Today, the Sandwich Fair seems almost inseparable from the town itself. For generations, the days surrounding Labor Day have meant livestock and grandstands, exhibits and food, old friends and crowded fairgrounds.
But the story did not simply begin in 1888.
Long before the organization now known as the Sandwich Fair Association held its first fair, Sandwich was already a fair town. Newspapers of the 1870s were referring to local exhibitions as the “Sandwich Fair,” and many of the names appearing in those early accounts were already familiar in the civic and business life of the growing community.
What happened in 1888 was something more specific, and ultimately more lasting.
A new organization, known as the Sandwich Fair Association, began holding an annual fair that year. Over the next two decades, its directors, stockholders, exhibitors, merchants, farmers and townspeople transformed that fair into something larger than an agricultural exhibition.
By 1909, Fair Week had become Homecoming Week.
The Sandwich Fair had become a community institution.
Before 1888: Sandwich Was Already a Fair Town
Sandwich’s agricultural fair tradition reached back well before the present Fair Association.
The Union Agricultural and Mechanical Institute had sponsored agricultural exhibitions beginning in 1860, drawing farmers, livestock, machinery and exhibits to permanent grounds west of town. Its history is a story of its own, but it established something important: Sandwich had already become a regional gathering place for agriculture and competition.
By the 1870s, contemporary newspapers were also using a remarkably familiar name:
The Sandwich Fair.
The surviving accounts describe much more than a casual neighborhood gathering. They tell of premiums, livestock, exhibits, buildings, grounds, crowds and annual preparations. Local leaders including J. M. Hummel and members of the Adams family appear in the story.
The exact organizational history of these earlier fairs can be complicated. What the newspapers make clear, however, is much simpler: Sandwich had fairs known as the Sandwich Fair years before 1888.
Sandwich Fair Company Sells Out
Then, in 1883, the story took an unexpected turn.
In March, the Sandwich Fair Company sold its fair property to Diederich & Ebenger, who planned to convert the property into a tile yard. The Argus reported that the sale would “probably end the Sandwich Fair unless other parties enter the lists.”
A second newspaper account was even more definite. The twenty acre Sandwich Fairground had been sold for $3,500 and, the True Republican reported, “it ceases to be a Fair Ground from this date.”
For the moment, at least, the Sandwich Fair was over.
That distinction is important. The fairs described in Sandwich newspapers during the 1870s and early 1880s were real Sandwich Fairs, organized years before the association familiar today. But that earlier enterprise did not simply continue uninterrupted into 1888. The sale of the grounds in 1883 marked a break in the story.
From the Early Fairs to the Sandwich Fair Association
1860 — The Union Agricultural Institute held its first fair in Sandwich, beginning a local tradition of agricultural exhibitions on permanent fairgrounds west of town.
1860s–1870s — Agricultural fairs continued at the grounds, bringing together livestock, farm products, machinery, competition and entertainment.
1870s — Newspapers were already using the familiar name “Sandwich Fair” for these exhibitions.
1881 — The Sandwich Fair was still drawing exhibitors and visitors, with prominent Chicago attorney Emory A. Storrs announced to deliver the annual address.
1883 — The earlier organization came to an end and the fairgrounds were sold. The sale marked a real break in Sandwich’s fair tradition, not simply a change of name.
1888 — Local citizens organized the Sandwich Fair Association and acquired fairgrounds for a renewed fair.
September 18–21, 1888 — The Association held its “First Annual Fair.” Its surviving premium list named the officers, directors, admission prices, rules, premiums and competitions, and advertised scores of area businesses.
1888 onward — The Sandwich Fair Association established the tradition from which today’s Sandwich Fair directly descends. The Fair itself identifies 1888 as the beginning of the present institution.
The Sandwich Fair Association Enters the Picture
Five years later, Sandwich was ready to try again.
In May 1888, subscribers to shares in a newly organized Sandwich Fair Association were called to a meeting at Sandwich City Hall on June 2 for the purpose of electing directors and conducting the business necessary to get the new organization underway.
News traveled beyond Sandwich. The True Republican reported that Gustavus Walters, Dwight K. Crofoot and others had incorporated the Sandwich Fair Association and that the papers authorizing organization of the stock company had arrived from Springfield.
By July, plans had moved from organization to action. The announcement appeared for a four day fair, September 18 through 21, 1888.
