Genealogy of Warren County Farmers' Fair:

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Getting to the Roots of Annual Down-Home Festival

by Gladys Harry Eggler 

This year (1996) marked the fifty-ninth anniversary of the Warren County Farmers' Fair. Or was it the one hundred and thirty-seventh? It all depends on who's doing the counting and from when.

It was 1859 when a group of civic minded citizens under the leadership of Judge William R. Sharp and E.L. Campbell got together to form an agricultural society for the county of Warren. A first for the county, the organization, incorporated under the impressive title of The Warren County Farmers', Mechanics', and Manufacturers' Association, resolved to promote the agricultural and mechanical arts.

The group leased a tract of land from Abraham McMurtrie and immediately went to work grading a race track and building exhibition halls. Located about a mile south of Belvidere on the Pike, the grounds were ready for Warren County's first Farmers' Fair on October 11, 12, 13 and 14, 1859.

By all accounts the Fair was a huge success, as were subsequent Fairs. According to Snell's History of Warren County, "largely attended and displays of stock, farm products and machinery was very credible to the county . . . the land beautifully located for fairground and a good track for speeding horses . . . it has had to struggle against difficulties . . . on account, principally, of the dullness of the times." Those dullness of the times were the tremulous period leading up to and finally exploding into the Civil War.

From then on it was all fun and games to the delight of many and the chagrin of others.

Newspaper reports, circa 1876-79 stated that there were more turkeys than usual, handsome carriages and pots of butter that were of superior quality as were the fancy cakes and breads. "The display of products of the county was exceptionally fine, especially the swine exhibited by Mr. Brugler of Blairstown."

"There were more blooded horses than there have been in years. Horses and politicians monopolized the attention of the crowd."

The press protested "A few head of stock, one or two trotting and twice as many scrub races, a score of noisy raffle dens, a peanut stand, a few vendors of beer . . . a barrel of hard cider and some banjo pickers and bone players do not make a good fair."

Fun loving spectators often turned into rowdy spectacles. Especially when some under age "gentlemen made the night hideous with their clamoring for more beer, more beer which was justly refused by the proprietor of the saloon . . . who received a round of curses from the young whelps."

Other than calling the Warren County Agricultural Society a disgrace to the county, the chronicles have little to say during the following period. The property reverted back to the McMurtrie estate. His heirs plowed the tract, planted corn and put the property up for sale.

So ended the short lived Farmers' Fair. Or did it? In September 1883 local newspapers ran an announcement of a meeting for all those who were interested in making arrangements for a county fair to be held in the Fall.

By the turn of the last century the Fair emerged under the banner of the Warren County Farmers' Picnic. It was a one day affair held in the county park in Belvidere, taking on the distinctive characteristics of a street carnival.

Those early years in Belvidere drew record breaking crowds; upward of 18,000, if the local reports are to be believed. The railroads were overloaded. They brought in fairgoers by the hundreds. "When the PRR train connected with the dinky at Delaware it was so crowded a number of the passengers could not get aboard. Trains were crowded to suffocation and the platforms and steps were loaded with people. The Bel-Del Line brought in hundreds more . . . the crowd was so dense one had to push his way thru the crowds almost everywhere in the town."

"The Bangor band kept the lovers of music in a good humor all day. There was very little drunkenness and no arrests and we have heard of no pockets being picked. Politicians galore helped farmers tie their horses, assisted their wives and daughters to alight from the wagons, and kissed the babies."

About this point in time the Fair began to branch out. The picnic was lured to Hackettstown for a brief period, so the Belvidere contingent formed the Warren County Farmers Association and the Grangers Picnic Association, and it was Fair time as usual. Later they were united once again into a single festival in Belvidere. The organizers went under still another name change, the Warren County Farmers, Grangers and Citizens Picnic Association. And the public never noticed.

Without a doubt one of the major attractions was the grand finale; the daring escapade of one Murphy Jones. Jones would climax the day by leapfrogging into the Delaware River from the highest point of the "new" bridge. As a precautionary measure Jones would take up his collection before his "death defying dive."

In the year 1904 the Belvidere bridge connection between New Jersey and Pennsylvania was in itself a major attraction. The old covered bridge had been washed away by flood waters the year before. The new one was open for inspection to be dedicated later that year. It reportedly did "a fine business all day. Throngs of sightseers visited it out of curiosity. Those who crossed the bridge were loud in their praises of the structure and the beautiful scenery presented from all points."

As the Farmers' Fair moved on into the twentieth century, it survived wars, depression and epidemics with only short periods of time out. One such occasion was in 1916 when the Fair was canceled because of an outbreak of the dreaded infantile paralysis.

In the ensuing years the Picnic hopscotched around the county from Butler Park to Belvidere and later Harmony to Hackettstown and back again.

In 1937 the Picnic Association ceased to exist. That same year the Warren County Farmers' Fair was launched, sponsored by the Warren County Board of Agriculture, Pomona Grange and the United Milk Producers. They purchased the present Fairgrounds in Harmony Township in 1952.

Today the Farmers' Fair celebrates its grass roots heritage with an intriguing mix of country style exhibits and fun-for-all entertainment.