Boston’s Country Fair (episode 338)

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Jake:
[0:04] Welcome to Hub History, where we go far beyond the freedom trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the Hub of the Universe.

Welcome to Hub History

Jake:
[0:13] This is episode 338, Boston’s Country Fair.

Jake:
[0:19] Hi, I’m Jake, and this week I’m talking about farming and fairs. Before the Topps Field Fair, or the Big E, or any of the big fairs up in Sandwich, or Deerfield, New Hampshire, or Union, Maine, there was a grand national exhibition of stock held at a purpose-built fairground right here in Boston. This event set the blueprint for big regional fairs like the Eastern States Exposition that we know is the Big E. It helped jumpstart the popularity of harness racing in New England and around the country. And it, indirectly, inspired the creation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In this week’s episode, we’re going to take a look at what it took to create a sprawling fairground in a peninsular city that didn’t have a lot of open space. We’ll learn a bit about why exhibitions like this were so important to 19th century farmers. And we’ll see how the visitor experience of Boston’s 1855 country fair compares to today’s big regional fairs.

The Importance of Agricultural Fairs

Jake:
[1:18] But before we talk about Boston’s big country fair, I just want to pause and say a big thank you to everybody who supports Hub History financially.

Jake:
[1:27] The other night, I was invited to speak to a college writing class about podcasting, and one of the questions the students asked me was why I chose podcasting, and specifically an audio-only podcast format. There are a lot of answers to that, but one of them is that the barrier to entry in podcasting is a lot less than a lot of other media. All you really need to get started is a quiet room, a USB microphone, a cheap pair of headphones, and an idea.

Jake:
[1:56] While it’s way more affordable than, say, a Hollywood movie production, podcasting isn’t exactly free. There are ongoing expenses, like the cost of podcast media hosting, AI tools for transcription and summary, a remote recording tool for interviews, website hosting and security, and, of course, access to archives for research. There are also one-time expenses. And the biggest one-time expense that’s on my horizon right now is a new laptop, because the one I’ve been using for about seven years now has gotten to the point that it crashes multiple times while I’m editing every episode. Your support is what pays for all those expenses. Whether you give one-time support on PayPal, or you can swing an ongoing monthly commitment of $2, $5, or even $20 or more each month. To everybody who’s already supporting the show, thank you. If you’re not yet supporting the show and you’d like to start, it’s easy. Just go to patreon.com slash hubhistory, or visit hubhistory.com and click on the Support Us link. And thanks again to all our new and returning sponsors.

Jake:
[3:09] 170 years ago this week, thousands of Bostonians flocked to a brand new fairground to witness a brand new type of fair. Now, maybe a handful of people had taken a train out to Springfield a couple years before to see the cattle show that had been held there. Or maybe somebody had gone to one of the little local fairs in Pittsfield, but this was something different. At a time when farming was still one of the main drivers of the American economy, holding a grand agricultural exhibition in the largest city in the region, and arguably the most learned city in the nation, was a big deal. The fair opened on October 23, 1855, and the next morning, the New York Herald reported on it under the dateline, Special Dispatch to the New York Herald, Grounds of the U.S. Agricultural Society. The third annual exhibition of the United States Agricultural Society opened at 10 o’clock this morning, and the presence of delegates from 15 or 20 states, and it includes a greater show of cattle and horses than has ever been given previously in the world. There were only 31 states in 1855, so 15 or 20 of those is a pretty good turnout. And if a New York paper was willing to make such a bold claim about a Boston event, you’d know they were impressed.

Jake:
[4:29] Still, while it may be a bit overly exuberant to claim that it was the largest such exposition that had ever been held ever anywhere in the history of the world, well, it was the grandest agricultural fair to be held in the U.S. Up to that point, so we’ll give them some leeway for their reporting. The article continues, At 10 o’clock, the Honorable Marshall P. Wilder of Massachusetts, president of the society, appeared on the judge’s stand and said, Fellow citizens, I have the pleasure to announce that the third annual exhibition of the United States Agricultural Society is open, and will continue during the week. The band will give the customary salute, and the cavalcade will move on while the band plays the national air. A cavalcade was then formed, headed by the Chief Marshal, General Tyler, and several of his aides. There were over 300 horses in the cavalcade, some in harness, some lead, and some under the saddle. There were some fine-matched pairs. The scene was quite inspiring. The great area was well-filled in every part. The procession was at once novel and curious. The weather was delicious. There were a great many pretty women and any quantity of American flags.

Jake:
[5:52] In the show notes this week, you’ll see a painting that represents this moment. Wilder and his assorted dignitaries lead the cavalcade astride beautiful horses, doffing their top hats to the crowd. The painter’s attention lingered on the women in the crowd that the New York Herald mentioned, smiling beatifically in their neat dresses and bonnets. They take up one side of the foreground, with rows of onlookers in the stands behind them, while sheep, cattle, and horses mill around on the other side, reminding the viewer that this was a livestock fair. Between them is the cavalcade, with the towering judges’ stand behind the riders. It’s a grand opening that gives the impression of being truly grand, so I can see why the reporter got excited.