And one small phrase in that announcement connected the new organization with Sandwich’s earlier fair tradition:
The Fair would be held “at the old Fair Ground.”
The Sandwich Fair Association was new. The idea of a Sandwich Fair was not.
That September, the new Association held its first fair, beginning the chapter that would grow into the enduring community institution generations of Sandwich residents know today.
That distinction matters.
The Sandwich Fair Association began in 1888.
The Sandwich Fair tradition was already here.
1888: A New Association Takes the Reins
In 1888, the newly organized Sandwich Fair Association held its first annual fair.
It did not begin in a community unfamiliar with agricultural exhibitions. Instead, it inherited a town with decades of fair going experience, and even some of the traditions associated with earlier fairs.
The first Sandwich Fair Association premium list, 1888. The booklet preserves far more than prize categories and rules, it records the officers who organized the new Fair, admission prices, competition classes, racing purses, and advertisements from the Sandwich area businesses that helped support it. Together, its pages offer a remarkable snapshot of both the first Association fair and the community surrounding it.
The Association nevertheless had to prove that its new venture could survive.
It did.
From the beginning, the Fair combined the traditional ingredients of a nineteenth century agricultural exhibition, horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, poultry, produce and domestic work, with the things that brought people through the gate: racing, baseball, music, speakers and entertainment.
A Fair That Could Draw a Crowd and a Speaker
The early Sandwich Fair was attracting more than livestock, exhibits and racing. In 1881, organizers announced that Emory A. Storrs, the prominent Chicago attorney and nationally known political orator, would deliver the annual address at the Fair. His subject was “The Transportation Problem.”
Storrs’ appearance gives some indication of the stature the Sandwich Fair had achieved by the early 1880s. This was an event capable of bringing a nationally recognized speaker to a small Illinois community.
The newspapers also reveal something that would become increasingly important.
People Came From Beyond Sandwich
Sycamore visitors were routinely mentioned. So were residents of Somonauk, Hinckley, Plano, Aurora and communities across DeKalb and neighboring counties. What had begun as a hometown event was becoming a regional gathering.
Today those places seem close. In the 1870s and 1880s, however, attending a fair in another town required considerably more time and planning. Travel might be by horse, wagon, carriage or rail, over roads and transportation networks very different from those we know today. A trip from Sycamore to Sandwich could have taken two or three hours or more The repeated appearance of visitors from surrounding communities is therefore more significant than it might first seem.
The Sandwich Fair was already drawing people beyond its hometown. It was becoming a regional gathering.
Building a Fair to Last
Success required more than a good September crowd. The Association continually invested in the grounds.
Buildings were repaired and added. Livestock facilities expanded. The race track improved. Exhibition space grew.
One building in particular became part of the Fair’s identity: Floral Hall.
There had been a Floral Hall at the earlier fairs, but by the early 1890s it could no longer accommodate the growing displays. In 1892, a striking new two story Floral Hall was erected. Measuring roughly 100 by 150 feet, it towered above the grounds and became one of the Fair’s most recognizable landmarks.
Inside, the name “Floral Hall” hardly described everything visitors encountered.
Flowers and fancy work shared space with paintings, decorated china, furniture, household goods, sewing machines, stoves, bicycles and merchandise offered by local businesses. Outside were windmills, pumps, wagons, buggies and farm machinery.
The Fair had become something resembling an annual showroom for Sandwich commerce and industry.
By 1901, a newspaper reporter walking through the grounds could encounter displays from local furniture dealers and merchants, Enterprise windmills and pumps, and an enormous exhibit from the Sandwich Manufacturing Company containing everything from hand corn shellers to large machines capable of processing thousands of bushels.
The Fair wasn’t merely showing visitors what farmers had raised.
It was showing them what Sandwich could make.
Fair Week Meant Business
As the Fair grew, so did its importance to the town economy.
Hotels filled. Restaurants served larger crowds. Merchants advertised Fair Week specials. Advance tickets were sold downtown. Churches and community organizations operated dining halls. Businesses displayed their merchandise on the grounds.
In 1890, one newspaper estimated that Fair visitors left approximately $15,000 in Sandwich during the week, a substantial sum for a town of its size.
The Fair’s economic reach extended beyond stores, hotels, and restaurants. In 1907, the Sandwich Opera House scheduled Flora DeVoss and company for the entire week of the Fair, offering a different program each night. The advertisement provides another glimpse of how local businesses and entertainment venues responded to the thousands of visitors coming to town.
