IT'S NEARLY FAIR TIME; CAPE'S EXPO IS ONE OF OLDEST IN THE STATE

As everyone knows fairs are a Far Eastern custom that found their way as a form of both assistance and entertainment to residents in the New World when America began to be populated by individuals and families from Europe.

Fairs were a means of distributing information and assisting farmers and businessmen, as well as women, about improved methods in farming, manufacturing, and accomplishing household and craft projects. Fairs also promoted socializing between groups of individuals of similar interest, and eventually brought about community and state growth in various lines of endeavor.

The interest that fairs generated through contests and displays stimulated enthusiasm among the public, and individuals who entered something of their creation or endeavor in competition and won were always encouraged to try to better their entry for future displays.

Cape Girardeau can take pride in the fact that the Southeast Missouri District Fair held in the city in 1855 was the second fair held in the state, following the Boonville Fair that opened in 1853.

The Boonville fair opened Oct. 3, 1853 and was sponsored by the Missouri State Agricultural Society, an organization created by the 17th General Assembly Feb. 24, 1853. The purpose was to advance agriculture in Missouri and from the beginning this part of the endeavor was a success, although the financial success was otherwise.

Premiums were offered on bread, ham, fruit, corn, tobacco and wheat. Poultry, according to the history of the fair, included chickens, geese, guineas and peacocks. There were livestock displays and other items. One was a rotary fan bedstead, which was wound up before one retired and fanned an individual to sleep keeping off flies and mosquitoes.

The fair lasted four days and on the last day 4,000 individuals attended. On the last day, several hastily constructed grandstands collapsed but no one was hurt.

The Cape Girardeau Fair was held on Good Hope on the site where later Fort C was built, and still later St. Francis Hospital. The army took control of the grounds when the Civil War began and remained until the war ended. By 1865 the grounds were not suitable for fairgrounds and the event was reorganized and moved to a large, vacant area, which is now the area across from Lowell's along South Kingshighway.

The fair was too far away for those who did not have horses and carriages to attend. It turned into a sheep show and was unpopular, and closed. The fair was reorganized and moved to what became Capaha Park, where it remained until 1938 when it was again reorganized and relocated in 1940 to a new fairgrounds known as Arena Park. It continues here in 1991 as the second oldest fair in Missouri.

The State Fair in Sedalia came into existence in 1901, although a law providing for a state fair was passed in 1899. The State Board of Agriculture selected the Sedalia site.

A St. Louis Fair was held in 1856 (a year after the Cape Girardeau District Fair) under the auspices of the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association, which was chartered in 1855. Col. John O'Fallon had an extensive amount of ground in North St. Louis and he sold it to the directors as an ideal fairgrounds location. During the following years, the grounds were covered with many fair buildings and the event proved very popular until 1904, when the St. Louis World's Fair opened and the Agricultural and Mechanical Association disbanded.

Fairgoers always wanted to purchase souvenirs. Stores in cities where fairs were held always stocked small items they knew would appeal to the public as souvenirs. Such items included: sterling silver spoons, demitasse cups often illustrated with buildings embossed in gold, fans made of silk, paper and feathers, toothpick holders also illustrated with street scenes, and plates, napkin rings, jewelry and other items that could be carried in a woman's handbag.

Today T-shirts are popular souvenir items, purchased by fairgoers to remember the event in future years.