Evening Post of November 6th, 1943 recounted in the book “Brookfield’s Pride” written by the Brookfield High School class of 2007. The story is about legendary wild animal trainer Professor George Keller. Keller is remembered as the only trainer who was able to put many varieties of wild cats into a ring together.

Keller started his career as a young man growing up in a town like so many American towns that welcomed the circus every year. After seeing the wild animal act, George went home and got the children of his neighborhood to dress up like wild cats so he could tame them. This included clipping a few pet cats to look like the “real thing”. One year while he was at college, one of his old friend “buddies” sent him a wild young cat in a box and told him to train it, and he did!

Keller as part of his wild animal act always put his head into a lion’s mouth. The lion would close his mouth around Keller’s head with Keller’s neck between his fangs and on the count of ten, Keller would tap the lion’s mouth and the cat would open it. Well on this rain day in Brookfield the cat did not open his mouth. In the article title “I’m scared All of the Time,” Keller recounts waking up to the voices of Bonica and firemen who dragged him out of the ring and resuscitated him. Keller had suffocated, and when he went limp was drop like a dead mouse by the lion. Keller was considered dead for three minutes before being finally resuscitated by the firemen, regained his composure and called for the cat to come back into the cage and redid the stunt, this time the cat opened his mouth.

In the “Brookfield’s Pride” book, Hobie Morris recounts interviewing Keller who said he had to do this, or the lion would have thought him afraid, though Keller never performed that trick again.

For the 2014 Fair schedule, or more information on the Madison County Fair one of the oldest in America go to the Madison County Fair Facebook Page!

It time to go to the Madison County Fair- a place of history!

Well it is that time of the year again..rain or shine the 174th Madison County Fair will be opening on Thrusday afternoon.  The fairgrounds is actually one of the oldest in the Nation and has hosted its share of great historical events including one that occured in 1856, which as the Madison County Historian I help promote....

"History is everywhere and a lonely historical marker in an empty fairground can tell a history story of national importance. The marker sits in an unlikely place in front of the dinner at the Madison County Fair. Today the fairgrounds roar with the sound of tractor pulls and demolition derbys... but it  once roared with the excitement of a crowd estimated at 12,000 people.

The occasion was the Brookfield (Madison County) Fair of 1856 and the day was marked with a parade of hundreds of horsemen, carriages filled with young girls dressed in white and soldiers on horseback - all in Brookfield to welcome orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

Douglass had come to Brookfield to speak on behalf of Presidential candidate John C. Fremont, a man Douglass hoped would win. Earlier Douglass had supported Madison County’s Gerrit Smith, but he decided to stump for Fremont as it became evident to him that Fremont had a better chance of winning, and getting a abolitionist elected was his goal not friendships."

This years "Fair" will feature a number of new things with a more modern flare including a night of Rock & Roll and a night of Country Music. The Grammy award winning rock band Survivor will perform in front of the grandstand opening night (Thursday, July 11th) with special guest Wicked & Red Hush. On Friday, July 12th Nashville superstars Steve Holy and Mark Wills will co-headline the grandstand country music show with special guest Lyndsey Highlander. Popular local bands that will be appearing throughout the Fair for FREE in the stage area include; Northern Lights, Fritz Polka, Jason Wicks, Fulton Chain Gang, BoCNY, The BOMB, Pulsate, and Gridley Page. Fairgoers will also find that the beer garden will be back on tap.

Also on tap this weekend the Brookfield Speedway Racers will return for their 4th Annual Reunion on Friday afternoon with a racecar exhibit and autograph session. Taking part in the 2013 reunion are special guest from the Motorsports Museum in Weedsport; Harry Elkima, Karl Schartner, Pam Forney & Rich Appleby.

And of course Saturday the power pulling competitions will lead off at 9am with the truck pulls - the tractors will be pulling Sunday starting at 9am. The ever popular Demolition Derby & Rollover Contest is slated for 7pm Saturday evening.

