Recently in York Fair Category

The York Fair is rolling around again, with its entertainment, rides, animals, games, races, food and prizes. Take a stroll around the exhibition halls. The fair continues a long tradition of giving out awards for York County's best. Talented Glenalvin Goodridge was winning prizes for his photography over 150 years ago. His ambrotypes, described below, were exceptional, as can be seen by one of his original ambrotypes in the photo above. The article is from the October 30, 1855 York Gazette.

Boy, was I wrong when I thought there were no longer horse races at the York Fair! Harness racing is scheduled on two exciting days for 2009. The first session will be Monday, September 14th at 6 p.m. and the second on Tuesday, September 15 at 10:30 a.m. Best of all--the races, which can last from three to three and a half hours each day, are included in your fair admission, with no additional charge.

Previous posts were about York Fair horse races in the 1860s, the 1920s, and the 1950s. I am glad to hear the long tradition of York Fair racing is being carried on.

I learned a lot from a conversation with Don Young, the York Fair Racing Secretary. He said that last year between 120 and 130 horses participated. There are 12 to 15 heats, or dashes, on each of the two days, depending on how many horses are entered. (Above a certain number, the field is split, resulting in additional dashes.)

There are two classes of racing each day: Quaker State and PA Sire Stakes with purses paid out for each. Two-year-olds race on Monday evening and three-year-olds on Tuesday.

1929 York Fair Horse Racing

York Fair time is rolling around again. Previous posts looked at horse racing at the fair in the 1860s and in the 1950s.

In 1929, horses and jockeys were part of a fair racing circuit from mid-August through mid-October. The Central Fair Circuit included Kutztown, Lancaster, Bloomsburg, Pottsville, Reading, Allentown, York and Frederick, in that order.

The York Fair touted itself as "One of America's Outstanding Half Mile Tracks." The York racing officials were E. C. Knebelkamp, Presiding Judge; Jack H. Yerian, Starter and Herbert D. Smyser, Racing Secretary.

The first page of an eight-page program and brochure promoting York Fair racing continues:

A little while ago, in a post on York Fair horse racing, I mentioned that there were some motion pictures of racing at the fair on films recently digitized and preserved by the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives, through a grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Charles and Carrye Noss editing film. Note the movie camera at left.

Those images and many more were taken and shared with the community, by Charles H. Noss and his wife Carrye Neiman Noss. From 1923 to 1960 Mr. and Mrs. Noss filmed local parades and events, such as the York Fair and the construction of the 1930s Wrightsville-Columbia Veterans Memorial Bridge across the Susquehanna River, and shared them with the community. They also traveled around the country and recorded subjects from Pennsylvania Dutch customs to national parks.

The Nosses showed the movies free of charge to churches and civic groups. An admission or offering must have been collected for the groups to keep, because a November 12, 1946 Gazette and Daily newspaper article says that by then the Mr. and Mrs. Noss had shown the films to about 132,000 persons and raised nearly $100,000 for the organizations. Since they continued the showings until Mr. Noss died in 1962, they could have conceivable raised hundreds of thousands of dollars by then.

A recent post concerned harness racing at the York Fair way back in 1867, over 150 years ago. A reader commented that he remembered non-harness horse races at the fair when he was a boy, with jockeys without helmets.

Click here for post on 1867 races. Click here for 1929 York Fair races. Click here for current York Fair harness racing.

He didn't say when that was, but booklets and clippings in the York Fair file at the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives indicate that racing with jockeys was also a long tradition, alongside the harness racing. At one time or another automobiles, motorcycles and bicycles were also raced at the fair.

Racing was featured at the York Fair for many years. It was so popular in 1867 that the races rained out the last day of the fair were held some days later in front of a sizable crowd. See below for a detailed account of the excitement from the October 15, 1867 York Gazette. Note that the horses were both owned and driven by York area people.

There was a lot going on in the Delta area in October 1877, as reported to the York Press by their Delta correspondent. For example, temperance meetings were flourishing there.

Sad news was received from the Black Hills that Dr. P. A. Dinsmore, of Peach Bottom, had passed away. The correspondent doesn't say what Dinsmore was doing in South Dakota, but it was the height of the gold rush in the Black Hills, so perhaps he had gone there to seek his fortune. (Did you know engineers with Custer, in 1874, are credited with discovering and spreading the word about the gold in those hills?) Click here for more on the Black Hills gold rush.

The difficult excursion of local citizens to the York Fair got the most coverage:

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n 1867 the York Fair was held in October, about a month later than the current September time slot.

What did those fairgoers do for fun 140 years ago? The fairgrounds, which then stretched from King Street, just east of Queen, to the Spring Garden Plank Road (Prospect Street) was a lively place.

York Fair week brings back memories of the midway when I was a child. Even though I never spent the money to go see them, I remember the hawkers and big tacky painted banners inviting fairgoers to step in and see the skinniest man, fattest lady, or whatever else they could exhibit to make a buck.

The following ad from the April 11, 1816 York Gazette illustrates how traveling showmen separated Yorkers from their money long before my memories of the 1950s:

One hundred and fifty years ago York Countians loved to have their photograph taken. The art of practical photography was less than 20 years old, but there were at least two outstanding photographers in York. We seem to hear most often about Glenalvin Goodridge, perhaps because his father William is known as the first successful African American businessman in York.

J. Thomas Williams may have been more prolific than Goodridge, judging from the examples of his work that have survived. He was also very accomplished, as attested in the following ad, which had already been running in the Gazette for at least two and a half years in the fall of 1857: