The Movement that Prepared the Way for the Sandwich Fair
Long before the Sandwich Fair became a celebrated annual event, the farmers and civic leaders of Sandwich were already experimenting with organized agricultural exhibitions. Beginning in 1860, local residents formed what became known as the Sandwich Agricultural Institute, later incorporated as the Union Agricultural Institute.
Through fairs, competitions, and agricultural displays, the institute sought to improve farming practices and bring the agricultural community together. Though largely forgotten today, these early institutes laid the foundation for the fair tradition that would later make Sandwich known across Illinois.
Original Fair poster on display at the Stone Mill Museum
The Founding of the Institute
On February 11, 1860, a meeting was held in Sandwich to organize an agricultural society.
The meeting was chaired by William L. F. Jones, with J. A. Dickson serving as secretary. A committee consisting of William Patten, S. Lay, J. A. Dickson, and S. Guernsey was appointed to draft a constitution for the new organization.
Later that year the group adopted the name Sandwich Agricultural Institute, and plans were made for the first fair.
The First Fair
The institute held its first fair October 16–18, 1860.
Farmers from the surrounding countryside brought livestock, produce, and agricultural products for exhibition. Though modest in scale compared to modern fairs, the event proved that Sandwich could serve as a gathering place for farmers throughout the region.
Financial records show the fair generated $400.65 in receipts, with expenses totaling $290.95, leaving a small surplus.
The First Fairgrounds
In January 1861, the institute voted to purchase twenty acres of land from J. A. Dickson, located about three quarters of a mile west of the village of Sandwich.
This land became the permanent grounds for the institute fairs. Shortly afterward the organization was incorporated under the name Union Agricultural Institute.
The incorporators included:
- William L. F. Jones
- H. F. Winchester
- Hubbard Latham
- A. H. Palmer
- A. R. Patten
- N. E. Ballou
These men represented some of the leading farmers and landowners of the area.
Early Institute Artifacts
Diplomas awarded by the Sandwich Agricultural Institute provide tangible evidence of these early fairs.
One surviving diploma from 1868 bears the signatures of President William Patten and Secretary Nathan Ballou. Another from 1878 is signed by President F. Baldwin and Secretary J. M. Hummel.
Artifacts such as these show that organized agricultural exhibitions were being held in Sandwich decades before the modern Sandwich Fair began in 1888.
Leadership of the Agricultural Institutes
During the next two decades a number of prominent Sandwich residents served as officers of the institute. Among the presidents were:
- William L. F. Jones (1862–1867; 1870–1873)
- William Patten (1868)
- C. A. Reed (1869)
- Hubbard Latham (1874–1876)
- David Harmon (1877)
- F. Baldwin (1877–1882)
- J. P. Adams (1883)
Other officers included N. E. Ballou, G. W. Culver, Amos Shepard, J. M. Hummel, and H. C. Graves.
Many of these men were also active in local business and civic affairs, reflecting the close connection between agriculture and community leadership in early Sandwich.
Founding Leadership of the Agricultural Institutes
The Agricultural Institutes of Sandwich were organized and sustained by a group of local farmers and civic leaders who believed agriculture could be improved through education, cooperation, and competition. Many of these men were also active in business, land development, and community leadership, demonstrating how closely agriculture was tied to the growth of Sandwich in its early years.
William L. F. Jones
Jones chaired the organizational meeting of the agricultural society in 1860 and served multiple terms as president of the institute. His leadership helped guide the early fairs and establish Sandwich as a regional center for agricultural exhibitions.
J. A. Dickson
Dickson served as secretary of the founding meeting and later sold twenty acres of land west of Sandwich to the institute in 1861, providing the first permanent fairgrounds for the organization.
William Patten
A prominent landowner and civic leader, Patten served as president of the institute in 1868. He helped shape Sandwich’s industrial growth by selling property on Main Street to Augustus Adams for the early buildings of the Sandwich Manufacturing Company.
G. W. Culver
Culver served as treasurer of the institute for many years and helped manage the finances of the agricultural fairs that brought farmers together from throughout the region.
Julius Montgomery Hummel
Later well known as a Sandwich merchant and civic leader, Hummel served as secretary of the institute from 1877 to 1881. His involvement shows how the agricultural movement was supported not only by farmers but also by the town’s business community.
Together these men and their colleagues created the agricultural exhibitions that prepared the way for the Sandwich Fair.
The Institute Fairs
Throughout the 1860s and 1870s the institute organized annual fairs featuring livestock exhibitions, produce displays, agricultural machinery, and horse racing events.
These gatherings brought farmers together from across the region and provided opportunities to exchange ideas about farming methods, crop varieties, and livestock breeding.
Although the fairs were smaller than those of later years, they represented an important step in the development of organized agricultural exhibitions in northern Illinois.
The End of the Institute Era
The institute continued holding fairs through the early 1880s. However, in March 1883 the fairgrounds were sold to Dieterich & Ebinger, bringing the institute fairs to an end.
For several years afterward no agricultural fairs were held in Sandwich.
Preparing the Way for the Sandwich Fair
Although the Agricultural Institutes disappeared in the 1880s, the tradition they established did not.
In 1888, local citizens organized the Sandwich Fair Association, reviving the idea of an annual agricultural exhibition in the community.
The new fair organization was separate from the earlier institutes, but it clearly grew from the same agricultural spirit and leadership that had guided the institute fairs for more than two decades.
In that sense, the Agricultural Institutes were the true pioneers of the Sandwich Fair tradition.
Timeline of the Agricultural Institutes
February 11, 1860 – Agricultural society organized in Sandwich
October 1860 – First institute fair held
January 1861 – Twenty acres purchased west of town for fairgrounds
1861 – Organization incorporated as Union Agricultural Institute
1863–1874 – Institute fairs held annually
1877–1882 – Institute reorganized and fairs resumed
March 1883 – Fairgrounds sold; institute fairs discontinued
1888 – Sandwich Fair Association established
From Agricultural Institutes to the Sandwich Fair
By the early 1880s the Agricultural Institutes of Sandwich had operated for more than twenty years, bringing farmers together through exhibitions, competitions, and agricultural fairs. Though the institute grounds were sold in 1883 and the fairs temporarily ceased, the tradition they established had already taken root in the community.
The institutes had demonstrated that Sandwich could successfully host large agricultural gatherings and that farmers across the region welcomed the opportunity to meet, compete, and share ideas.
Just five years later, in 1888, local citizens organized the Sandwich Fair Association, establishing the fair that continues today.
In many ways the Sandwich Fair did not begin in 1888, it grew from the agricultural spirit and leadership that the institutes had cultivated for nearly three decades.
The story of the Sandwich Fair truly begins with the men and the movement behind the Agricultural Institutes.
Sources
- History of DeKalb County, Illinois (1877)
- Past and Present of DeKalb County, Illinois (1905)
- Agricultural Institute diplomas, 1868 and 1878, private collection
- Union Agricultural Institute fair poster, 1873, Stone Mill Museum
- Early Sandwich newspaper accounts of the Agricultural Institutes and fairs