Tippin’s fair history lesson reveals Daggy mystery

Thursday, July 29, 2021
In revealing the history of the Putnam County Fair, County Historian Larry Tippin tells the crowd at Family Fun Day of how the current Putnam County Fairgrounds was originally named the Daggy Memorial Fairgrounds.
Banner Graphic/ERIC BERNSEE

Turns out the venerable Putnam County Fairgrounds might not be the Putnam County Fairgrounds at all, but actually the Daggy Memorial Fairgrounds.

Who knew?

Well, Putnam County Historian Larry Tippin, for one. He unearthed that fact in his fastidious research on the history of the Putnam County Fair, which he presented as the keynote speaker Wednesday at the annual Family Fun Day program at the fair.

The fairgrounds, Tippin reported, adopted its present location following a sojourn of sorts around the county. Early fairs were conducted near Bainbridge, a block north of the square on a vacant lot in 1876, on an open lot near the present site of DePauw University’s East College in 1838 or 1839, on Greencastle’s southeast side east of U.S. 231, at Robe-Ann Park for 18 years and even on the courthouse square.

But that long and winding road ended in 1954, and the fair has been on the site of the old Daggy family farm ever since. After Roscoe Daggy died in 1953, his widow deeded over 75 acres of prime bottom land to the Putnam County Fair Board for $1.

At the same time, the Daggys sold an adjacent 90 acres of ground to organizers of what would become Windy Hill Country Club for “slightly in excess of $19,000,” according to a newspaper report in January 1954. That sale included “the grand home of Roscoe Daggy which became the country club clubhouse,” Tippin noted.

It was then the fairgrounds became known as the Daggy Memorial Fairgrounds, “significant,” Tippin said, “due to the enormous gift from the Daggy family.”

The county historian noted that the next year the Fair Board sold two acres of property at the north end of the fairgrounds to the Putnam County Highway Department for $730.

Good farm ground back then was going for $350-$400 an acre, Tippin explained, so the total acreage left to the fair by the Daggys amounted to roughly $30,000 in 1954 dollars.

“That’s about a quarter-million (dollars) now,” Tippin said.

“But it’s not just the monetary value,” he added. “It’s the prime location as well as an enormous donation by the Daggy family so we could have this fairgrounds.”

Certainly a gift worth noting in the naming of the site.

So why and when did the Daggy name disappear from the fairgrounds lexicon?

Despite his dogged research techniques, not even Tippin has been able to figure that one out.

One year it was the Daggy Memorial Fairgrounds, the next year it was the Putnam County Fairgrounds, he said.

He couldn’t find any mention that the Fair Board or Putnam County Commissioners settled on a new name, but that has certainly been the case now for more than 50 years.

“You don’t see it again (in print) after a few years,” Tippin said. “Certainly Putnam County Fairgrounds is more accurately descriptive.”

“Start the dialogue,” Tippin suggested, for giving the Daggy donation its due and the family proper recognition in some way in regard to the fairgrounds.

The origins of the county fair began, Tippin said, with a Sept. 7, 1837 livestock exhibit in the first block north of the courthouse on the grounds of the “old Presbyterian Church recently destroyed by fire” (not to be confused with the August 1990 fire that destroyed the church when it was on College Avenue adjacent to the library).

The 1838 or 1839 fair was staged “somewhere near where DePauw’s Roy O. West Library is now,” Tippin added.

In October 1853, the new Putnam County Agriculture Society staged what was billed as the “third annual Putnam County Fair.” Besides livestock, it included judging of wagons, plows and farm implements.

“In those days, you didn’t just go out and buy your farm implements when you needed them, you made them,” Tippin added.

Tippin said the fair moved to a half-mile west of Bainbridge in 1854, “across from the older brick house they call ‘the Archie Chadd House” (in honor of the late legendary basketball coach).

The fifth fair, in 1855, was back in Greencastle, on the Col. John A. Matson farm east of Bloomington Street and south of the old Penn Central Railroad tracks that have since given way to Veterans Memorial Highway. It was held there through 1862 when the fair, and pretty much life itself, was put on hold for the Civil War.

Activity resumed in 1868 at the Matson farm, roughly the present site of Greencastle Christian Church, with “not less than 4,000 people” reported on the grounds. That was “a big deal,” Tippin stressed.

