CHARDON, Ohio – Ask any county fair manager in any state and they’ll tell you that their fair is the biggest and the best in the state. Some will boast and say their attendance is higher than those in adjacent counties, or that their live entertainment is unsurpassed. The bragging never ceases.

But a few fair boards in each state claim that their fair is the oldest in the state, and those claims can be hotly debated at times.

For instance, in Ohio the first Agricultural Society in the state was founded in 1818 in Trumbull County. But the first county fair in the state is a debate between those in Ashtabula County and Geauga County.

A little investigation gives the edge to Geauga by about a mere eight months.

On Oct. 30, 1822, a group of pioneer citizens met in Jefferson, Ohio, to form the Ashtabula Agricultural Society. In January 1823, the first annual meeting was held to elect officers. It wasn’t until October of that year that the first cattle show and fair was held in Austinburg on the first Tuesday in the month.

Documents verify that Geauga County’s Agricultural and Manufacturing Society met in 1822 and held its first annual fair on the square in Chardon in February 1823.

Hard to believe that the birth of county fairs in Ohio began when James Monroe, the fifth U.S. president, was proclaiming the Monroe Doctrine and the state of Ohio was only 23 years old. The invention of modern conveniences like the telephone, television and automobile were decades away.

Time changes things, but at the Geauga County Fair, some things remain the same. Many of the buildings on the grounds date back to the 19th century. The Domestic Arts Hall (built in 1856, rebuilt in 1889) is now on the National Register of Historic Places, as is the Flower Hall (built 1890). A section of the old C&E Interurban railway station still stands and serves as the fair’s Administration Building.

The Geauga County Fair has been held continuously each year (a somewhat remarkable feat in itself) despite multiple national conflicts, including the Civil War, Spanish-American War, two World Wars and the Great Depression. The fair is billed in its motto “Something for Everyone Since 1823.”

The origins and spirit of the Great Geauga Fair actually date back another 25 years to 1798, when the families of the earliest settlers in Burton, the Umberfields, first held a gathering that June. They called it a “jollification,” or fair as it became known, based on the early fairs of Europe and the East. This continued for the next 25 years.

Premiums were awarded for such things as the best bull ($10), best piece of linen ($5) and best grass or straw bonnet ($4).

While the Ohio State Fair was moved from city to city in its early years, so too did many of the county fairs in the state. And the Geauga County Fair is no exception. The early fairs were alternately held between Burton and Chardon, with one fair held in Painesville and one in Jefferson prior to the formation of Lake County, which separated from Geauga County in 1840.

The “Great” in the fair’s name and seal was officially added early this century to signify the fair’s seniority standing as the “Great Granddaddy” of Ohio’s county fairs.

While the Elkhart County Fair in Goshen, Ind., is that state’s large county fair, it is not the oldest. That dispute is between those at the LaPorte County Fair in LaPorte and the Harrison County Fair in Corydon.

Indiana history books side with those in LaPorte (1845) with its 176 years of documented existence. On the flip side, those in Corydon state that theirs is the oldest CONTINUOUS fair in the state, beginning in 1859 but held at the same location with no years of postponement. (Corydon, incidentally, served as Indiana’s first state capitol from 1816 to 1825).

Corydon is engrossed in other history as well. The Battle of Corydon took place four years after the Harrison County Fair began. The Battle of Corydon was a minor attack that occurred during Morgan’s Raid in the American Civil War. It was the only pitched battle of the Civil War that occurred in Indiana.

The timeline for the Harrison County Fair is mirrored by other fairs in the state. For instance, admission to this fair in 1866 was 25 cents per person and 25 cents for a one-horse vehicle.

In 1871, the Round Hall was built for exhibits and in 1906 the first automobile (an air-cooled Richmond) was driven to the fair. With the advent of electric lights, a night horse show was held in 1914.

In 1916, fish sandwiches sold for 10 cents, and the following year the Ferris wheel arrived for the first time. In 1927, the grandstand was built and in 1929 the Queen Contest was added. By 1955, roughly 15,200 people attended the six-day fair. In 1961, a fire destroyed the grandstands.

There was no shortage of entertainment to this granddaddy of a fair. Performers such as Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys, Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner made appearances in 1970. The first tractor pull was held in 1976, and the fair continued in 1997 despite a large flood that played havoc with the fairgrounds.

Coles County (1854) and Williamson County (1857), both in Illinois, claim to have been around longer than the other.

The Coles County Fair may be given the nod since the Coles County Agricultural Society was formed in Charleston on May 24, 1841. The society held three successive fairs (1841-1843). Each fair lasted one day and, as there were no grounds belonging to the association, they were held on the town commons.

There’s a great deal of history behind the Coles County Fair. It was the site of the fourth of seven Lincoln-Douglas debates on Sept. 18, 1858, where an estimated 12,000 were in attendance.

The Williamson County Fair is sprinkled with interesting history as well. With the donation of 10 acres of land on Marion’s east side, the first fair was held in 1857. That year there were no buildings of any kind and tickets were sold through a small hole cut in a wooden fence.

In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt visited the Williamson County Fair during his campaign and entertained 10,000 in the fair’s infield. And that infield hasn’t changed much since that day. Today, horsemen have enjoyed harness races on that same oval for more than 100 years.

Holding the distinction of being the first county fair in Kentucky is the Mercer County Fair and Horse Show. It got its start in 1828 and is still today billed as one of the nation’s top (and oldest) outdoor saddlebred horse shows.

“You can bet on it, ours is the oldest fair AND horse show in the state and nation,” said Dr. LeMayne Ellis, who has served as the fair’s president the past 18 years.

Actually, the Mercer County Fair is the oldest county fair to have started as a fair and a horse show. And while the fair has its own history, so does the horse show. Today, that four-day equine event includes more than 630 entries in 109 classes.

Harrodsburg is 25 miles southwest of Lexington. It was established in 1774 by James Harrod. The Native American attacks forced the residents to abandon the area during Dunmore’s War. Harrodsburg was resettled in 1775. The city also witnesses Native American fights during the American Revolutionary War. Residents in these parts are far less impressed with wars and settlements than they are with the origins of their long-lasting fair.

“The oldest fair in the state is the Mercer County Fair,” said Chris Caudill, director of the shows and fairs division at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. “Though I don’t have any documentations, but is has been mentioned to me it may be the oldest in the United States.”

History books, though, prove that the Topsfield Fair in Topsfield, N.Y., is, indeed, the oldest agricultural fair in America. In 1818, men of Essex County formed the Essex Agricultural Society. The first president of the fair was Col. Timothy Pickering, of Salem. Pickering was a Revolutionary War hero and agriculturist.

Debates occur in the east as well. You can’t convince those in Pittsfield, Mass., that their fair wasn’t first in the country. They claim that their fair originated in 1807, though it was basically just a sheep shearing demonstration and contest. That fair was the brainchild of sheep farmer Elkanah Watson, who simply wanted to promote farming practices.