As
early as 1845 there was an Agricultural Society in the county of
Russell. In that year the legislative journals contained an abstract
of the affairs of the Agricultural Society of the Ottawa district in
which Russell County received a grant of 74 pounds, 10 shillings from
the government while another 25 pounds was raised by private
subscription. Part of the estimated expenses for that year was the
payment of three experts or judges of the crops at five shillings a
day each for twelve days. Most of the activity and officials seemed to
be in the Cumberland and Clarence area but on the 12th of
April 1858, a charter presently hanging in the Registry Office was
granted for the holding of a Fair or Mart at Duncanville (now
Russell). The first officers were: John Kennedy of Osgoode as
president, Archibald McKellar of Gloucester as first vice-president,
William Eadie of Russell as second vice president, and Ira Morgan of
Osgoode as secretary-treasurer. The Directors were: Donald Robertson
and Daniel McLaughlin of Gloucester, G.G. Dunnling of Cumberland, Alex
Stewart of Russell, and Thomas Gold, Duncan Kennedy and Don Campbell
Jr. of Osgoode. One of the first projects of the Agricultural Society
was the purchase of a Durham Bull; a few years later, an Ayrshire Bull
was purchased.
There are
very few records of the first years of the Russell Fair. In 1867 two
of the most prominent men in the Township headed the board with
William Craig as president and Elisha F. Loucks as secretary. The
present grounds were acquired at three different times; in 1885 eight
acres were purchased from Clarence Helmer, in 1893 another six and a
half acres were acquired from Mary Ann Larocque and in 1949 a parcel
where the arena is situated was purchased from the York family.
Fair Day in 1908 or
1909
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The
original grounds contained an excellent half-mile race track but in
1897 a piece of the north side was taken by the New York Central for
their right-of way and the track was reduced to one third mile. The
Russell Township Agricultural Society has always been a leader in the
community although we do not know the actual date it was founded. (A
newspaper clipping on the death of John Paul in 1956 claims that he
was the first president.) In the minutes of August 11th, 1912, W. H.
Lowrie, T.G. Holmes and Henry Tweed were appointed as a committee to
look after building the new arena. With the erection of this new
building there was plenty of room for displays of fruits, vegetables,
baking and other home crafts and some of the old buildings were sold
and torn down.
The race
track was the training ground for Jack Cameron and his trotting
horses. It was quite common to see him driving one of his horses while
another horse, hitched to a sulky but with no driver, trotted
alongside. In 1923 he won a free-for-all race in Montreal with his
horse, Billston. Another horseman was well known as a starter for
harness racing events. At one time, he owned Ruth Harvester, a
champion standard-bred mare for the Dominion of Canada. When it came
to the harness show horse, owner E. J. MacEwen was in a class by
himself, showing his horses and winning at fall fairs throughout the
Ottawa Valley. For many years the horse races were one of the main
drawing cards to the fair but there were also foot races, automobile
races, lacrosse and baseball.
Erwin and Eccles McCaffrey with
their display at the Fair.
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Not
all the races were for speed; one year, with the mud on the track at
least six inches deep, there was a contest to see who could go around
the track the slowest without having to shift out of high gear. There
were the usual swine, cattle and horse shows with the competition very
keen in some of the classes, so much so that in 1922 there was a
motion that two members be asked not to make any exhibits at the fair
for two years. In 1933 there was a motion that a member be
disqualified from the Society and from collecting any prize money
until the balance of prize money illegally gained was refunded. There
must have been large crowds attending; in 1922 there was a motion that
C. F. McArthur secure special train services from Ottawa for fair day.
The annual school fair was held on the first day of the exhibition
with each school having a parade, a competition in singing and public
speaking and its own exhibition of vegetables, flowers and livestock.
With the
collapse of the arena in February 1941, the fair ceased operations
until after the war, except for the Calf Clubs and field crop
competitions. It resumed on a small scale with outdoor exhibits and
rented tents in 1947, 1948, and 1949. In 1950 the Agricultural Society
assumed responsibility for $5,000.00 towards the cost of a new arena.
The fair was once again held under cover in the fall of 1950 and
except for 1954, when it was cancelled own to bad weather, each fall
there has been an annual Russell Fair. A few notes on our Russell
Fair: In the midst of the depression in 1938, the total receipts were
$1,920.81 and expenses were $1841.88. Going back to 1914, it cost
fifty cents admission for an automobile and twenty-five cents for a
double team with a single carriage.
There is a
tendency to only associate the agricultural society with the annual
fair but throughout the years the society has sponsored field crop
competitions and many other agricultural endeavours, such as calf
clubs and 4-H clubs. Recently Margaret (Mrs. E. Burton) was honoured
for her twenty-four years service with the 4-H Club in Russell.
