Reminiscences of Children's Fair
Birth of the Fair (Continued Page 8 -10)
Records and Reminiscences of Children’s Fair
“Seeking to make idle hours useful hours, I have written it in my old age Please accept my old RECORDS AND REMINISCENCES.” - C. H. Obear - July 8, 1911
Birth of the Fair (Continued) - Page 8-10
The conception of the Children's Fair of New Ipswich was in this wise:
One afternoon in September 1862 (date not recalled), the Pastor of the Congregational Church and Prof. E. T. Quimby, preceptor of our Academy, were driving home from a Sunday School Convention held at East Wilton, and the Rev. Mr. Cutler and Prof. Quimby fell into a talk in regard to the possibility of so training children that they, in the early be ginning of their lives, would feel it a pleasure and a duty to share with others the good gifts of life bestowed so freely on themselves.
It may be that the readiness of the children of our Sabbath School to take part in the efforts we were making to send help to our soldiers, and to the freedmen, prompted the thought. Neither of the men, when inquired of afterwards, could tell which first suggested holding a Harvest Festival annually, at which might be sold for benevolent objects, any product of their skill or industry during the year. The suggestion approved itself to both. They were both men of action, and both keenly alive to the needs of the world and the training of the rising generation to supply those needs.
The following Sunday, notice was given for a meeting to consider the topic, and the young pastor's calm, quiet, feeling, convincing representation of the object of the meeting im mediately enlisted the sympathy of every hearer In those
days, attending the worship of Almighty God in the sanctu aries provided for the purpose, was considered an obligation by the majority of respectable people.
The old church building on the Common, built in 1812-13, had been remodelled a few years before and the audience room removed from the ground floor. The reunited Second Congregational Church, and the First Church, and the Baptist and Methodist Churches being closed for reasons connected with the war, a large congregation filled, almost to repletion, the pews, where sat Mr. Calvin Cutler's hearers.
His appointment of a meeting during the week to consider. the advisability of holding a fair the present autumn, met with cordial reception. William D. Locke, then, with his family occupying the Academy Boarding House, on the site of the Ames House, proposed his dining-hall as a good place for the proposed meeting. He was among the first who then, and as long as he lived, took active interest in this annual fair, and so also did his family.
One cannot fail to mark the difference in social life between the women of fifty years ago and now. The lives of women and men were more apart from each other. The ability of woman was not disputed but was exercised in Auxiliaries, Daughters of Temperance, Female Cent Societies, Sewing Circles by themselves, etc.
No woman in all that crowd who listened to the notice. given by Mr. Cutler dreamed anything else was asked of her but to wait and see what part of the work which was to be done would be assigned to her, by husbands, sons and brothers, who should devise all the details of the proposed Harvest Feast.
We were practically just beginning to know that difference in the qualities of the two sexes did not mean the superiority of one above the other.
But I have diverged. There was hearty, cordial, unanimous acceptance of such plans in this General Committee of the Children's Fair, such as has ever continued, as would promise the most complete success, and it is remarkable that but few changes have, in fifty years, been found necessary to perpetuate it so long and successfully.
150th Children’s Fair - August 20, 2011
James Roger diary entry
15th July 1913
Fair and windy; wind northerly, sky cloudy. David, Henry, and Myron at the hay. I took fertiliser, ice, sickle, and rabbit trap to Miss Palmer in the morning. Picked 4 quarts peas for Mr. Gordon and cut weeds at bottom of garden. Got letter from Hamish. Mr. Guttenburg (later spelled Gedenberg) began his hay this afternoon. Got Hamish’s his second letter.
Upcoming Event
163rd Children’s Fair - August 17, 2024
New Ipswich Congregational Church
150 Main Street, New Ipswich, NH
10 AM - 3 PM
Nice short history of the Children's Fair. I have a number of items I bought in past auctions at the fair, old travel trunk, lights from the schoolhouse down the street which hang in my kitchen, old tools, tee shirts with a picture of Barrett Mansion, and many other items. In the spirit of the old fairs maybe a donation to Wounded Warriors would be appropriate.