Show UNCOMMON AMERICANS 0 0 0 By ElmO tf Western WesternS SCOtt S Watson TJ pcr colt 1 IT atson UnIon Father of th the County Fair FairI I IF F YOU remember r pleasantly that high spot in hi t the e days of your youth youth going going to the county fair fair you should remember gratefully the name of Elkanah Watson For he was the father lather of this typically typically- American Institution and he is all the more more worthy of honor because he labored In the face of ot difficulty and prejudice to bring it into being Watson vas born in Massachusetts Massachusetts Massachusetts in 1758 and his natural Yankee shrewdness was enlivened by tr travel vel and adventure Finally he settled down on a farm near Pittsfield Mass But he could not be content content content con con- tent there and as he said to fill fillup fillup fillup up the void in an active mind led me me first to conceive the idea of an agricultural society on a p plan m di dif different different dif dif- ferent from all others So In 1807 he secured the first pair of ot Merino sheep ever brought to his state and exhibited them und und un un- d r a great reat elm in the public square in Pittsfield They attracted so much attention that he decided it would be a good thing to invite other owners to show their live live- stock But he he soon discovered that this wasn't so easy for the farmers farmers farm farm- ers were afraid to take part in such an exhibition lest they be laughed at nt However after alter three years he got 26 of them to sign an nn appeal for fora or ora a cattle show and this was such a success that an air agricultural so society i ty was was was' formed with Watson as president president dent The next year he began the thc ta fair r with a parade and closed i it with a pastoral ball Also prizes to the amount of 70 were olI offered red By the the next year year the premiums had risen to and the fair was wasso wasso wasso so popular with the men that he decided the next thing to do was to tomake tomake tomake make it respectable by getting the indorsement of the clergy and the women But But that was more difficult for forthe forthe forthe the clergy regarded such things as frivolous and women's place was still very much in the home not home not in inthe inthe inthe the public p eye e e. e But with the aid of his wife he finally prevailed prey upon them to exhibit their weaving and sewing and be present when the awards were made When they did that the success of the fair was assured and for the next 12 years Watson labored labore to extend the idea Into other states By 1819 he had in induced induced induced in- in the legislature of New York to pass an annual appropriation of 1 to aid new societies in stagIng staging staging stag stag- ing fairs and from that time on the county t fair ir became an established American institution The Spirit of 76 T STARTED out as a humorous IT sketch and It ended up as one of the most famous of ot all American p paintings That is the story of the patriotic otic picture The Spirit of 76 The story of ot the painter is equally interesting Archibald Willard while serving as as a soldier In the thc Union army often amused himself himsel by making sketches of army life lie to send back home After the war he painted a huge panorama of war scenes which he be began exhibiting But people wanted t to forget about the war and his venture venture was a 1 failure So he went back to his home borne in Wellington Welling ton Oh Ohio Oho o and got a job with a Q aker painting decorations on the wagons and occasionally doing the same work on the gaudy circus chariots of that period Willard also continued making sk sketches A 41 1 1 one came to the attention attention attention at at- of j oJ Ames F. mes F. F Ryder a Cleveland Cleveland Cleveland Cleve Cleve- land photographer and art dealer He encouraged Willard made chro- chro mos fr from m several of his pictures and from their sale Willard was able to study art in New York In 1876 the year of ot the Philadel Philadelphia Philadelphia phia Centennial Ryder suggested that Willard draw a n picture appropriate appropriate to the celebration So theartist the theartist theartist artist set to work on a n humorous picture showing three rural musicIans musicians musi musi- clans at a Fourth o of July celebration celebration tion and depicting the two drummers drummers drummers drum drum- mers as having imbibed too freely in honor of ot the occasion Then his father who was the original original original inal of ot the middle figure the tall drummer fell ill and it was apparent apparent ap up parent that he would not live long Willard Vim Willard rd reproached himself for having hay hav havu tag ing hie hi father a figure In a comic I pl picture tur of that character and the idea iden of The Spirit of 76 was born in his mind He worked furiously in inthe the daytime to complete the picture picture pic plc- ture and at night sat by the side of ot his father But the theelder elder cIder Willard did not live to see the finished product product prod prod- nor to learn how he was te tc be immortalized as the white haired patr patriot ot In his sons son's great picture Ryder made reproductions which were sold at the centennial in Philadelphia Philadelphia Phil adelphia and they attracted so much attention that officials of the exposition sent for the original During During During Dur Dur- ing the time it w was is on exhibition there were v always crowds gathered gathered gath gath- ered in front of it Since that time reproductions ons of ot it have been sold by the hundreds of thousands Willard Willard Wil Wil- lard painted many other pictures before belore his death in but none of ot them m ever became so famous as The Spirit of 70 76 |