A piece in a June 1911 issue of the Springfield Republican announced that a plan to revive the Greene County Fair, which was "once so popular" but had endured "a several years' period of somnolence," was being developed by a new fair organization. When the new group's first fair came off two years later, it was sometimes called the first Greene County Fair, but that was not entirely accurate. As the 1911 newspaper article rightly pointed out, it was actually just a revival of an older, similar event, not a brand new event.
Although I'm not sure exactly when the first Greene County Fair was held, I know that an annual fair was held in Springfield at the Hefferman and Reilly Zoological Gardens (often called simply the Zoo Gardens or Zoo Park) during the early 1890s. It was officially called the Greene County Breeders' Fair, but it was often referred to simply as the Greene County Fair. The zoo (and the fair) closed in 1894, and the grounds of the Zoological Gardens were purchased by Springfield businessman Jerome Dickerson. The property would not become a zoo again until the early 1920s when the City of Springfield purchased the land from Dickerson's estate and turned it into what is known today as Dickerson Park Zoo.
After the zoo park changed hands in 1894, there was apparently a gap of almost twenty years before Springfield hosted its next Greene County Fair. The fair organization that was formed in 1911 finally put on its first fair, called simply the Greene County Fair, in October of 1913. It was held on grounds just east of where a new Pythian home (now called the Pythian Castle) had just been constructed. This was in the general area of what today are the grounds of Evangel University.
The first day of the 1913 fair, Tuesday, October 7, brought threatening weather, which held down attendance at the event. The next day, though, brought clearer skies and three times as many attendees at the fair as during the previous day. Attendees on the first two days of the fair were mostly locals, and the City of Springfield ran special carriages taking people to the fair from the downtown area and back.
On Thursday, the third day of the fair, people flooded into Springfield from the surrounding countryside and communities to attend the fair. Called "Big Thursday," the day's attendance was even greater than it had been on the second day.
The climax, though, came on Saturday, the last day of the fair, when an estimated 10,000 people attended. About 8,000 of these were paying customers, while approximately 2,000 school children were given free admission. Among the events that ran throughout the fair were livestock showings, art exhibits, and baby contests, and most of the winners of these contests were announced on Saturday. One of the prize winning animals was a 1,000 pound Poland China hog from Highland Farms at Bolivar.
The biggest draw of the fair, though, was horse racing, which took place every afternoon on a track constructed for that purpose. Spectators were seated in a grandstand along one straightaway. A band entertained the spectators during intervals between races. In addition to the races themselves, there were also exhibitions of trick and fast riding.
Another attraction was the "pike" or what we would probably call the midway today. It featured games and amusements that were said, according to the Springfield Republican, to be "better than the Sedalia State Fair."
Perhaps the biggest attraction next to the horse racing was the "aeroplane." Pilot William Hetlich put on exhibitions flying his 70-horsepower Curtiss biplane, and daring and affluent individuals could go up in the plane with him for $50. The plane drew many "admirers and curious ones," said the Republican. "Men, women, and children alike swarmed about the queer-looking mechanical bird, wondering how it could ride in the sky." But apparently Hetlich didn't get many takers on the opportunity to actually fly in the machine, because "when the engine cranked and the propeller began its work, they drew back" as if afraid the machine might "seek its prey."
The fair came off with no serious accidents, injuries, or crimes. About the only thing to mar the occasion was the arrest of three men for running a "jingle board" on the pike. This was a device consisting of rings and a board with coins laid on it. The object was to toss a ring and encircle one of the coins. If you did so, you were given the amount of money represented by the coin. Apparently very few people were winning any money and some started complaining. So, the three men were arrested and charged with gambling.
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