Dayhoff Westminster: Annual 4-H and FFA Fair: 140 Years of Carroll County Tradition

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Annual 4-H and FFA Fair: 140 Years of Carroll County Tradition

A historical perspective on the celebration of agriculture in Carroll County and the birth of the 4-H Fair.

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The welcome arch to the fair from 1909. By then the fair was located at Milton Ohler’s Grove near the railroad and what is today Route 194 and Crouse Mill Road, south of Taneytown. The fair had previously been held, from August 14, 1897 to July 25, 1903, at Goulden’s Grove at the Otterdale School, which had been formerly known as the Mount Hope Brethren Church, at Copperfield, near the cemetery off Taneytown Road. Photo courtesy of the Carroll County 4-H and FFA Fair July 1997 program book, Carroll County Fair 1897 – 1997, Celebrating 100 Years.”

Preparations being made for the Carroll County 4-H and FFA Fair in the early 1950s at the fair’s present location. The hill in the background is now a housing development. The current fair moved to Westminster in 1954, to the Carroll County Agriculture Center, which was established as a private organization on March 20, 1954 on land at the end of an old dirt lane off Gist Road. Photo courtesy of the Carroll County 4-H and FFA Fair July 1997 program book, Carroll County Fair 1897 – 1997, Celebrating 100 Years.”

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Historically the summer and end of harvest events have played an important role in Carroll County because of our agricultural roots.

The history of this week’s Carroll County 4-H and FFA Fair at the Carroll County Agricultural Center lends an extra insight into the traditional family values that are celebrated in Carroll County summers...

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In 1877, the year before the first Maryland State Fair event that we now know as occurring in Timonium, we would have only had to walk to Fair Avenue on the east side of Westminster to attend the Maryland State Fair.

That was the year that the Maryland State Fair was in Westminster on East Main Street according to Warner’s history of Carroll County.

“The Western Maryland Railroad provided a round trip ticket from Baltimore for $1.35, including admission to the fair. Omnibuses carried passengers from the Westminster depot to the fair grounds for a fee of 10 cents one way.”

[...]

http://westminster.patch.com/articles/annual-4-h-and-ffa-fair-140-years-of-carroll-county-tradition

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My http://www.explorecarroll.com/ columns appear in the copy of the Baltimore Sunday Sun that is distributed in Carroll County: https://subscribe.baltsun.com/Circulation/