Fall Festivals

I. Surrounding towns had Fall Festivals

Shelton – 1904 – 1927+

2-3 days long in Sept, then Aug
Free carnival
Horse Races – new track built in 1904
One day declared Kearney Day –
1904 – car loads of people & Midway Band
1927 – About 20 cars of Kearney business and professional men and the Industrial school band

Ravenna
Elm Creek
Amherst

II. Kearney – Corn Carnivals –
        1906-1911
        3-5 days in Oct or Nov

1906 – 1st Annual

Organized by Patterson & Wingard – farm implement dealers
        When Commercial Club organized in 1907, Patterson was 1st president
Commercial Club backing and participation in these corn shows
Held in their ware rooms

Exhibits of field & sweet corn, alfalfa brome grass seed
        Also exhibits by individual farmers.
International Harvester and John Deere Plow Company exhibits
Corn hanging from the ceiling along with bunting.
Watson Ranch exhibit was a pyramid of baled alfalfa
        Examples of the different crops grown there on the ledges of the pile, including red, white blue corn.

Samuel Basset of Gibbon was the judge.
Top prize seed corn exhibits were taken to Omaha for state corn show each year.

1908 – On the second floor of the Roe Building over the Kearney creamery
        Exhibits wheat and oats also.
        Visitors could view them at their convenience in Nov after 15th

1909 – [added the ladies]
        Entries also included vegetables, canned & baked items and sewing handiwork

1910 – Organized by Corn Show and Agricultural Association Meeting

Poultry and Horse exhibit added.
        Classes divided between draft horses used on the farm and horses used in town

Chrysanthemum show added by Nineteenth Century Club

Moving pictures on farm methods and machinery
Lecturer on modern agricultural methods

Referred to as the county fair

Buffalo County Corn Show and Agricultural Association had incorporated.

Planned to acquire 40 acres to the edge of Kearney [didn’t say which side]
Build an exposition building
Merchants of the county to exhibit their wares.
“Exhibits of everything produced in the county and illustrations of the best methods employed by farmers in the county would be shown in this building.”

[Needs more research, maybe topic for next month]

1911 – Kearney Korn Karnival – October 9-14

Organized by (now Mayor J. W) Patterson & Company

Held back in company warehouse on 21st St between Central and First Ave – 14 W 21st
        (south side of street, west of Opera House, Sears Bldg site)

Buggy Room – small exhibits
Back Shed – catalogues & educational pamphlets, farm implements & dairy machines including cream separators

“Takes the place of corn shows of past years. “

New Features Not Found in the Former Corn Shows

1. American Beet Sugar Company Will Have Exhibit.
300 varieties of sugars from all over the world.
With 5000 acres of sugar beets grown in this vicinity
Patterson’s company was pushing for a sugar beet factory.

2. Hog show on Friday, Oct. 13 from 7 a.m. to midnight
followed by an auction the following afternoon.

Prizes for

        corn, potatoes, sugar beets, alfalfa bales & seed
        Tallest corn stalk
        Largest vegetables
                Pumpkins & squashes “so big they might easily be mistaken for water tanks if hollowed out”

Exhibits rival ordinary county fair.

No more Corn Shows after 1911

Commercial Club idea – 1911
        Acquire land east of Chautauqua Park to Central for fair grounds, race track, athletic park, ball grounds.
                3 blocks from 5th to 2nd, 1-2-3 blocks wide

        Idea died

1920 – Fall Festival –

Sept 21-24 – same time as county fair

Parade with businessmen entering floats

Street exhibits open till noon, then reopen when fair closed at 6 p.m.

Daylight fireworks
Daily balloon ascensions
Airplane flights
Band concerts
One ring circus.
A carload of Rocky Ford melons ordered to be given away until gone.
A style show on a promenade to be constructed on Central Ave.
Everything free except auto races on the final day.

Booster trips planned to surrounding towns within 100 miles radius to encourage attendance to both the festival and fair.
        Trip was cancelled, to be four days long and business men did not want to be away from their businesses that long.

1938 – Have a Fall Festival in your Home – old time fall festival being revived.
            Do in your home with food – nuts, grapes, pumpkins, squash,
            Article followed with several recipes