Jake:
[6:39] Honestly, from the headlines, it seems like all of Boston was excited. When the fair opened on that Tuesday morning, tourists and locals alike started pouring into the South End to see it. Some walked, but many of them rode in specially marked omnibuses, a type of horse-drawn public transit that looked like an oversized stagecoach. With Boston’s first horse-drawn streetcars still about a year away, the organizers had arranged a special six-cent omnibus fare to take people to the gates of the fair.

Jake:
[7:11] Upon arrival, visitors would purchase a ticket at one of 20 ticket windows next to the Grand Entrance Archway, and they’d step through those gates into the fairground. The next day’s Worcester Daily spy describes the scene that greeted visitors as they entered. On the right of the main entrance are seats for 10,000 people, erected in the most substantial manner, and capable of supporting a much greater weight than it will be possible to put upon them. From these seats, a fine view of the whole field can be obtained. The Judge’s Stand will early attract the attention of the visitor. This is a large octagon tower, 70 feet high, with a piazza running all around the same on the ground line, making this floor 20 feet square and 2 feet up from the ground, to be occupied by the judges and to be called the Judge’s Stand. Just south of the tower is a music stand made in the Gothic style. This will be occupied each day during the continuance of the fair by an excellent band of music.

Jake:
[8:15] I’ll include a panoramic lithograph of the fairground in the show notes this week that does a better job of laying out how all these structures fit together than that first painting does.

Jake:
[8:26] The article continues, Four water temples of the same style of architecture as the tower are erected at different points of the green inside the racetrack. At these, the multitude will be enabled to slake their thirst with pure Cassituate. Pure Cassituate, of course, is a reference to Boston’s newly established supply of plentiful, clean drinking water from the Cassituate Reservoir. Go back to episode 293 to learn more about why that reservoir was so desperately needed and how it was constructed. In the middle of the fairground was a large racetrack, big enough for a single lap to encompass a half mile. The space in the center wasn’t wasted, however. Much like the infield that many NASCAR tracks is used for RV camping, the infield at the Boston Fair was used for hospitality as well. With the Worcester Spy article continuing, Across the track and between that and the cattle pens is another large tent. Beneath which Mr. Right has provided tables and the other necessary paraphernalia for feeding the multitudes from day to day. Across the track and between that and the cattle pens is another large tent, beneath which Mr. Right has provided tables and the other necessary paraphernalia for feeding the multitudes from day to day. This arrangement will enable a person to remain on the ground all day if he so chooses.

Jake:
[9:54] Each of these tents will be designated by a large sign showing the purpose for which it’s used.

Jake:
[10:00] The spy also makes a big point of listing the amenities meant for women in the audience. Next is a very tasty round tent. This is for the ladies. Within it, Mr. George Copeland has a stand to supply the ladies with such refreshments as they may want. In the rear of this, there’s a tent which will be used as a drawing room for the ladies, where, with the assistance of an officiating maid, bonnets and collars and curls may be becomingly adjusted, if disarranged within the throng. Also, above the judge’s stand, there’s a third story, which will be occupied by ladies. Between that paragraph, and the New York Herald’s description of pretty women in the audience, and the loving detail given to the women in the painting of the opening cavalcade, I was a bit confused by all the attention given to women around this event. The 1850s were not an era that otherwise gave a lot of attention or agency to women. I finally realized that these were not-so-subtle hints that this fair was intended to be a wholesome, family-friendly event. This differentiated it from the rough-and-tumble reputation of the livestock market at the Brighton Cattle Fair, that had been in operation for a couple of decades at that time, and was not at all family-friendly. You can hear more about Brighton’s cowboy past in episode 99.

Jake:
[11:27] The Grand Exhibition in Boston followed the model of a county fair, which had been basically invented by a retired banker named Elkanah Watson. After leaving the Bank of Albany, Watson moved to Massachusetts, and he raised Moreno sheep. In 1807, he held a public exhibition of his sheep in Pittsfield, and it became a hit with the public. Building on this interest, Watson organized a much larger cattle show in 1810, which went on to become an annual event. This led to the formation of the Berkshire Agricultural Society in 1811, which then formally sponsored the expanded fair. The fair went beyond a mere display of livestock into a public competition, with prizes for stock and domestic manufactured goods, and it featured parades, speeches, and activities designed to engage the entire community, including women and children, thereby serving as a prototype for the modern county fair.

Jake:
[12:34] In a 1937 article for the journal Agricultural History, Lyman Carrier describes how plans for a Grand National Agricultural Fair evolved from a simple roadside exhibit of Merino sheep into the traditional country fair, and then into state boards that promoted agriculture. Following the example and eminent leadership of Elkanah Watson, agricultural fairs became an important and popular feature of the activities of the various agricultural societies. In 1819, the New York legislature appropriated $10,000 for the use of the county agricultural societies in promoting agriculture. The practice spread, and soon other states were given financial assistance to aid farm exhibitions. By 1840, nearly all the states had state agricultural societies or boards of agriculture, as they They were generally called.

