Without interruption so many years

The county history published in 1882 was proud of the fair.

No county agricultural society in the State that has so long continual existence, or held fairs without interruption so many years, can now be recalled.

The LaGrange County Agricultural Society was organized on the first of October, 1852, with Amos Davis as its president. The first fair was held on the eighteenth of October, 1853, and the book says that we find the records show $250 were appropriated for the premiums.

Three pages on, it lists the society's presidents and secretaries, year by year, from 1853 to 1881. In the middle of the list is this.

1860-61-62—No elections on record.

The list then runs 1863, 1864, 1865, 1866, and 1868. There is no entry for 1867 and nothing to say there is none.

The book does not explain either gap. It says it is working from the records, so the gap is in the records it had. It does not say whether there were fairs in those years.

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It does not say where the fairs were held, either. Under 1855 the list carries a note in brackets.

The fair this year was held at Lima, but the next year was permanently located at La Grange.

That is all. Nothing in the book names a ground.

The county's centennial history of 1928 says It is not definitely known where these fairs were held in LaGrange, and offers what was left.

...but tradition tells us that they were mostly held for the first few years in the old court house. Tradition also informs us that the first fair was held in 1856 in the old frame court house and the first race track was Detroit street and on that occasion there were two horses entered in the race, one owned by Ernestus Schermerhorn and the other owned by Sylvanus Streeter.

The same chapter puts the Lima fair in 1853. The 1882 list puts it under 1855.

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From 1863 on the 1928 history knows exactly where the ground was, because it has the deeds. It introduces them with The records show, and does not say which records.

On the thirty-first of January, 1863, John Ryason and his wife Charlotte conveyed thirteen and a half acres in section thirty to the society for $1,249.25. On the sixth of April, 1874, John Ryason and his wife Susan conveyed more. That was the fair ground, east of the Grand Rapids and Indiana railroad and south of Stroup's sawmill. On the thirteenth of November, 1888, it was sold to Isaac Sears by sheriff's deed.

On the sixth of October, 1891, John H. Olmstead and his wife Clarissa conveyed the northeast quarter of section twenty-nine, in Bloomfield Township, to the LaGrange Fair Association. A race track was built and a fair was held there for about three years. On the twenty-second of May, 1897, the ground was sold at foreclosure, by sheriff's sale. In 1901 it was conveyed twice, the second time, on the thirteenth of July, to Isaac Sears.

That is two sheriff's sales, nine years apart.

Ira Ford's history of 1920 follows the 1882 account on the society's beginning and adds what came after it. In 1883 an attempt to form a stock company county fair association was made. In 1891 an incorporated association was formed with $10,000 in stock, the LaGrange Fair Association. But after victory and defeat, these projects finally went down. Ford has nothing on Lima, on the move, or on the missing elections.

The 1928 history puts the last ground about one mile east of LaGrange. Ford's chapter, in its account of the Corn School that followed the fairs, puts it about two miles east.

The 1928 history ends its account of the deeds this way.

Thus ended the county fairs of LaGrange county.