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HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORE. 



sider the practicability of organizing a county agricultural 

 society, of which meeting Ziba A. Leland was chairman, 

 and Henry Brother and Robert B. Yan Valkenburgh were 

 secretaries, and Z. A. Leland, 0. F. Marshal, Jacob Yan 

 Yalkenburgh, Israel R. Wood, Theron Loomis and Henry 

 Brother a committee to draft a constitution and by-laws, 

 and to report at an adjourned meeting to be held on the 

 1st day of June following. 



At the subsequent meeting a constitution and by-laws 

 were adopted, and the following ofl&cers duly elected : Presi- 

 dent, Otto F. Marshal; Yice-Presidents, John Cooper, Jr., 

 Israel R. Wood, and Erastus Skinner; Secretaries, Wm. S. 

 Hubbell and Ziba A. Leland ; Treasurer, Henry Brother. 



A fair was held this year, in the month of October, at 

 Bath, and immediately after its close the members met at 

 the court-house and elected the following officers for the 

 ensuing year : 



President, Lazarus Hammond; Yice-Presidents, 0. F. 

 Marshal, Israel R. Wood, and Lyman Balcom; Secretaries, 

 Theron Loomis and Ziba A. Leland; and Treasurer, Henry 

 Brother. In comparison with the amount of premiums 

 now awarded by the society, it may interest some to know 

 that the society then gave only one hundred and seventy 

 dollars in premiums. 



For the year 1843, Lazarus Hammond was re-elected 

 President; Wm. Baker, Israel R. Wood, and Otto F. Mar- 

 shal Yice-Presidents; James Shannon and Robert Campbell, 

 Jr., Secretaries; and Henry Brother, Treasurer. 



For the year 1844, Israel R. Wood was chosen Presi- 

 dent ; David Smith, John J. Poppino, and Daniel N. Ben- 

 nett, Yice-Presidents ; Wm. Cook and Lay Noble, Secreta- 

 ries ; John Richardson, Treasurer. The fair of this year 

 seems to have been the last one held by this society, and 

 immediately after the close of the fair, which was upon 

 the river-flats in the village of Bath, southwest of the 

 Pulteney Land-Office, the society disbanded; and from that 

 time Steuben County was without a county agricultural 

 association until the year 1853, when the organization of 

 the present society was effected, under the provisions of 

 chapter 169 of laws of 1841. 



On the 18th day of May, 1853, upon application made 

 to Philo P. Hubbell, then clerk of the county, said clerk 

 gave public notice, as the statute required, that on Wednes- 

 day, June 22, 1853, a meeting would be held at the court- 

 house in Bath for the purpose of organizing a county agri- 

 cultural society. This meeting was largely attended by 

 the leading farmers of the county,— Hon. Goldsmith Den- 

 niston presiding and Robert B. Yan Yalkenburgh acting as 

 secretary, — and an organization then completed, and the 

 following officers elected : President, Goldsmith Denniston ; 

 Yice-Presidents, A. F. Marshall, J. B. Mitchell, A. B. 

 Dickinson, Lyman Balcom, Redmond S. Davis, and John 

 Yan Wie; Treasurer, George Edwards; Corresponding 

 Secretary, R. B. Yan Yalkenburgh ; and Recording Sec- 

 retary, George S. Ellas. 



The first annual fair of the society was held at Bath, on 

 the 12th and 13th of October, 1853, in the open field, on 

 the larm of Robert Campbell, at the junction of Morris 

 and Steuben Streets, temporary str^ctures having been 

 erected for the purposes of the exhibition. 



Early in 1854, the new board of officers elected entered 

 into an agreement with the heirs of the late Dr. Ten Eyck 

 Gansevoort, who then owned the portion of the society's 

 present fair-grounds in Bath, — fronting on Washington 

 Street, — to lease said lands of said heirs for a term of 

 years ; and the same year said grounds were properly in- 

 closed and the only exhibition building erected thereon 

 that the society had until 1867, and on these grounds the 

 society has since held all its annual festivals and fairs. 



The society seems to have had a prosperous career from 

 the time these grounds were taken, for while the total re- 

 ceipts for the year 1853 were only two hundred and fifty- 

 eight dollars and six cents, they reached the then large sum 

 of nine hundred and sixty-six dollars and ninety-five cents 

 in 1854 ; so that, by skillful and honest management, the 

 society's officers were, in the course of two or three years, 

 enabled to make a contract for the purchase of said prem- 

 ises, and in 1862 they received a deed for the same, pay- 

 imr therefor the sum of twelve hundred dollars. 



Almost immediately upon securing title to these lands, 

 the members of the society began to feel that the buildings 

 were insufficient and too inferior, and during the years 1863 

 and 1864 several efforts were made to secure voluntary do- 

 nations sufficient to warrant the society in attempting the 

 improvements, but without success ; and yet the hard and 

 gratuitous work done by Hon. David McMaster, in this 

 regard, in 1863 and 1864, made the task all the easier for 

 those who followed him in the effort, in 1867. 



In 1866 the matter of new buildings and larger grounds 

 and accommodations was brought up at the annual meeting, 

 and after some discussion laid upon the table. 



At the annual meeting of 1867 the matter was more 

 generally discussed, and Warren W. Willson, Jonathan 

 Robie, Chas. N. Ackerson, Azariah C. Brundage, and Chas. 

 H. Robie were appointed a committee to solicit funds for 

 these improvements ; and they entered upon the work with 

 a will, and in a short time secured donations to the amount 

 of three thousand dollars, from the citizens of Bath and 

 some of the other towns in the county. 



This movement, which resulted in the enlargement and 

 improvement of the grounds, was directed by Robert B. 

 Wilkes, who had just been elected the society's president ; 

 and to his energy, sagacity, and untiring labors the society 

 is indebted more than to the efforts of any other man for 

 what was then done. 



A special law was procured to be passed by the Legis- 

 lature, enabling the society to mortgage its real estate, for 

 the purpose of raising funds to buy additional lands in the 

 the rear of the old grounds ; and with the money thus 

 obtained, together with the voluntary donations received, 

 new buildings and fences were erected at a cost of $4877.14, 

 lands purchased costing the society $3125.47, and a new 

 driving-park laid out and finished at a cost of $1593.07. 



The supervision and general direction of all these im- 

 provements was given to Robert B. Wilkes, Charles N. 

 Ackerson, and Warren W. Willson by the executive com- 

 mittee, and the work well done. 



At the end of the year 1867 the society owed about 

 $4000, $2639 of which was secured by mortgage on the 

 society's lands, and running for twenty years. 