Jake:
[13:33] While the exhibition in Boston ended up being focused almost entirely on livestock, and, as we’ll see, most of the daily newspapers covered the event as though it was purely a horse and harness racing show, the original vision for the Grand Expo included more diverse agricultural exhibits, like you’d see at a typical country fair today. The Buffalo Courier Express reported, The Honorable M.P. Wilder, President of the United States Agricultural Society, has made application for the use of a plot of ground of 40 acres near Boston, on which to hold a grand National Agricultural Exhibition in October next. It is proposed to have, in connection with the show of fruits, flowers, implements, cattle, etc., a magnificent horse exhibition, which shall exceed an extent and beauty that had Springfield two or three years since. In that original vision, the horse exhibition was just a background character to the leading lady of fruits, flowers, and other agricultural products. I know that when I go to a country fair, I love to wander the exhibit halls to see the entries for largest pumpkin, best pickles, jams, pure local honey, all that kind of stuff.

Jake:
[14:52] A month later, when the Daily National Intelligencer and Washington, D.C. Express covered plans for the fair on September 25th, livestock was the only type of exhibit that was even in the conversation.

Jake:
[15:05] The previous exhibitions of this society, at Springfield, Massachusetts in 1853, and at Springfield, Ohio in 1854, were eminently successful, and no efforts will be spared to make the present show, combining as it does the four great departments of farming and stock, superior to its predecessors. It is earnestly hoped that all breeders and owners of fine stock will feel it to be a duty, as it certainly is for their interest to contribute to the show.

Jake:
[15:37] Of course, before these national exhibitions could be staged at Springfield, Mass. And Springfield, Ohio, there had to be some sort of national organization to plan them. Lyman Carrier’s 1937 article goes on to describe how Massachusetts led the way. The organization of the United States Agricultural Society resulted from a resolution passed by the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, which was then endorsed by 11 similar boards. The several state organizations were invited to send delegates to a meeting in Washington, D.C. The response was favorable, and 153 delegates from 23 states met on June 14, 1851, to effect formal organization. Among the delegates present were several members of Congress, including Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, and Thomas J. Rusk of Texas.

Jake:
[16:35] President Fillmore attended the meeting. The venerable George Washington Park Custis of Arlington House, Virginia, which is Martha Washington’s grandson and Robert E. Lee’s father-in-law, was also one of the organizers. Chief credit, however, is due to Marshall P. Wilder of Massachusetts, who served as the society’s president for six years. The annual meetings of the United States Agricultural Society were all held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Under its auspices, eight national agricultural fairs were staged in different parts of the country. The first at Springfield, Massachusetts.

Jake:
[17:18] As we mentioned, the second National Agricultural Fair was held in Springfield, Ohio. And after that, the U.S. Agricultural Society started looking for a venue not named Springfield for the third exhibition. As part of their glowing coverage of the first day of the show, the New York Herald reported that it was first intended that the exhibition should take place in Philadelphia, and the citizens of that village guaranteed that $10,000 should be forthcoming to meet the expenses. But Mr. Wilder, the president, thought that Boston, though not quite so large as Philadelphia, could do something better than this. And he personally waited upon 40 Boston merchants, each of whom pledged himself to see the society through to the amount of $500, making $20,000 in all. Thus, the society has guaranteed this sum for the expenses. If the receipts come up to the expectations of the society, these gentlemen will not be called upon for assent. But if there is a deficit, they agree to make it up to the amount stated above.

Jake:
[18:24] Not only did Boston double Philly’s offer to underwrite expenses, the National Daily Intelligencer in Washington, D.C. Express of September 25th mentions the grand fairground that Boston threw in for free. $20,000 have been guaranteed by patriotic gentlemen of Boston and its vicinity to defray expenses. The city of Boston is generously granted to the society for present use a fine public square of 50 acres. and $10,000 will be offered in premiums in the various departments. Premiums in the various departments just means cash prizes to be awarded to each race winner or the best in breed for each livestock category, with the August 30th New York Times reiterating the premiums or prizes ranging from $25 to $300 amount in the aggregate to over $10,000. A larger sum, we believe, than has ever been offered at a single exhibition in this country. So, where did this 50-acre fairground come from? As I might have mentioned a few times before, early Boston didn’t exactly have a surplus of empty land.

peninsula:
[19:37] Militia units from around New England streamed into Cambridge and Roxbury to keep the British regulars trapped in the peninsular town of Boston. Boston transformed itself from a tiny town on a peninsula to a sprawling city. It was a small, densely populated city on a tiny, mitten-shaped peninsula. The tiny Chalmette Peninsula that comprised Boston. Before Boston was expanded by filling the salt marshes that surrounded the Chalmette Peninsula. John Winthrop and his Puritan followers settled on the tiny peninsula they called Boston. Back when Boston was a tiny village on the Chalmette Peninsula. The only road leading off the peninsula of Boston. New England militias rushed to surround Boston and trap the British regulars within the peninsular town.