The fair next migrated to the east side of Greencastle in 1877 on the Andrew Lockridge farm in the area of Percy Julian Drive and Greencastle High School.

While the fair had essentially been a county event until then, the 24th annual fair was heralded in the Aug. 5, 1880 Greencastle Banner as “open to the world.” The article added that the “officers and board of directors have made full and complete arrangements for the grandest exhibition.”

However, in 1881 came the announcement, included in statewide news, that the Putnam County Fair, which was set for the second week of September “is now declared off on account of the unpropitious season.”

Tippin joked that whoever used “unpropitious” was trying to send readers to the dictionary. He looked it up and determined it meant essentially meant “unfavorable.”

So there were no further fairs until another newly formed agriculture society found $200 in the county treasury and plans were to revive the fair on the D. T. Thornton property immediately west of Bainbridge after Thornton sold attorney David Ader 384 acres at the price of $25,765 in 1883. Described as “the handsomest grounds in the state,” the 40 acres on which the fair was conducted in 1889 and every year until 1900 included a half-mile track for horse racing that became of a centerpiece of fairs of that era.

The site included several buildings, an amphitheater, floral hall, sheep and swine pens, poultry sheds, etc. More than 300 stalls were already taken as the fair commenced, keeping “a large gang of carpenters busy all day in constructing more stalls and pens.”

However, as luxurious as those grounds were, 1902 was the last fair there as David Ader died in 1900 and his son emphasized horse racing at the site, making it part of the Indiana Circuit.

“In my opinion, 1902 was the last fair at Bainbridge,” Tippin said. “There were no county fairs anywhere else.”

Until, that is, 1924 when “the first annual (an incongruity if there ever was one) Putnam County Fair” was staged in and around the courthouse square with display in the window of Prevo’s at the southeast corner where Starbucks now sits.

In 1927, Tippin said, boys and girls age 10-18 were invited to exhibit club work for the first time, spawning the local advent of the 4-H movement that now dominates the fair. By 1929, more than 200 4-H’ers were involved as the Greencastle Herald ominously warned on Sept. 13, 1929 that “the Putnam County Fair will end tomorrow, perhaps for all time.”

Yet a two-day event, “almost an exclusive 4-H event,” was staged in 1930 before 1931 brought the designation “no fair, no money” in former Extension Agent Kenny Harris’ timeline of fair history.

The fair, however, was revived again in 1932 with the site listed as the courthouse. That brought out the comic side of Tippin, who asked, to chuckles from his audience, “How’d they do that? Cows on one floor, sheep on another?”

The big change came in 1936 with the first fair held at Greencastle’s Robe-Ann Park with the new park pavilion (possibly shelterhouse No. 2 next to the skatepark nowadays) and exhibits in

nearby Second Ward School (later Miller School).

The last fair at Robe-Ann, before moving to the current site just north of Greencastle, was in 1953.

“To most people, the fair’s always been right here,” Tippin said. “It’s the only place I’ve known.”

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  • Great article!

    -- Posted by Ben Dover on Fri, Jul 30, 2021, at 11:03 AM
  • Agreed, tremendous article! History is not only interesting but also very important, especially to smaller communities, where it is sometimes overlooked.

    -- Posted by Koios on Fri, Jul 30, 2021, at 7:28 PM
  • *

    Weiks history of Putnam County.

    https://archive.org/details/weikshistoryofpu00weik/page/n5/mode/2up

    You can find lots more stuff here:

    https://www.in.gov/library/collections-and-services/genealogy/indiana-county-res...

    And don't forget the courthouse records. Deeds, mortgages, misc. recorders documents including easements... property transfer records in the auditors office... lots of stuff in the clerks office as well. All open to the public! Just ask nicely and they will help you out.

    Happy history-ing!

    -- Posted by dreadpirateroberts on Fri, Jul 30, 2021, at 8:12 PM
  • What an amazing story. Love to hear about the origins of our small town. Thanks, Larry!

    -- Posted by Queen53 on Sat, Jul 31, 2021, at 1:09 PM
  • Roscoe Daggy was my grandfather. My mother was born and raised on the farm. My grandmother was Anna Daggy.

    -- Posted by keithjeffers8@gmail.com on Sat, Dec 2, 2023, at 11:23 AM
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