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The Russell Township Agricultural Society has
always been a leader in the community although we do not know the actual
date it was founded. 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 Society: 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 currently situated was purchased from the York
family.
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, reducing the track to one-third mile.
 In
the
minutes of August 11, 1912, W. H. Lowrie, T.G. Holmes and Henry Tweed
were appointed as a committee to look after building the new arena. With
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.
Special trains were requested in 1922 from Ottawa to facilitate
transportation to the fair.
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. Not all the races were for speed. One year when the track was
six inches in mud, the competition was to see who could drive their
automobile the slowest around the track without shifting from high gear.
There were the usual cattle, horse, sheep and swine shows with the
competition very keen in some of the classes.
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.
In 1950, the Russell Agricultural Society assumed responsibility for
$5,000 towards the cost of a new arena. The fair was once again held
under cover in the fall of 1950 except for 1954 when it was cancelled
due to bad weather.
Fairs are held every weekend from May to October somewhere in Ontario.
Almost all fairs have a “regular weekend” or calendar slot, and very few
fairs change their weekend. (insert when Russell changed its weekend).
The Ontario Association of Agricultural Societies (OAAS) publishes a
schedule of fair dates every year. In 1846, a group of dedicated
volunteers created a central, all-Ontario organization to help
agricultural societies better achieve their goals. Times have changed a
bit since then, but every year Ontario hosts over 230 agricultural
fairs, representing approximately 40 per cent of all fairs in this
country. The oldest continually-held fair in Ontario is at Williamstown,
held annually since 1812.
The agricultural fair is a “cultural icon” in Canadian history. In the
early days, fairs were designed to educate the farmer about agriculture
and rural lifestyles. Today they are still striving for the same goal,
but now they tend to
 concentrate
on the urbanite or “city-slicker”. Same goal, different crowd.
Sources:
A history of Agricultural Societies and Fairs in Ontario, 1792-1992
From Swamp to Shanty, published by Wendell M. Stanley, 1987
Ontario Agricultural Fairs – A Snapshot in Time published by the Ontario
Association of Agricultural Societies
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