Jake:
[20:15] Luckily for the U.S. Agricultural Society, this was a time of tremendous change in Boston.

Jake:
[20:22] In 1848, the city decided to fill in the mudflats and tidal pools of the Back Bay, and that plan would formally begin in 1856. But by 1855, there were already efforts underway to create new land on either side of the old Boston Neck. Our 50-acre fairground was on newly created land located southwest of the Neck itself, where part of the old South Bay had been filled in. The October 24th Worcester Daily Spy gives us a more precise location. The exhibition grounds embrace attractive land bounded by Harrison Avenue, Brookline, Albany, and Chester Streets. This lot has been enclosed with a close-bored fence 10 feet high. The main entrance is on Harrison Avenue, opposite Franklin Square. Since 1855, Chester Street has been renamed Massachusetts Avenue. And that end of Brookline is now East Brookline Street. But Harrison Avenue and Albany Street haven’t gone anywhere.

Jake:
[21:26] In an 1858 map that I’ll link to in the show notes, you can see that this part of the South End was still undeveloped on either side of Harrison Avenue. Assuming that the fairgrounds went right to the water’s edge at the old South Bay Channel that’s basically marked by Melnea Cass today, and that the main entrance was right next to Franklin Square, We get a rectangular fairground taking up about seven blocks of the South End, from East Brookline Street to Mass Ave, between Albany and Harrison.

Jake:
[21:57] Somehow, I still haven’t released an episode about landmaking in Boston, which was always one of my favorite things to talk about back in my tour guide days. However, if you want to hear me talk about it elsewhere, you can check out my interview with Lee Stabert on her Explain Boston to Me podcast from January of this year. And if you don’t want to interrupt your listening experience right now, I’ll let the New York Herald of October 24th, 1855, described the transformation of the South End during this period. The ground is near what used to be called, in my days of youth and adolescence, Roxbury Neck, at the southern extremity of the peninsula upon which Boston is situated. But as the flats on either side have been generally filled up, there is no Neck now. But on each side of Washington Street above Dover, where there were formerly nothing but inodorous marshes covered at times with mud and bilge water. We now have fine, hard streets, spacious squares with trees which will be of some account by and by, fountains that play when the constituent is plentiful enough to make such a luxury possible, and fine blocks of houses occupied by solid citizens.

Jake:
[23:12] Taking a Canton Street omnibus from the head of State Street, we ride on Washington Street a mile and a half, or thereabouts, and get out at Franklin Square. Passing through to Harrison Avenue, we arrive at the Grand Entrance, for which has been erected a gateway. Two Italian towers, 40 feet in height, with an arch springing from the center. On each side of the towers are spacious ante rooms and ticket offices. From the summit of the towers, the national incident is displayed. The whole area is surrounded by a substantial fence, 12 feet in height. The land is all newly made and was filled in with gravel and soil, brought by a railway from Quincy, some seven miles distant. The society graded it at an expense of $14,000.

Jake:
[24:01] The Worcester Daily spy adds a few details to the New York Herald’s description, saying, As the visitor approaches the ground from Franklin Square, the first thing that attracts his attention is the beautiful arch, which spans the entrance and which is supported by two noble towers, 40 feet in height. Over these towers wave the stars and stripes. The arch bears the simple inscription, U.S. Agricultural Society. On either side of the entrance are windows for the sale of tickets. There are 20 of these, so that no delay need be apprehended in procuring tickets. Further south, there’s another entrance, over which a plain arch has been erected. Visitors with tickets will be admitted here also.

Jake:
[24:48] So we have a description of a seven-block-long fairground surrounded by a 12-foot-tall board fence to keep people from wandering in without buying tickets, and two visitor entrances. Inside the fence was a large, level tract of land that the Vermont Phoenix of Brattleboro reminds us was reclaimed from Neptune’s sway by the process of filling with gravel. That’s a recipe for a dust storm. When the Back Bay Landfill Project got fully underway, there would be watering carts to try to control the dust from the newly made land. And in the long run, houses would cover nearly all the ground and prevent dust from annoying the new residents.

Jake:
[25:30] None of that was possible on a fairground, however. Ironically, Boston didn’t get the non-livestock agricultural exhibits that a lot of fairs have. You know, your tallest corn stalk and heaviest head of broccoli or your largest sunflower head. However, through an attempt to control the dust on the fairgrounds, the Boston Expo did manage to break one record for cultivation, as the October 6th edition of the Springfield Weekly Republican relates. The grounds on which the annual fair of the state’s agricultural society is to be held in Boston, 50 acres in extent, were sown to oats a few weeks since and now present a fine appearance. The expedient was resorted to as a means of avoiding dust. This journal regards it as a noteworthy fact that the largest oat field in New England is within the corporate limits of its oldest city, and that it’s probably the last field of oats that will ever be sown in that city. On the same page of the Republican as that story, I stumbled across a brief notice of the progress of the boys of the state reformatory for the year, tallying up how many had graduated or gotten jobs, and the one boy who’d been accepted to college.

