Barrett Family
New Ipswich Historical Society
On this day - July 13, 1908
James Roger diary entry
13th (Monday)
Warm but a little cool air from N.W. David mowed around the wall at Jim Davis field, and him and I sprayed the potatoes in incubator field. I earthed up 4 rows of Cabbage and picked some blueberries. Got letter from Hamish.
On this day - July 13, 1897
William Jurian Kaula diary - no entry
Construction of the Fair (Continued pages 12 - 14)
This Children's Benevolent Fair had come into existence. Was there any element of perpetuity in it?
It was a unique institution! It could not be called an organization! It had no constitution or by-laws, or even "rules of action." It simply had a purpose to carry out.
That purpose was to plant in the hearts of the coming generation an early desire and habit of sharing its blessings and privileges with others to whom had not been given in so large degree. There were no officers chosen at this preliminary meeting invited to come together, whose duties extended beyond the present effort.
They simply decided to have a gathering that present autumn, to which should be brought anything desirable for purchase to be offered to the highest bidder by auction, the products of such sale to be given to the object or cause named as its donor desired. There was little time to make preparation, and these parents seemed to have proposed to bring for their children the desired offerings, give to them a better knowledge of the needs of the world, and look for ward to the procuring of such means to obtain these gifts by their own efforts at the future festivals as should occur to them hereafter.
Such Committees were chosen or appointed as would promise to bring best results, and no arrangement made for further action in the future. It was an informal Committee of Arrangements for that one festival.
They were to learn by experiment what to do in the future, and it is surprising that the measures secured so good a degree of success, that each year, when the General Committee of five which was chosen each autumn has given its report of the Fair and read the acknowledgments of parties receiving the various donations, and this report is accepted, there is no organization called Children's Fair. At the end of the report of the eleventh Fair a permanent secretary was chosen, as we found no record of what we had been doing, only such as existed on scraps of paper that had been kept by different committees and from a daily private journal kept by C. H. Obear. At this Sunday School, at which the results of the eleventh Fair was reported. a permanent secretary was chosen, as I have said. At his death fifteen years afterwards, George Brooks was chosen, and when he left town, Miss Ettie M. Taylor, who still remains in this only official position that exists in this unique institution. I would say in passing, that these earlier Sunday School reports were re ported to all the churches in town on the succeeding Sabbath.
After two years, another woman was added to the committee of arrangements chosen each year. The Secretary is a member by virtue of his office. There have been but three in fifty years-C. H. Obear, till his death in 1887, George Brooks, till his removal from town, and Ettie M. Taylor till the present time.
The Chairman of this board is generally the Sunday School Superintendent or the Pastor of the Church. They are chosen by nomination.
After the refreshment tables were established, a question was raised in regard to any children who were unprovided with money enough to buy a dinner. This was settled by having one who is acquainted with the families represented in the hall, solicit small sums of individuals who were present. A little suffices to get a good dinner for a child and all thus share in the feast alike, and donors who designate their gifts have their wishes carried out also.
Sometimes dilemmas occurred that were amusing and at the same time puzzling. A good lady, for instance, would bring a pot of baked beans marked, "for the freedmen." Who was to tell at the Plain dinner how much of that particular pot should claim of the money received from the dinner tickets? It was as difficult to reply to the question of another woman who said to me, innocently, "How do they cook the beans at the Children's Fair? I never ate any anywhere else that were so good." Said beans came from the ovens of village and farms; from young and from old house-keepers.