| Show UNCOMMON AMERICANS A M E R I 1 C A N S 0 0 0 by elmo eimo e ew western scott watson ew T union shaper father of the county fair IF TF YOU remember pleasantly th that at high spot in the days of your youth going to the county fair you should remember gratefully the name of elkanah watson for he was the father of this typically american institution and he is all the more worthy of honor because he labored in the face of difficulty difficult y and prejudice to bring it into being watson was born in massachusetts in 1758 and his natural yankee shrewdness aas was livened cri by travel and adventure finally he settled down on a farm near pittsfield mass but he could not be content there and as he taid to fill fi I 1 up the void in an active mind led me first to conceive the idea of an agricultural society on a plan different from all others so in 1807 he secured the first pair of merino sheep ever brought to his state and exhibited them under a great elm in the public square in pittsfield they attracted so much attention that hi he decided it would be a good thing to invite other owners to show their livestock but he soon discovered that this so easy for the farmers were afraid to take part in such an exhibition lest they be laughed at however after three years he got 26 of them to sign an appeal for a cattle show and this was such a success that an agricultural society was formed with watson as president the next year he began the fair with a parade and closed it with a pastoral ball also prizes to the amount of 70 were offered by the next year the premiums had risen to and the fair was so popular with the men that he decided the next thing to do was to make it respectable by getting the indorsement endorsement indor of the clergy and the women but that was more difficult for the clergy regarded such things as frivolous and place was still very much in the home not in the public eye but with the aid of his wife he finally prevailed upon them to exhibit their weaving and cewin sewing g 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 to extend the idea into other states by 1819 he had induced the legislature of new york to pass an annual appropriation of to aid new societies in staging fairs and from that time on the county fair became an established american institution the spirit of 76 STARTED out as a humorous IT sketch and aind it ended up as one of the most famous of all american paintings that is the story of the patriotic picture the spirit of 76 the story of the painter is equally interesting archibald willard while serving as a soldier in the union an often amused himself by making sketches rhes of army we life to send back home after the war he painted a huge panorama of war scenes which he began exhibiting but people wanted to forget about the war and his venture was a failure so he went back to his nome in wellington ohio and got a job with a pa painting decorations the wagons and oc occasionally asi orally doing the same work on the gaudy circus chariots of that period willard also continued making sketches and one came to the attention of james F ryder a cleveland photographer and art dealer he encouraged willard made chro mos from several of his pictures and from their sale willard was able to study art in new york in 1870 the year of the philadelphia centennial ryder suggested that willard draw a picture appropriate to the celebration celebia tion so the artist set to work on a humorous lecture showing three rural musicians at a k fourth of july celebration and depict depicting inh the two drummers as having imbibed too freely in honor of the occasion then his father who was the original of the middle figure the tall drummer fell ill and it was apparent that he not live long willard reproached himself for having his father a figure in a comic picture of that charac tL and the idea of the spirit of 70 was born in his mind he worked furiously in the daytime to complete the picture and at night sat ly by the side of his f ither but the elder willard did r not ot live to see the finial finished ed product nor to learn how he was to be immortalized as the white haired patriot in his sons great picture ryder made reproductions which were sold at the centennial in philadelphia adelph ia and they attracted so much attention that officials of the exposition sent tor for the original during the time it was on exhibition there were always crowds gathered in front of it since that time reproductions of it have been sold jy y the dundr hundreds of thousands wilard Pain painted tec many other pictures picture efort his death in 1913 but none ol of hem ever became bc famous as the spirit of 76 |