Jake:
[26:46] The single paragraph includes one detail that helps explain how the fairgrounds got graded and seeded and enclosed in a fence. More than 200 boys have been apprenticed from the state reform school since the spring, and but one has run away for the year. 150 more are hired by the State Agricultural Society. This veritable army of juvenile offenders is only obliquely referred to in a piece in the August 30th New York Times. The Boston authorities have undertaken the preparation of the ground, which consists of about 50 acres, and a large force are now at work fencing it in, building seats for 10,000 persons, and arranging a half-mile track for the trials of horses.

Jake:
[27:33] Less than a week before the Grand Exhibition was scheduled to open, the Springfield Daily Republican took stock of the fairgrounds and the structures, and the city’s general support for the event, in an article on October 19, 1855. The preparations for the exhibition at Boston next week, under the auspices of the National Agricultural Society, are on a scale of liberal magnificence never before approached. The result can hardly fail to be commensurate and to crown with new laurels the worthy and enthusiastic president of the society, Colonel Marshall P. Wilder, and his laborious assistants. Of the extent of the grounds, of their various accommodations, of their superb track for horses, one of the finest ever laid out in this country, of the magnificent scale of premiums offered for the various classes of animals, Horses, bulls, oxen, cows, sheep, and swine. And of the order of exercises during the week of the exhibition, previous editorials and advertisements have fully informed our readers.

Jake:
[28:39] So far, all the preparations we’ve covered have been intended for the human attendees of the exhibition, but you can’t have a stock show without some sort of accommodations for livestock. As part of their coverage of the opening day of the fair on October 23rd, the Worcester Daily spy described those accommodations the next day. On the left of the main entrance, the stalls for horses commence, and they and the cattle stalls are continued round the entire enclosure, until they reach the southerly end of the seats on Harrison Avenue. There are between 600 and 700 of them. The stalls for horses are furnished with doors and substantial locks. Each breed of horses and cattle will be arranged in a distinct department, designated by a large sign raised over the stalls.

Jake:
[29:28] The ranges for the sheep and swine are erected on the northeast corner of the lot. They are substantial pens with roofs to protect the animals from the weather. For the purpose of showing the horses to the best advantage, a fine track, 40 feet wide and a half mile in length, has been prepared. It is of an oval form with no sharp corners and is rolled smooth and hard. The panoramic lithograph that I mentioned a few minutes ago also includes detailed drawings of the barns around the outside of the fairgrounds. Some of them disappear into the distance, but the ones that are close enough to read are labeled thoroughbreds, stallions, ponies, and middle-wooled sheep.

Jake:
[30:14] This same article includes a detail that helps to explain why there are so many extremely detailed stories about this event in so many different newspapers.

The Grand Exhibition of 1855

Jake:
[30:24] Describing a reporter’s tent, the article continues, This will be furnished with tables and chairs, paper, pens, ink, envelopes, and in fact everything to facilitate the labors of the reporters. A messenger will leave the tent every half hour from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. To carry the copy for the different offices in the city and the letters of reporters from abroad to the post office.

Jake:
[30:52] There would be plenty of excitement for the reporters to write about, with each day’s calendar just packed with events. On Tuesday, October 23rd, the exhibition kicked off with Marshall Wilder’s Welcome to the Crowd, and then the Grand Cavalcade of 300 Splendid Horses. After the cavalcade, there was an exhibition of cattle, and then a horse race among stallions, and then exhibits of more cattle, ponies, and mares, and the first day closed with a harness race. There was a similar plan for Wednesday, which was supposed to open with another cavalcade, another race among stallions on the track, and then the first premium, or prize, would be awarded. This one for the highest quality cattle herd. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had different plans, with the Brattleboro Phoenix reporting, The neat stock, sheep, and swine on exhibition was not large, but the specimens were all of the highest order in their respective classes. The rain of Wednesday, and the consequent muddy approaches to the stalls, prevented as thorough an examination of this department as we could have wished. But we never saw better stock or so little unworthy of notice as at this exhibition. The weather during the exhibition was as favorable as could have been expected at this late season of the year, and was generally comfortable, with the exception of Wednesday, when the rain poured in torrents all day, compelling the management to postpone that day’s program entirely. Entirely.

