Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

sf
\..
I9’
'4
\\ "\
+3-nu. ..'>...- I‘f-"'7/./‘
2-hi‘
.. 3.‘
2...‘ -
Anamosa Fairgrounds (Submitted by Berniece
Shover)
-_-.
I
French plane at the Anamosa Fairgrounds
“So that afternoon he went up and dropped the sacks
with no appreciable difliculty. He then signed the
contract to make the three ‘drops’ at the Anamosa Fair.
"Everyone supposed they would practice it. but when
he arrived at the Fairgrounds he had a man with him
whom he said would make the jump. When asked how
he would make the jump from the plane he said he was
not sure. as he had never tried it. When the first day
arrived, they went up in the air and flew around, but no
parachute drop and finally landed. After much
argument. they went up again and the parachute drop
was made. To get away from the propellers. he had to
jump from the end of the wing.
"The three jumps were made here, as per contract.
"The next week in Illinois. the wing broke from the
plane and Max Lillie was killed.
"As far as we can find, this was the first drop in a
parachute from a plane, ever made.
“The Anamosa Fair also originated the idea of giving
away an automobile. The idea was so original that
when the Fair association sent a committee to Detroit,
the automobile manufacturers were so interested in the
idea from an advertising standpoint that they
practically donated the automobile.
“All the famous acts of vaudeville played the
Anamosa Fair including animal acts, elephants.
clowns, acrobats, Dr. Carver's diving horses. the 100-
foot dive into three feet of water, somersault autos,
the Lilliputians, etc.,“
The fellow whojumped from the plane was Edgar F.
‘Mickey" Mc Gurrin. He lived to the age of 73. He was
known as ‘The Wild Irish Rose of the Air‘. He died in
A horse jumping into a small water tank at the
Anamosa Fair.
Grand Rapids. Michigan, in 1959.
To do justice to the pioneers of Anamosa and Jones
county who held, what they considered to be, the early
Jones County Fairs, beginning in 1854, we record for
posterity, the information which was garnered by
searching through 85 years of files of the Anamosa
newspapers.
As primitive and crude as the outcomes were, the
early settlers ‘did their thing‘ in the only way which
they knew how. They started small, and then grew.
This was true of fairs as well as in any other project
they undertook.
The fourth annual Jones County Fair, according to
Edmund Booth, who came to this virgin area in 1839.
was held at Anamosa in 1855. The forerunner of the
larger fairs (the other meetings were held at Rome. and
Bowen's Prarie) was held on the ‘flat’, about 40 rods
west of the present day prison. The products, except
stock. were exhibited at the courthouse.
The whole county then did not contain 200 people.
The crown was small, but enthusiastic.
The grounds were open and rough. A ring a little
larger than an ordinary circus ring was formed. For the
finale, several fun-loving fanners drove their farm
wagons around the outside at high speed, greatly to
the delight of the spectators.
The total amount ofthe premiums was $195. To meet
this sum. $43 was raised by membership and $97 in
donations.
Premiums were given for best cultivated field; best
cultivated garden: award on saddle nags; jacks: jennets
and mules; cattle: sheep: swine; fowl; grain; sorghum
syrup; mechanical products; best harness won; brick
and mason work; horse shoe; syrup of sasparilla and
domestic products.
Some of the exhibitors mentioned were F.F.
Beardsley, who showed a Morgan stallion; C. Stone,
exhibitor of brood mares; E.S. Blodgett and Samuel
Spear, Devan and Durham cattle; G. W. Lovell, pair of
Merino bucks; Judge Mann, several sheep: Mrs.
Dunning, worsted work; Misses Foote, paintings.
The committee on farms and gardens consisted of E.
Little. S.T. Buxton and J.S. Dimmitt. The first award
for the best cultivated field went to James M. Peet: best
cultivated garden, Burton Peet, his brother. S. T.
Buxton, J.H. Fisher and Benjamin Chaplin were the
committee on horses. Among the winners were F.F.
Beardsley. B. Peet. F.M. Hicks. J.S. Dimmitt. M.D.
Brown. C. Stone. James Peet. H. Russell, S. Spear. S. J .
131