So take a break from the everyday and visit an ongoing piece of history right here in Madison County in Brookfield..tell them I sent you!

Well Rain has arrived...finally!

Well the rain has finally arrived..yea!!!! Trouble is it is on the weekend and will spoil a bunch of events...but life goes on.

The heat has brought misery to much of the United States but here in Central New York we have beat the bullet for the most part ...with of course, the exception of the two big storms this past week, one to the Rome area and then a tornado to Elmira..a rare event.

Tornados have occurred in our area in the past, one in Beaver Meadows (near today's Brookfield) wiped the small community off the face of the earth in the 1800's.  The locals called it "The Big Blow" and for many years would mark time by it saying.."This was the year before the Big Blow..or that happened 5 years after the Big Blow!"  The storm was so wide it looked like the end of the world coming toward the locals as one black wall of clouds.

Brookfield isn't just remembered for that event but if you attended an event at the the Madison County Fairground in 1945 you would have known about the tornado that tore apart the grandstand and did much damage!

As time goes on we probably will have more severe storm events... but on a whole we are sort of luckY..with a big Y!  The storms that we get are ones we like to talk about..the blizzard of '93, the Blizzard of this year or that...I guess we think we can handle blizzards.

Weather cycles continue..farm almanacks predict..doppler radar informs..but the truth is Mother Nature can dish something up without us even knowing its coming...She rules..and not nuclear power, atomic bombs and the likes can summon up fury so quickly.........

A Message to Garcia and doing a job well, one that makes a difference!

This week as the old adage goes “things come around full circle,” and they did!  The Neighbors for Historic Eaton were formed way back in 1995 for our Bicentennial and the piece of literature that I tried to use as a stimulus was a simple short essay written in the late 1800’s by a man named Elbert Hubbard called “A Message to Garcia”.

The message was a simple one, …one man can do a job well and make a huge difference.

Everyone thought that trying to get a museum and historical society and Bicentennial together was basically impossible…yet it I felt it could be done if everyone did their one job.

The reality is that this is a thought that I have used over  the years continually, and especially during the Madison County Fair…I did not ask people to do a hundred jobs..just one, and do it well.

To those who don’t remember…A Message to Garcia was a short magazine filler article by Hubbard that reflected a true story of the Spanish American War.  The message was from our then President McKinley to Calixco Garcia who was a Cuban revolutionist and a leader in the Cuban insurrection against Spain, a man in change of rebels in the Cuban Hills.  McKinley sent the battleship Maine..which was later sunk..(Remember the Maine”), to remind Spain of the United States investment in Cuba.  McKinley needed the help of the rebels to force the Spanish out of Cuba….. from the essay..

“Rowan was sent for and given a letter (by McKinley) to be delivered to Garcia. How the “fellow by the name of Rowan” took the letter, sealed it up in an oilskin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the Island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and delivered his letter to Garcia—are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail. The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, “Where is he at?” By the Eternal! there is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college of the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this and that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies: do the thing—“Carry a message to Garcia.”

This 1,500 word essay took the world by storm and today it is used by people as inspirational words, motivational works and anything else that fits.  It is basically like the Shaker saying “Do everything as if you have 100 years to live and yet you will die tomorrow.” 

When we started the “Neighbors” I told everyone including influential people we were trying to recruit for help with our projects..which included getting a small business for Eaton. the story of Roycrofters and the success of that small business in a little place called East Aurora, NY. 

The question always came back..”Well then if it was successful, what happened?”  I reply, “Elbert Hubbard went down on the Lusitannia!”

So this week Bob brought me copies of Elbert Hubbard’s book set called “Little Journeys” and I grabbed them and brought them to the museum where they will be on display…the reason..the books are filled with Hubbard’s short stories of famous people who have been a success and who have made a difference in this world with their art, literature, intellectualism and yes ….in their singular purpose of doing the job at hand to the best of their ability - like Rowan did in bringing “the message to Garcia”.

This is a trailer for a PBS series on Hubbard and the Arts and Crafts movement.