History of the Fair

HISTORY OF THE ROCKINGHAM COUNTY FAIR

History of the Rockingham County Fair

By Dennis Cupp

The current Rockingham County Fair Association, Inc. is a not-for-profi t organization and held its fi rst Fair at the Linville Edom High School north of Harrisonburg in 1949. As told by the fair’s fi rst president Charlie Wampler, the commercial exhibit chairman had the commercial exhibit booth partitions nailed to the gym fl oor to the great displeasure of the school principal. The fi rst three-day fair in 1949 made a profi t of approximately $130 and, as reported in the local Daily News Record, 5,000 were in attendance. Additional offi cers were: E.W. Roller, 1st Vice President of VoAg teachers at Broadway and Timberville; H. T. Acker, Sr, 2nd Vice President and 4-H leader from Port Republic; Eva Minix, 3rd Vice President and Virginia Cooperative Extension Home Demonstration Agent; Welty Holsinger, 4th Vice President and 4-H leaders from Pleasant Hill; T. L. Holoman, Secretary and Virginia Coopertaive Extension 4-H Agent; and P. A. “Dick” Carver, Treasurer, poultry business in Dayton, VA. Many fairs, however, were hosted by various organizations and 4-H and FFA were held prior to this at a variety of sites in Harrisonburg, Lacey Springs, and Ed’s Park at Rawley Springs. One archived news article indicates that the “First Annual County Fair at Rockingham” was conducted in 1891. This Fair advertised “jousting, good music, and a grand balloon ascension” where two daredevils ascended to 8,000 feet then parachuted back to earth in “the most daring and thrilling act ever undertaken by an aeronaut.” In 1915, the Fair organization distributed advertising fl yers throughout the county that was recognizing the 50th anniversary of the U.S. War Between the States. A currency-sized fl yer that was printed featured one side that was a facsimile of a $100 Confederate bill while the opposite side was printed with an ad for the 1915 Rockingham County Fair. It promised “Upto-date Exhibits, New Novelties and the Best Fair Ever.” In 1953 land was purchased on Kratzer Road just north of Harrisonburg and the fair was moved there from Linville Edom High School where it had been for three years. In 1979 the Kratzer fairgrounds property was sold to R. R. Donnelley for $1.5 million dollars and 111 acres were purchased from Hazel Wenger and Dennis Early. The new property is one half mile south of Harrisonburg and it was here that several of the buildings were moved from the existing fairgrounds and new ones were also constructed. In 1980 the fi rst fair was conducted at the new location and included a 21,000-squarefoot exhibit hall; a barn complex with more than 80,000 square feet providing space for hundreds of hogs, sheep, goats, beef and dairy cattle; a farm museum; a building for horticulture, fl owers and farm crop displays; and numerous food concession buildings operated by local civic organizations. A 3,200 square foot Virginia Poultry Industry Center including a museum and animal display facility have been added to the assets of the property. The Rockingham County Fair is recognized as one of the leading agricultural fairs. The International Association of Fairs and Expositions has awarded the Fair 1st place for approximately 20 years with the “Overall Program for Competitive Agricultural Exhibitors.”

An aerial view of the sun setting on the fair in 2015.

Rockingham County Fair Past Presidents

1948-1973 – Charles Wampler, Jr. 1974-1975 – Thurston J. Pfoutz 1976-1977 – Douglas L. Flory 1978-1979 – R. Carlton Cupp 1980-1981 – Melvin A. Miller 1982-1983 – Dan W. Brubaker 1984-1985 – Larry E. Garber 1986-1987 – William H. Bowman 1988-1989 – Doris M. Whitmore 1990-1991 – Carroll T. Yankey, Sr 1992-1993 – Nelson W. Sheets 1994-1995 – Charles E. Whetzel 1996-1997 – C.T. Yankey, Jr. 1998-1999 – William C. Simmonds 2000-2001 – Jack Wenger 2002-2003 – Kern Houff 2004-2005 – Tom Burgess 2006-2007 – Kenneth W. Hawkins 2008-2009 – Timothy P. Smiley 2010-2011 – Richard Chew 2012-2013 – Michael Gochenour 2014-2015 – Donnie Liskey 2016-2017 – Brian Carpenter 2018-2019 – Jeff Germroth 2020-current – Ron Williams