Jake:
[32:18] The official record of the expo, as published in the next edition of the Journal of the National Agricultural Society, explains how the organizers tried to make use of the time that they lost to the weather. During the day, there were no visitors on the ground, except exhibitors and gentlemen serving on committees. A few more adventurous committeemen made their examinations, but most of them postponed this duty until they could have more favorable weather. At one o’clock, the officers and their guests, with the committees, dined together. After dinner, Mr. Wilder, the president, briefly expressed his regrets at the unpropitious state of the weather, which rendered it necessary to postpone the program for the day. But he urged all to keep up good courage, and said he, We shall come out right yet, and we mean to stay here and have a good time in fair weather before we get through. This announcement was received with much applause. The weather cleared overnight, and visitors returned to the muddy but much less dusty fairground on Thursday. The program for that morning called for exhibitions of working oxen and draft horses, a harness race of matched teams, and then that afternoon there was to be a parade, as reported by the New York Herald. On Thursday, all the schoolchildren will have a half-holiday, and the Boston Regiment, with the drum corps of the 7th Regiment, will parade.

Jake:
[33:41] Colonel’s somebody is to give them a standard, and the excitement excitement in sarcastic quotes there, will be extensive. It seems queer to New Yorkers, doubtless, that the feminine and infantile world here should be so much interested in a regimental parade, when a Broadway bell wouldn’t walk half a block to see a whole division of militia. But so it is. On Saturday, there’s to be a regatta. There will be lots of strangers in town, and they will spend a great deal of money. Boston will be jubilant, and the country for the present is presumed to be safe.

Jake:
[34:16] Friday morning started out with another grand cavalcade, and then a harness race between Trotting Horses of Celebrity, followed by Volunteer Trials of Speed, which probably means open track time for amateur races. And finally, the day culminated with a Grand Agricultural Banquet in the Great Tent, which was described in the fair wrap-up that the Brattleboro Phoenix published a few days later. The ball was set in motion by the President, Honorable Marshall P. Wilder, who welcomed those assembled to the exhibition and its festive gatherings in a neat and very appropriate speech. Governor Gardner followed in reply to a sentiment complimentary to Massachusetts and her institutions, and Mayor Smith in response to a call upon the city of Boston. Governor Hoppin answered for Rhode Island, and Mr. Landreth for the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture. The latter gentleman concluded his remarks by introducing Morton McMichael Esquire, editor of the Philadelphia North American, who made one of the most perfect speeches to which we ever had the pleasure of listening. At its close, he was greeted by six rounds of hearty cheering. He was followed by the Honorable John C. Gray, Robert C. Winthrop, and Edward Everett.

Jake:
[35:32] In their story on the closing banquet, the Louisville Daily Courier of October 31st confirms the enthusiasm of the speakers while sneaking in one tiny sectional gripe. The speeches were very excellent. That by Mr. Winthrop was particularly fine. Among the long list of premiums awarded, we do not notice one given to a person west of New York, which shows that the west was not represented in the convention.

Jake:
[35:59] Perhaps these editors were upset that after shows in Springfield, Mass. And Springfield, Ohio, the third Grand Exhibition was not held in their very own Springfield, Kentucky. With the Grand Agricultural Banquet having been held on Friday, and local blue laws preventing much at all from happening on Sunday, Saturday, October 27th marked a fairly low-key end to the Grand Exhibition. There was one last harness race, a little more open track time, and most of the rest of the day was devoted to stock sales by auction on the fairgrounds. After that, exhibitors could ship any unsold livestock back home for free. A press release about a week before the fair announced that the U.S. Agricultural Society had arranged free return fares to New York, Albany, Detroit, Chicago, and on most of the regional rail lines around New England. This helped ensure that there were plenty of fine animals for the judges to examine during the fair, since exhibitors didn’t have to worry about the cost of getting their livestock back home if they didn’t sell on that Saturday.

Jake:
[37:03] So lots of Bostonians had a good time, and some farmers got cash prizes, while others were able to auction off their stock on Saturday. But that’s not the only reason we remember Boston’s Grand Exhibition of 1855. As I was researching this episode, I found that some scholars linked the U.S. Agricultural Society generally, and this expo specifically for creating demand for the federal government to get involved in promoting scientific agriculture and with helping to popularize harness racing in America.

Jake:
[37:35] Harness racing, it’s one of those things that shows just how much culture can change over time. This is a sport where usually a single horse pulls a driver on a tiny lightweight cart or chariot called a sulky. The horses have to maintain a specific gait, either the trot or the pace, over a one-mile course. I want to do a whole show about harness racing at some point, because there were dozens of tracks around the Boston area at the turn of the last century. Including right here in my own neighborhood. Despite its popularity a century ago, trotting’s almost forgotten today, even in areas where horse racing is still popular. By the time of the 1855 Expo, enthusiasm for harness racing was on the rise in much of the country, but Boston was lagging. And the city the Puritans built, blue laws and social mores kept activities from gaining traction that promoted gambling, like trotting and really any form of horse racing. However, a week of highly publicized and publicly supported harness racing would help turn the tide. In a 1953 paper published in the journal Agricultural History, John Rickards Betts describes the role of agricultural fairs like the one held in Boston and starting the craze for harness racing.

