PDF (20 MB) - Virtual Library of the Public Library of Cincinnati

HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY 403
fair for five years at Sandusky, and the following officers elected: E.
Bemiss, president; F. D. Parish, vice president; C. C. Keech, treasurer,
and George J. Anderson, secretary; Isaac Fowler, I. T. Reynolds, William
II. Crane, William D. Lindsley, C. B. Choate, directors.
During the Avar, from 1861 to 1864, no fairs were held, all the energies
of the people being given to preserve the life of the imperiled nation.
April 5, 1865, a meeting was held at the courthouse, Sandusky, for
the purpose of reorganizing the Erie County Agricultural Society. The
officers elected Avere as follows: Hon. F. D. Parish, president; >W. IT.
Crane, vice president; John McKelvey, secretary; F. W. Cogswell, treas-
Ser, and C. H. Botsford, Luke S. Stow, A. W. Prout, Sr., Samuel Bemis,
aae Fowler, A. Ilollister, D. C. Richmond, Calvin Caswell, Charles Carnter,
managers. v
A meeting of the board was held August 16, 1865, and a committee,
appointed at a preceding meeting to locate and fit the grounds for holding
a fair in 1865, reported that they had effected a conditional arrangement
for securing by purchase the beautiful groA r e near the south part
of the city known as the Pierson and Ankeytell lots, containing nine acres
of land, for the sum of $4,800, and for the sake of completing the purchase
the committee recommend the plan of petitioning the county commissioners
to assist the society by appropriating not exceeding $5,000 for
the purchase of said lots.
This plan met with the unanimous approval of the board, and blank
petitions were sent to all the townships for the signatures of the principal
taxpayers of the county. It was stated that the healthy condition of the
county finances would warrant this appropriation. The petition was
successful and the purchase made in 1866, and the property deeded—as
all subsequent real estatae of the society was—to the county commissioners.
The first fair was held on these grounds October 17, 18 and 19, 1865,
and the Northern Ohio Grape Growers Association was held on these
grounds at the same time. In 1868 another small piece of ground Avas
bought to enlarge the tract of Jacob Wintersteen for $300, and in 1874
about eleven acres more Avere purchased by C. C. Keech of Jacob Wintersteen
for the society for $15,000, which made about twenty acres, at a cost
of $20,100 as the property of the society. After these purchases great improvements
were made, substantial buildings erected, a fine tunnel made
under the track, grounds thoroughly underdrained, and a roomy amphitheatre
built, making the grounds second to none in the state. Total paid
for land and improA'ements, $39,964. *
These grounds were located on Columbus Avenue and AA'ere exchanged
several years ago for property on Camp Street Avhere the fair has since
been held. The old grounds were laid out in building lots and is at
the present time almost entirely built up with beautiful modern homes,
and is known as "Cable Park."
W. P. Scheid is the present president of the Erie County Agricultural
Society, F. H. Zerbe, secretary, and John Quinn, treasurer.