Provincial Agricultural Fair of Canada West

Provincial Agricultural Fair of Canada West was an annual provincial agricultural fair held in various places[1][2] in Canada West and after 1867 in Ontario.

The fair was established in 1846 and sponsored by the Provincial Agricultural Association and the Board of Agriculture for Canada West. It replaced an earlier attempt in 1792 by the Agricultural Society of Upper Canada[3]

The fair was mainly an agricultural themed show featuring horses and domesticated animals from around what was still a very rural pre-Confederation Ontario. It would last until 1878 as it met competition with large number of local fairs that emerged across some towns and counties in Ontario[4] and eventually succeeded by the Canadian National Exhibition in 1879.

List of Provincial Agricultural Association of Canada West/Ontario

The fair was held annually, but only a few years have been documented:

Year Host Notes
1846 Toronto Held at Government House Grounds near King Street West and Simcoe Street[2]
1847 Hamilton
1848 Cobourg
1849 Kingston
1850 Niagara
1851 Brockville
1852 Toronto north part of Grange Park (neighbourhood)
1854 London Fair site was north of Oxford St., and south of Grosvenor St., between Talbot St. and the Thames River. Attended in last three days by James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin.[5]
1858 Toronto
1861 London Military Garrison property near Victoria Park.[6] The second provincial fair held in London (and sixteenth in Canada West) was on September 24–27, 1861, on grounds between Waterloo and Richmond, running south of what would become Kenneth Avenue "nearly down to Central Avenue".[7]
1865 London Military Garrison property near Victoria Park.[6] Held September 18–22, this was the fair's third time in London.[8]
1869 London Military Garrison property near Victoria Park.[6] The fair took place in September, and was attended by the Governor General (Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn) and Sir John A. Macdonald.[9]
1873 London Military Garrison property near Victoria Park.[6] Held September 22–25—the 28th Provincial Fair was London's fifth.[10]
1877 London Military Garrison property near Victoria Park. (The fairgrounds in London moved to their current Queen's Park location on September 19, 1887).[6]
1878 Toronto Last year Fair was held

Other Fairs

A list of annual agricultural and/or country fairs in Ontario created before or after the establishment of the provincial fair:

Other annual fairs around Canada and the United States:

References

  1. CNE Archives. 2013.
  2. 1 2 http://www.lostrivers.ca/points/CNEearly.htm
  3. http://www.emsdaleagriculturalsociety.com/our-history/history-of-agricultural-fairs/
  4. Agricultural Society of Upper Canada
  5. Brock, Dan; McEwan, Catherine (2011). Fragments from the Forks: London, Ontario's Legacy. London, Ontario, Canada: The London and Middlesex Historical Society. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-9866899-0-1.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Salter's Grove/Queen's Park (1879 - 1887)". Closed Canadian Parks. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
  7. Brock, Dan; McEwan, Catherine (2011). Fragments from the Forks: London, Ontario's Legacy. London, Ontario, Canada: The London and Middlesex Historical Society. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-9866899-0-1.
  8. Brock, Dan; McEwan, Catherine (2011). Fragments from the Forks: London, Ontario's Legacy. London, Ontario, Canada: The London and Middlesex Historical Society. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-9866899-0-1.
  9. Brock, Dan; McEwan, Catherine (2011). Fragments from the Forks: London, Ontario's Legacy. London, Ontario, Canada: The London and Middlesex Historical Society. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-9866899-0-1.
  10. Brock, Dan; McEwan, Catherine (2011). Fragments from the Forks: London, Ontario's Legacy. London, Ontario, Canada: The London and Middlesex Historical Society. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-9866899-0-1.
  11. Mitchell-Reid, Alison. "The East Middlesex Agricultural Society Fonds (AFC73)" (PDF). Archives Finding Aids. Archives and Research Collections Centre, Western University. Retrieved April 1, 2016.
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