When was the first Chisago County Fair held?

* Note - This article appeared in the 2003 Chisago County Traveler published by the STAR newspaper.

by Tesha M. Wiedemann
Special Sections Editor
Speculation abounds concerning exactly when the first Chisago County Fair was held.
According to the recently published “A History of Chisago County 1851 to 2001”, the first county fair was held in Rush City in September of 1872. However, local historian Max Malmquist, who has delved deeply into the history of North Branch while preparing to write a book, disagrees.
He points to a 1875 Chisago County (Rush City) Post article which refers to the fair in 1875 as the fourth annual fair held in North Branch Sept. 29 to 30. This is the earliest newspaper article regarding the fair, as the Rush City Post wasn’t established until 1875.
Several hundred people attended this fourth fair, which was entirely supported by local businessmen, “Yankee businessmen,” Malmquist emphasized. “The fairs were really a Yankee business venture instituted not only for celebration and fun, but with high hopes that people coming to the fair would spend money at local businesses. The fair was also an opportunity for people to buy and sell goods, including livestock.”
Malmquist continued, “One cannot appreciate the dominance of Yankees in running and participating in fair events until the names are reviewed. The officers for the agricultural society who organized the fair in 1875 were E.C. Ingalls, Dr. Wm. Bently, J. G. Ryder and J.C.A. Pickett. The winners of the horse races were Bates, Pingrey, McCutcheon and Ryan, and the winners of the baby contests were (all Mrs.) Robie, Wilcox, Brown, Wooleat, Smith, McClure, Starkweather and Chase.”
Malmquist explained that the Irish, English and Scottish Easterners who first settled in the area were businessmen who were “more culturally elite” than the poor Germans and Swedes who followed them.
Another force driving the fairs was a love of horse races. The Post mentions two French breeding stallions owned locally and purchased for $2,500 apiece, the current-day equivalent of $2 to $3 million. One of the pricey stallions was owned by Elliot Alex McCutcheon, North Branch Mayor, businessman and future owner of the first fairground property. People would come from as far away as St. Paul up to 12 days in advance of the fair in order to train their horses in preparation for the races. Horse races were also held on the Fourth of July and were later held bi-monthly.
Initially, the fair was organized by the Chisago and Pine Counties Agricultural Society. Isanti County residents were also invited to participate in early fairs. The ag society issued over 100 shares of stock, held regular meetings of stockholders, and assessed stockholders for money to build and repair fair buildings and to offer money premiums as fair prizes for contests and displays. Chisago County tax dollars did not fund the fair until the 1890s, and state agricultural society funds were not used until the mid 1880s.
Each fair adult attendee in 1875 was charged 50¢ and each child 15¢. The ag society took in $359.57 in receipts that year. The fair was typically three days in either September or October, although it was stretched to four days because of rain in 1881.
For the half-mile race in 1875, a $30 purse was available, divided into $15, $10 and $5 prizes, and for the mile there was a $40 purse. In 1881, there were four entries in the 100-yard little girls’ foot race. Miss ‘Lady’ House walked away with the 25¢ per entry purse.
In the 1870s there was no road stretching between Stacy and North Branch and North Branch and Rush City. However, the railroad was in place and the fairgrounds was located south of the station, where the present-day North Branch Municipal Golf Course is. In fact, the quarter-mile oval race track is visible today across the first and ninth golf course fairways.
Between 1875 and 1880, a 1,000-seat amphitheatre was constructed just inside the oval track, in addition to several other buildings used to house exhibits and merchandise. One year there were nine beer stands, Malmquist pointed out.
In addition to horse races, fair attendees could choose to participate in foot races and baby contests, see who could climb a greased pole fastest, and exhibit farm produce, livestock and crafts.
In 1884, a baseball field was built on the fairgrounds in North Branch, within site of the amphitheater, and baseball games were scheduled during the annual fair. McCutcheon became one of the leading players on the team.
In the summer of 1882, a strong wind storm damaged both the fair building and the amphitheater, but both were rebuilt in time for the September fair.
Much of the historical confusion circulating the fair stems from the fact that the event was moved several times in an attempt to earn more money. After losing money during the first five fairs, the agricultural society decided to hold the 1877 fair in Taylors Falls. Again suffering financially, the society voted to hold the next two fairs in Rush City, one of the largest towns in the county. It was moved back to North Branch from 1880 to 1886.
Adding to the confusion, the Post documents that additional fairs were held some years in both Rush City and Taylors Falls, Malmquist pointed out. “Rush City held its first fair in 1877 and tried to form its own society called the Rush City Agricultural Society.”  Taylors Falls also held ancillary fairs, even creating the St. Croix Valley Agricultural Society. These additional fairs were not very successful. “There was a great deal of jealousy between the businessmen of each town,” Malmquist observed.
By 1887, most of the agricultural society members called Rush City their home, and when Rush City Post editor H.B. Robie quit  the newspaper business and was elected ag society president, the fight to move the fair from North Branch to Rush City was won. There were several reasons for the move, in addition to the fact that Robie’s brother was a prominent businessman in Rush City.
First, the land that the ag society was using in North Branch was owned by Issac Bernheimer of New York City, who refused to sell the land and rented it on an annual basis to the ag society. Ag society members felt that constructing buildings on property that wasn’t either owned by the society or on a long-term lease was risky.
Also, the population in Rush City, Rusheba and Nessel was significantly larger than that of North Branch.
And so, the ag society approved jacking up the six or seven existing buildings in North Branch, sliding them to the railroad track and moving them to Rush City, where the society obtained a 10-year lease on land from the village, the land where the fair is still held today.
“There was great sadness and anger among many people in North Branch when the fair and its buildings were moved to Rush City,” noted Malmquist. In fact, North Branch businessmen tried to get a court injunction to stop the move. “It created ill will between the two cities,” Malmquist said.
In 1891, the Chisago and Pine Counties Agricultural Society disbanded and the Chisago County Agricultural Society took over control of the fair in Rush City. Malmquist surmises that the population in Pine County, which had originally been a part of Chisago County, got large enough to support a separate fair. Some historians point to 1891 as the first Chisago County Fair.
Prior to locating at the corner of Fourth Street (Highway 361) and Fairfield, the fair was briefly held in two other places in Rush City, south of County Road 7 at the Anderson property and southeast of town near where the roller rink is now, according to historian Carl Heinrich.
In addition to horse races and exhibits, airplane rides were given over the horse track in the 1930s and helicopter rides in the 1950s.

Thanks to Max Malmquist of North Branch for contributing to this article. Malmquist is currently writing, “North Branch Regional History: Connections, Reflections and Heritage,” from which much of this story is based.