Logan County Fair origins in Annual Mount Pulaski Horse Shows 1912 - 1936

[August 04, 2016]  Mount Pulaski had annual horse shows on its town square: 1912 - 1936. It all switched to the Logan County Fair for their 1st year in 1937, taking with them most of the Mount Pulaski judges and organizers. Since the town streets were being paved in '35, '36, the south side (Cooke Street) next to Courthouse was left in dirt to be paved after the last horse show that year (1936)

As these horse shows always spilled over onto Washington St., wagon-loads of dirt had to be brought in to spread onto the new concrete pavement for that last-year’s final Mount Pulaski Horse Show, held in Sept., 1936.

The annual Mount Pulaski Horse Show on the south and west sides of the square drew larger crowds than any other Mount Pulaski event from its beginning in 1912 until they were discontinued in 1936.

In the 1913 Horse Show, there were 450 entries & the show was considered the best in the State of Illinois, not only because of the great number of horses shown but also because of the fine quality, especially in the heavy class of horses. Well-known American Shire Association Judge, Edwin Hobson of Clifton, IL., said:

“The heavy horses at this show are better than I ever saw at any such gathering. There are plenty here good enough to go to the state fair and many mares that should go. There are pure-bred Shire colts here that are the best that I ever judged”.

Both colts were stallions; the first prize was owned by Jake Stoll and the second by George J. Stoll. Following the end of the Mount Pulaski Horse Shows, several of the Mount Pulaski Horse Show Committee Members & Judges went on to work for many years at the annual Logan County Fair Horse Shows in nearby Lincoln, Illinois — which started there in 1937, the first year of the Logan County Fair.

[Phil Bertoni]

Credits

1)  H. J. Wible: Mount Pulaski Times News: 125 Yesteryears – 1936-1961, p. 105

2) IBED, p. 110. Following the 1935 Mount Pulaski Horse Show, two champion Shire mares were sold by George J. Stoll & Elmer
Schaffenacker to George Deane of Long Beach, CA. They were loaded onto an Illinois Central Train cattle car in Chestnut for shipment to CA., accompanied by Everett Stoll as caretaker and protector (“shot-gun”).

The photos provided here are from the collection of H. J. Wible, former publisher of the Mount Pulaski Times-News, with permission of Mrs. Jean Wible Martin. Many more photos and much more information can be found in the Mount Pulaski Township Historical Museum on south side of square.