Advertisement for Fora DeVoss and company at the Sandwich Opera House during Fair Week, September 9-14, 1907. From the Sandwich Argus, September 6, 1907
The Fair Association itself was a businesslike operation. Annual stockholders’ meetings elected directors, reviewed receipts and expenses, discussed debt and planned improvements for the following year.
But the goal was not simply to accumulate money.
Again and again, the records show surplus funds being put back into the grounds, new buildings, repairs, larger premiums and better attractions.
That habit of reinvestment would become one of the keys to the Fair’s longevity.
Sycamore Comes to Sandwich
Few themes appear more consistently in the newspapers than visitors from Sycamore.
In the 1870s, the relationship between fairs at Sandwich and Sycamore could be competitive. Newspapers compared attendance, finances and exhibits, sometimes with a little hometown pride thrown in.
By the 1890s, however, reports routinely noted Sycamore residents among the Sandwich crowds. Judges, educators, businessmen, county officials and other prominent citizens made the trip south.
By the early 1900s, the excursion had become something much larger.
Special trains carried hundreds of passengers from Sycamore to Sandwich. In 1902, advance reports expected as many as a thousand visitors, accompanied by a large band. Schools and businesses sometimes adjusted their schedules so people could attend.
This was no longer merely a neighboring town peeking over the fence at a rival fair.
The Sandwich Fair had become a gathering place for the county.
More Than Cattle and Corn
An early Sandwich Fair advertisement promised far more than livestock and farm exhibits. Visitors could expect balloon ascensions, speeches, races, music, bicycle races, a children’s day and even an exhibition of babies, evidence that the Fair was already becoming as much a community celebration as an agricultural exhibition.
Agriculture remained at the heart of the Fair, but the Association understood something very early:
People also wanted to be entertained.
Horse racing was a major attraction. A Sandwich Driving Association was organized in 1890 to stage races at the Fair Grounds, and the track developed a reputation well beyond town.
Baseball became another Fair Week fixture, with clubs from Sandwich, Hinckley, Paw Paw, Somonauk, Aurora and other communities meeting on the grounds.
Bands played.
Political speakers appeared.
Balloonists rose above the crowds and descended by parachute.
Some landings went better than others.
In 1895, balloonist William Weaver was seriously injured when his balloon carried him into timber. Such accidents did little to end the public appetite for aerial entertainment, and balloon ascensions continued to appear in Fair advertising.
The advertisements themselves became increasingly ambitious.
No longer simply notices announcing dates and premiums, they promised races, ball games, bands, balloon ascensions and special attractions. Photographs began appearing. Headlines grew larger.
The Fair Association was learning how to sell Fair Week.
When Disaster Struck
The grand Floral Hall built in 1892 was one of the Sandwich Fair Association’s largest early investments. Measuring 100 by 150 feet and standing two stories high, the building cost $5,000 and provided badly needed space for agricultural, floral, school, domestic and commercial exhibits.
It lasted only thirteen years.
In May 1905, Floral Hall was struck by lightning and destroyed by the resulting fire. The building was not the only loss. Chairs used in the grandstand and dining room, dishes and other equipment were stored inside, along with manure spreaders belonging to the Enterprise Company. The total loss, including the contents, was estimated at about $7,000.
The timing could hardly have been worse. After struggling through several years of rainy Fair weeks and reduced attendance, the Association had only recently become free of debt.
But there was apparently little question about whether the Fair would continue.
Within a week of the fire, the Fair Board met and decided to rebuild Floral Hall in time for the eighteenth annual Fair that September. Plans for a new horse barn were postponed so attention and resources could be directed toward replacing the destroyed exhibition building.
The new Floral Hall was different from its imposing predecessor. Rather than another two-story structure, the replacement was built entirely on one floor, providing easier access for older visitors and those who had difficulty climbing stairs. Remarkably, the new building was bid at $5,000 — the same amount the Association had spent on the original Floral Hall thirteen years earlier.
And they made their September deadline.
A Building That Stayed
The 1905 Floral Hall would prove considerably more durable than the building it replaced. Through the years its name changed along with its uses. It has been known as Floral Hall, the Women’s Exhibit Hall, Industrial Hall, the Women’s Building and other names.
Today, Sandwich Fair visitors know it best as the Home Arts Building.