Jake:
[38:56] Prior to the late 1840s, the farming community gave slight encouragement to the coterie of racing enthusiasts, while agricultural journals looked askance at speed trials as a practice foreign to the interests of farmers and repulsive to good Christians. Showings of sheep, hogs, and other stock, and demonstrations of new developments in planting, tilling, harvesting, housework, domestic arts, and agricultural machinery attracted most of local farmers to the exhibitions of these early decades. But during the 1840s, state fairs came to the fore, railroads made it possible for crowds to come from a distance, and astute promoters began to capitalize on every means of luring patrons. The plowing match became an annual event and one of the great attractions, whereby the farmer was not only able to compare the latest improvement of each manufacturer, but also to test his skill against that of his neighbor.

Jake:
[39:55] Along with minstrel shows and sideshows, which began to clog the midways of the larger fairs, the race course became an ever more prominent fixture in the 1850s. By the early 1850s, the speed trial was permitted at more and more fairs, often defended on the ground of scientific breeding, often endured as a gait attraction. Trotting came to the fore both as an adjunct of and a stimulus to the agricultural exhibition. Although the early accounts of county and state societies gave little or no account of speed trials, perhaps in deference to the scruples of many members, records of premiums and purses crept into the annual financial reports.

Jake:
[40:40] That framing fits with what we’ve already heard about the expo in Boston. Remember that the early plans for the event envisioned a show of fruits, flowers, implements, cattle, etc. And then consider how almost all the coverage in the national and regional papers focused on just one aspect of the show. The horses.

Jake:
[41:01] In a post-event wrap-up published on November 3, 1855, the Vermont Phoenix explains how the focus tightened even further, from horses of all types to the trotters who dominated Boston’s half-mile track. The chief attractions of the exhibition centered in the horses, of which a large number were entered from all parts of New England, New York, and Canada. From this state, the number of horses, chiefly of Morgan extraction, was large, and their merits elicited very general commendation. The most exciting feature of the exhibition, and the one which commanded the presence of the vast multitudes assembled, notwithstanding the chilliness of the atmosphere, was the trotting, with which the track was mostly occupied.

Jake:
[41:49] In his 1953 article, Betts continues, Frequent testimony was given to the fact that the crowd was attracted by the feverish interest in the races. While many contests were held for thoroughbreds, the predominant number of premiums and purses was allotted to trotters and pacers, demonstrating even further the interest of farmers and town folk alike. At the United States Agricultural Society’s exhibition in Boston in 1855, races were held and the cultivator admitted that the fact cannot be denied that it is this which draws such a crowd. Much of the advance achieved by county and state societies in the promotion of annual fairs was directly due to the immense appeal of harness racing.

Jake:
[42:37] Just two years after Boston’s Expo proved the popularity of harness racing locally, the first local racetrack opened in Saugus in 1857, followed by another in Medford in 1866. In the years that followed, more opened, in the Reedville section of Hyde Park, in Brighton, East Boston, the South End, Alston, North Cambridge, Canton, Foxborough, and many more. The other surprising effect of the U.S. Agricultural Society and its grand exhibitions was the creation of a cabinet-level federal department to promote American agriculture. Today, the USDA does everything from overseeing food safety in the U.S. To managing millions of acres of national forests. Rather than trying to explain the connections myself, I’m just going to read a big chunk of Lyman Carrier’s 1937 article about the creation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Jake:
[43:33] The United States Agricultural Society played an important part in securing two outstanding enactments by Congress. The first was the Land-Grant Act for the support of Colleges of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and the second was the law creating the United States Department of Agriculture. Historians of the agricultural colleges have failed to give much credit to this society for having any connection with their creation, but the facts speak for themselves. In dealing with the events which led up to the organization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it’s necessary to consider another governmental department which was once quite active in agricultural matters.

Jake:
[44:14] Commencing in 1837, the United States Patent Office began to distribute seeds and plants of species new or rare. The move was favorably received, and in 1839, Congress began to support the work with small appropriations. Agricultural correspondence took up a large amount of space in the reports of the Patent Office. Finally, a division of agriculture was organized in that office. At the organizational meeting of the United States Agricultural Society in 1852, one of the speakers announced that the ultimate purpose of the organizers was the establishment of a National Department of Agriculture, with a cabinet officer at its head. Despite the protests of those who thought the society should confine its activities strictly to farming problems, the subject of a federal Department of Agriculture was discussed at every annual meeting. A search through the agricultural press of the time fails to show any urgent demand for such a department from any other source. Strong political influence must have been brought to bear on the Congress, for the United States Department of Agriculture was created in 1862, with a commissioner at its head who was directly responsible to the President of the United States.

Jake:
[45:31] So our 1855 exhibition sparked some lasting change in America,

Lasting Changes in Agriculture

Jake:
[45:35] between our taste in sports betting and government oversight of our scientific agriculture efforts. But was it actually a success? After all, the city had loaned the organizers a huge chunk of land in the South End, and they committed $20,000 to support the event, which would translate to almost $800,000 today. Was it worth it? About a week before the event, the Springfield Daily Republican of October 19, 1855, reported on their expectations for the Grand Exhibition. It will be a week of great interest to agriculturalists and stock breeders, to practical and fancy farmers, and to the world generally who love to see fine cattle and noble horses. More people, we presume, will be in Boston during the week than ever visited the city in any former week. Yet, her material heart is large, and the railroads can relieve her of her surplus thousands at night to return them to her bosom in the morning.

