The Webster County Agricultural Society was organized in September, 1873, with A.M. Talbott, president, and James M. Baldwin and James LeDuc, vice-presidents. The first exhibition was held on October 22 and 23 following, and it was a grand success. There was a good display of all kinds of farm products, which compared favorably in quality and in the yield with any other part of the State. For the first few years the fairs were held in different buildings in Red Cloud, and then the society purchased and fitted up a “fair-ground” on the school section east of town, where the exhibitions were given until the buildings were blown down in the cyclone of 1879. Then, for a time, no exhibitions were given. The society sold its old fair ground, and, on February 28, 1885, it purchased its present grounds, which consist of twenty-eight acres, and lie half a mile west of the city. These grounds are inclosed with a good fence and are fitted up with a race-track, and grandstand, floral hall and judges’ stand, all in good style.
Source:
Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Adams, Clay, Webster, and Nuckolls Counties, Nebraska
Published 1890
Page 552