10/03/2025
FRIDAY FUN FACTS - The Resurgence
Clarence B. Wilson (Grandfather of Phyllis “Phee” Ellinghausen, Jean Petcher & Bill Petcher) began talking of creating an agricultural show in 1908. He discussed the idea with Edward Chambers/a local businessman and chicken fancier, William Ketcham/a prominent Dearborn County farmer, Joseph R. Houston/the public school superintendent, Adam Hill,/a wharf-boat owner and local coal merchant, and William Hoskins/a manufacturer.
Extra hitching posts were erected in town to accommodate the visitors. A ladies rest room was placed in the Neff Building on Second Street. Exhibit entries were accepted by Llewellyn E. Davies, fair secretary, and all were displayed out in the open where they could easily be seen. Long tables, constructed of trestles and boards, were placed in the gutters at the edge of the brick and cement pavement on both sides of Second Street from Bridgeway to Judiciary Streets.
Clarence B. Wilson was chairman for the 1909 fair. Edward Chambers was elected chairman, for the 1910 fair, by the Aurora Business Men’s Association. In 1912, Robert L. Johnson was elected president of the Fair Association, a position he held until 1959, with the exception of two years when William Neukom and T.J. Martin held the office for one year each.
In 1940, a building on the riverfront was purchased from the Indianapolis Chair Company, and all exhibits were housed there. Prior to this, exhibits were placed in the old to***co warehouse on Exporting Street.
In 1909 there were 12,000 people and over 700 exhibit entries. By 1958 the fair had grown to over 25,000 people in attendance, with over 1,600 exhibit entries.
In February, 1959, the Aurora Business Men’s Association invited the Aurora Lions Club to assume sponsorship and management of the fair. The invitation was accepted. Since 1959 the annual Aurora Farmers Fair has been organized and managed by many men and women dedicated to community needs in carrying out their international motto: “We Serve.”
FRIDAY FUN FACTS were written and published for 52 weeks in 2019 by Nancy Fahey Turner during the 200th Aurora Bicentennial. Enjoy a look back
