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HISTORY OF AGRICULTURAL FAIRS
By Guy Scott, OAAS Past President
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| 1962 O.A.A.S. Convention, King Edward Hotel |
Fairs are almost as old as recorded history. There were two types of ancient
fairs: trade shows and festivals. From the biblical "Fairs of Tyre" to
Sturbridge Fair in medieval England, fairs were used as market places and
carnivals. In the 1700's the British crossed the agricultural improvement
society with the traditional trade fair/carnival and agricultural fairs were
born.
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Canada Pakcers 1st Quilt Competition
ltor Bern Telfer (Paris), Dorothy Ryder (Aylmer), Lu Topham (Woodstock) |
Bern Telfer (OAAS Junior Convener)
OAAS Convention at the King
Edward Hotel, Toronto 1970 |
These agricultural fairs were transplanted to the colonies by the earliest
British settlers. The concept of fairs soon flourished in agrarian North
America. In Canada, the first agricultural society was formed in 1765 in Nova
Scotia. Ontario followed suit in 1792 with the Agricultural Society of Upper
Canada based at Niagara on the Lake. From the Ontario strongholds, the
concept of agricultural fairs spread west with the first settlers.
After a few false starts, the system of agricultural societies and their
fairs spread all over Ontario in the 1800's. They were organized by county
and township and at one time numbered over 500 in Ontario alone. While
agricultural societies used many methods (of varying success) to improve
agriculture and the rural lifestyle, their most enduring and endearing
legacy was the agricultural fair. Industrial exhibitions and festivals
came and went, but the fairs just carried on. Fairs soon became an ingrained
part of Ontario's (and indeed Canada's) culture. They still are, in our
society.
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Junior Convener King Edward Hotel
left: President Womens Division - Jean Garlow Oshweken - Six Nations Reserve,
Brantford & Norma Baker - Junior Convener - Ancaster
right: Gail Gray - Welland, Marvin Tyder, Aylmer,
Gail Gray (daughter) Dr. Geo. Gray, Chilowack BC. |
Ontario Fairs have changed since their inception, but they still carry on
their mandate of promoting agriculture and the rural lifestyle.
Want to see modern tradition meet the modern world? Attend a fair!
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