Jake:
[46:36] The first day of the expo started with a bang, with the New York Herald reporting, The attendance was very large all day. The city is crowded with strangers. The show is a very good one, much superior to any previously given by the society. The success of this, the first thing of the kind ever done in this country, was beyond all precedent. Everything was done upon the most liberal scale. The show was a very fine one in every respect, and not only netted a good sum to its originators, but did a great deal of good by directing the attention of breeders to several important facts connected with the raising of horses in this country. Keeping in mind that Wednesday, the second day of the event, was rained out, the Vermont Phoenix gave an estimate of the number of visitors on the concourse and the amount of money they might have injected into Boston’s economy. The number of visitors present on Thursday was not far from 80,000. The entire receipts to the society will probably amount to $40,000 or $50,000, which will pay all the expenses and leave a fair margin for future use. On the same day, November 3rd, the Springfield Weekly Republican also reported on turnout for the Grand Exhibition. Unlike the Phoenix, however, the Republican tried to use data to come to an actual headcount, and their total was higher.

Jake:
[48:00] The Clerk of Police in Boston reports that by actual count, on Thursday, 6,709 vehicles and 522 railroad cars entered Boston, the former bringing 34,459 and the latter 22,730 persons. There were also 53,302-foot passengers, making a total of 110,491 visitors to Boston in a single day. During the last three days of the week, 16,325 passengers left the city of Boston by way of the Boston and Worcester Railroad.

Jake:
[48:39] All in all, that’s really not a bad outcome for Boston, repaying the city’s investment many times over in visitor spending. Lyman Carrier points out that not many other Americans got to experience grand national exhibitions on this scale. There was another event in Philly in 1856, but much like today, the country was falling apart at the seams. Hopefully our era doesn’t end with a bloody civil war, but that’s where everybody knew the 1850s were headed, which made it increasingly difficult to organize nationwide events of any kind. Carrier writes, With the creation of the United States Department of Agriculture, the need for a national agricultural society appeared to be over. The Civil War disrupted the society and prevented the holding of national exhibitions. But some of the members living in or near Washington kept up a semblance of an organization for several years.

Jake:
[49:39] In 1881, an attempt was made to revive the society. A brief report was published which stated, The meeting was not largely attended, as no new annual or life members have been admitted since 1860, and those who joined before that time are generally too far advanced in life to go far from their homes. It was, in fact, a reunion of veteran agriculturalists, and the meeting of old friends and co-laborers was cordial and interesting. I guess the only loose end that we have to tie up is that seven-block fairground along Albany Street and Harrison Ave. in the South End.

The Fate of the Fairgrounds

Jake:
[50:16] There aren’t 50 acres of open space in the South End today, so what happened to them?

Jake:
[50:23] By the time the Boston Engineering Department updated their city map for 1863, a free city hospital appeared between Harrison and Albany on the corner of Concord Street, with the city’s swill department, paving department, and South City stables a block away at Albany and Stoughton. Boston City Hospital opened the next year in 1864. An updated version of the map published in 1869 shows that the city hospital had expanded to both sides of Albany Street, with the Water Department, Sewer Department, and Department of Public Health filling in the water side of Albany. A decade later, a bird’s-eye view of the neighborhood shows that the entire fairgrounds have been developed with residences and businesses. Today, of course, Boston City Hospital is the Boston Medical Center, having long ago merged with BU’s Homeopathic Hospital. And the shoreline where the Water and Sewer Department stood side by side is the infamous corner of Mass and Cass.

Jake:
[51:23] To learn more about Boston’s Grand Agricultural Exhibition of 1855, check out this week’s show notes at hubhistory.com slash 388. I’ll have links to a ton of period newspaper articles about the event, about half of which are available with no paywall thanks to the Library of Congress. And online copies are still available during the government shutdown. I’ll also link to the official proceedings of the U.S. Agricultural Society recapping the Boston Exhibition, and to the articles in the journal Agricultural History by Lyman Carrier and John Rickards Betts. There will be pictures of the fairground and a painting of the Grand Cavalcade that launched the expo, as well as the 1863, 1869, and 1879 maps that I just mentioned.

Jake:
[52:14] If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hubhistory.com. I still have profiles for Hub History on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and on Mastodon, where you can find me as at hubhistoryatbetter.boston. The only social media site where I’m actively interacting with people these days is Blue Sky, where you can just search for hubhistory.com. If you’re also not spending a lot of time on social media these days, you can just go to hubhistory.com and click on the Contact Us link. While you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link, and be sure that you never miss an episode. If you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review. If you do, drop me a line, and I’ll send you a Hub History sticker as a token of appreciation. That’s all for now. Stay safe out there, listeners.