Part I

“Despite the fact that the grasshoppers were doing most of the harvesting, a fair association was organized and the first Lyon County Fair was held in October of 1874,” according to the History of Lyon County by A.P. Rose. There were “…several-hundred people in attendance, and it was declared a success. There were many exhibits, although the premiums were not liberal.”

Forty-five men received these premiums, although our early history does not tell us what their exhibits were. C. H. Whitney, founder of Marshall, was one of those listed as receiving a premium. In comparison, only 16 women received premiums along with two businesses — Coleman and Co., and the Prairie Schooner (Marshall’s first newspaper).

According to the History of The Minnesota Valley by the Rev. Edward D. Neill, the Lyon County Agricultural Society was organized in March of 1874. The first meeting to bring about the organization was held in December of 1873 in a little room that had been partitioned off from the old company store building in Marshall. Elected were J.G. Bryan Buchanan, O.C. Gregg, R.D. Barnes, G. Watson, C.H. Bullock, James Morgan, R.H. Price, F.R. Horitz, John Itstad, Ole O. Brenna and T.J. Barber as vice-presidents; J.W. Blake, T.W. Castor, G. S. Robinson, J.W. Hoagland and Jacob Rouse, serving as the executive committee. The Society leased 40 acres of land where they held county fairs from that time forward.

In 1879, 1880 and 1881 the County Fair took first place premiums at the State Fair on the general display of vegetables, while in 1874 and 1881 they received second place premiums. The State Agricultural Society awarded Lyon County a silver medal for general display of products “…which speaks well for a county only 12 years old and located in the section of the state that suffered from the grasshopper scourge.”

Neill also notes that although Lyon was not a county in 1870, by 1880 it ranked as the 36th county in the state with a population of 6, 257, with 3,381 of these male, 2,876 female, 4,558 native, and 1,6999 foreign. The vote for presidential electors was 1,336 in 1880. In 1872, only 676 acres of the 452,000 in the county was under cultivation, which increased in eight years to 41,772 acres. In 1872 ,there were only nine sheep in the county, which increased to 7,450 by 1881. In 1880, 3,450 head of cattle were shipped from the county, and in 1881 the artificial groves covered 2,200 acres. “These facts, in the fact of the general agricultural depression during the time covered, speak well for the enterprise of the people and the resources of the county.”

The County Fair Association was organized in 1904 and the fairgrounds were purchased for $6,000 (which at that time was “near” Marshall). The association erected buildings, but we do not know which ones.

In 1912 they were still awarding premiums. Charles C. Whitney reported in the Oct. 4 issue of the News Messenger that the Freese brothers won nearly $100 in prizes. Horse racing was one of the prominent activities held at the fairground that year and for several years to follow.

(Continued next week)

Sources: History of Lyon County, A.P. Rose; News Messenger, Oct. 4, 1912; “Lyon County Agricultural Annual Report,” 1936 and 1937 editions, F. J. Meade; Balaton Press, Aug. 22, 1963; Tracy Headline Herald, Aug. 29, 1963; Marshall Messenger, Aug. 19, 1964; Lyon County Independent, Sept. 2, 1964.