The County Fair was having its problems in its early start but the citizens took it in stride. An earlier poem that appeared in the Daily Troy Budget on September 16, 1843 was positive in spirit.
ODE FOR THE RENSSELAER CO., AGRICULTURAL FAIR.
The Farmer at his harvest home!
When garden, field and tree,
Conspire with flowing wealth to fill
His barn and granary,—
While his young, healthful children sport
Amid the new-mown hay,—
Or proudly aid with vig’rous arm
His toll as best they may.
Perchance, the hoary grandsire’s eye
The glowing scene surveys,
And breathing blessings on his race
He guides their heartfelt praise.
The Harvest Giver is their friend,
The Maker of the soil,
And Earth, kind Mother, yields her fruits,
To cheer their patient toil.
The Farmer at his harvest home!
A patriot true is he,—
So let the land he loves rejoice
In his festivity.
However, because of Troy’s lack of interest of holding the county fair after it burned in 1859, the Ag society decided on June 16, 1859 to have the fair at “Bradbury’s,” just back of Greenbush Village (now city of Rensselaer).
The president of the society, L. Chandler Ball, published in the Troy Daily Times on Jan 17, 1860, stated: “I have thus far spoken of the Fair as a failure – in the sense in which it has been considered, it was so. It certainly failed to produced the happy results which were hope and expected from it.”
On March 2, 1860 it was announced that an “Industrial Exhibition of the City of Troy and County of Rensselaer” would take place and the Society was to furnish grounds and erect buildings near the “vicinity of the city.” They obtained permission to sell off its buildings and land in Batestown and changed its name from the Rensselaer County Agricultural Society to the Rensselaer County Agricultural and Manufacturers’ Society on April 5, 1860.
The Daily Whig: “On April 18, 1860 the grounds and building belonging to the society located “in the eastern part of the village (containing eleven acres) were sold yesterday to McGardis of Troy, for the sum of $2,400.”
The Troy Daily Whig continued: “This is certainly a bargain. Where will the Society find such grounds, buildings, and a position so well located for the convenience of all parts of the County, for double the money? We shall see. Somebody has made or will make a good thing out of the transaction.”
On July 21, 1864 it was reported that there was a United States Hospital Project that was proposed for wounded soldiers on the Fair grounds of the Society at the grounds at Batestown. “Requisitions have been made for medical and hospital stores by Surgeons Steele and Hubbard, who have been sent here to establish the hospital, and other arrangements have been made to carry the project into immediate execution. Suddenly these officers find an unexpected opposition to the project, coming from two or three person residing near the fair grounds, and who also are members of the society.
“The authorities proposed to pay $2300 a month for three years or less. They intent to erect five new buildings, each to be two hundred and fifty feet long, and make other needed arrangements to give hospital accommodations throughout the year for at least one thousand wounded soldiers. It is not designed to admit fever cases into the hospital, and only those that are wounded – consequently there can be no reasonable objection to its establishment on the score of infection of contagion.
“The establish of this hospital would be a great advantage for Troy, to is hotels, railroads, and retail dealers, because it would bring hundreds here to look after wounded friends under its care.”
The Ag Society leased the fairgrounds to the US Government for $300 a month. However in 1860 the society sold its grounds so this report is confusing. It may be the site near the old Toll House the paper is referring too. A call to contribute to the hospital’s library fund was published on December 26, 1864.
Coming up. There was a war of words about the location of the hospital between the Lansingburgh and Troy newspapers.
Got History? Don is the author of a dozen books about his hometown. You can reach him at drittner@aol.com
