Fair board presidents

There have been at least 21 presidents of the Fair Board since the district fair opened in October 1855. Many presidents served more than one year. The names of all the Fair Board presidents can not be found. There were no presidents during the years that the fair was not held. The fair was discontinued during and after the Civil War, World War I and the Great Depression. The following is a partial and chronological list of the presidents who guided the fair so faithfully for the past 150 years:

Gen. Nathaniel W. Watkins -- 1855

Judge W.C. Ranney -- 1856-1860

(Civil War, fair discontinued from 1861 until 1870)

N.W. Kimmel -- 1870

David A. Glenn -- 1871

*unknown -- 1872 until 1894

G.G. Kimmel -- 1895 until 1896

G.C. Thilenius -- 1897

*fair went bankrupt in 1897 and no fair until 1900

*unknown from 1900 until 1912

D.A. Glenn -- 1912 until unknown

*unknown until 1917

*fair discontinued from 1917 until 1919 (World War I)

*unknown from 1919 until 1922

W.F.Bergmann -- 1923

*unknown from 1924 until 1928

*fair discontinued from 1929 until 1939 (Great Depression)

Prof. John H. Gehrs -- 1939 (partial term)

Adolph Kies -- 1939 until 1953

William Barks -- 1954 until 1956

L.C. Blattner Jr. -- 1956 until 1958

D.D. Cleeton -- 1958 until 1964

LaRoy Roper -- 1964 until 1976

L.R. Roper Jr. -- 1977

Gene Huckstep -- 1978

Earl James -- 1979 until 1987

Donald Strohmeyer -- 1988

Charles Mangels -- 1989 until 1990

Pete Poe -- 1991 until 1992

Bob Nitsch -- 1993 until 1994

Sam Below -- 1995 until 1996

Pete Poe -- 1997 until 1999

Fred Higdon -- 2000

Bob James -- 2001 until 2002

Pete Poe -- 2003 until present