The lightning strike of 1905 destroyed one of the Fair’s most important buildings in a matter of hours. What happened afterward may say even more about the organization that had taken over the Fair seventeen years earlier: within a week, they had decided to rebuild; within months, the new building was ready; and more than a century later, it is still standing.
The Fairgrounds Never Stood Still
The years after the fire brought continued improvements.
Horse barns and livestock facilities were expanded. Buildings were painted and repaired. The grandstand and track received attention. A substantial concrete horse barn was constructed as the Association increasingly replaced temporary or wooden facilities with permanent improvements.
The grounds were also useful beyond Fair Week. Horsemen leased them for training. Community organizations held gatherings there. Racing events brought crowds at other times of the year.
By the first decade of the twentieth century, the Fairgrounds had become a permanent part of Sandwich’s civic landscape.
And the Fair Association had developed a reputation for delivering what it advertised.
A 1908 newspaper account offered a wonderfully simple explanation for the Fair’s success: the Association advertised its attractions well, and then did what it said it would do.
That may be one of the best explanations for why people kept coming back.
From Fair Week to Homecoming
By the end of the decade, something had changed.
The Sandwich Fair was no longer simply an event people attended.
It was a date people built their year around.
Newspapers increasingly used the word “Homecoming.” Former residents returned to Sandwich during Fair Week. Old friends arranged to meet on the grounds. Families reunited. Businesses prepared for the crowds.
In 1909, the Sandwich Argus published a special Home Coming Edition in connection with the Fair.
One contemporary description captured the reason beautifully: for some old friends, the Sandwich Fair had become their only opportunity each year to renew acquaintances.
That may explain the Fair’s endurance better than any attendance figure or financial statement.
The livestock mattered.
The exhibits mattered.
The races, baseball games, bands and attractions mattered.
But eventually the Fair became something more.
It became the place where people expected to see one another.
By 1909, an Institution
Twenty one years after the Sandwich Fair Association held its first fair, the event had changed enormously.
The grounds had grown.
Buildings had risen, burned and been rebuilt.
Thousands of visitors arrived by horse, carriage, train and increasingly by automobile. Local manufacturers displayed their newest machinery beside livestock raised on nearby farms. Baseball clubs competed in the morning and horses raced in the afternoon. Churches fed the crowds. Bands played. Balloonists floated overhead.
And each September, Sandwich prepared to welcome everybody back.
The Fair’s story was far from finished. The next decade would bring airplanes, automobile and motorcycle racing, a new grandstand, enormous crowds and even the disruptions of a world war.
But by 1909, the essential character of the Sandwich Fair was already firmly established.
It was agricultural exhibition, entertainment, marketplace and reunion rolled into one.
It belonged to the farmers who entered their livestock and crops, the merchants who filled the exhibition halls, the directors who reinvested each year’s proceeds, and the thousands of people who simply knew that when September came, it was time to go to the Fair.
The Sandwich Fair Association began in 1888.
But the story of the Sandwich Fair began earlier.
And by the opening years of the twentieth century, the Fair had become something Sandwich would carry forward for generations:
a place to compete, a place to celebrate, and a place to come home.
More History Awaits
The story continues every day.
Follow Historic Sandwich, Illinois on Facebook for additional photographs, new discoveries, and everyday glimpses into our town’s past.
Facts at a Glance
The Sandwich Fair Association began in 1888, but Sandwich had been holding agricultural fairs for decades. From the early exhibitions of the 1860s through the older “Sandwich Fair,” the sale of the fairgrounds in 1883, and the creation of a new Association five years later, the Fair evolved into something much larger than an agricultural exhibition. By 1909, Fair Week had become part competition, part entertainment, part marketplace, and part homecoming.
Sources
- Sandwich Argus — contemporary Fair notices, advertisements, reports and special Fair/Homecoming coverage.
- True Republican (Sycamore, Illinois) — reports on the Sandwich Fair, visiting delegations, speakers, the 1883 sale of the fairgrounds and the organization of the Sandwich Fair Association.
- Contemporary Sandwich-area newspapers — Fair announcements, attendance reports, advertisements and accounts of improvements to the grounds.
- Sandwich Fair Association — historical information and surviving Fair records.
- 1888 Premium List of the First Annual Fair of the Sandwich Fair Association — Sandwich, Illinois, September 18–21, 1888.
- Historic photographs, advertisements and ephemera from the Historic Sandwich, Illinois research collection.