Fonds - Elma Township Agricultural Society fonds

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Elma Township Agricultural Society fonds

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    Date(s)

    • 1868-1953 (Creation)

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    91 cm of textual records

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    Administrative history

    The Elma Township Agricultural Society was organized on Nov. 28, 1868 at Newry, in the former Elma Township, Perth County. The officers were: President James Simpson, Vice-President Samuel Row, Secretary-Treasurer Daniel Falconer and Directors John Rutherford, James Duncan, William Dunn, James Robb, James Bristow, Avon Lang, John Nixon and William Dickson. The Elma Township Agricultural Fair was held annually at Newry until 1890 when the Elma Agricultural Society purchased three acres of land in Atwood from Young Coulter and built a two storey agricultural hall on the fair grounds. In 1930 a new hall was built and in 1953 the property was sold to Elma Township for a park. Evidence in the Monkton Times newspaper of 28 January 1954 reveals that a meeting of the Elma Agricultural Society was held in Atwood but thereafter no reference has been found regarding the Elma Agricultural Society. Agricultural societies had their origins in 1792 when Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe helped organize the Agricultural Society of Upper Canada upon the example of the English agricultural improvement societies. The goal was to improve agriculture by buying and selling seed, breeding livestock and distributing agricultural books and journals. The firs t societies were organized on a “district” basis. In 1851, an act of the legislature called for an agricultural society for each county. The act also made provision for township branch societies. In 1868 the new province of Ontario reorganized the system by requesting each electoral riding of Ontario to form a society in addition to the township societies. This proved to be inefficient and by 1908 many societies had amalgamated. The agricultural societies are generally the sponsors for the annual agricultural fairs in their community. The Ontario Association of Agricultural Societies (O.A.S.S.) is the central body for all agricultural societies in the province. Its origins were the Agricultural Association of Upper Canada formed in 1846. From 1851-1895 the Agricultural and Arts Association was organized to include other related groups. In 1900 the Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions was formed to be the central body of societies in Ontario and in 1906 the name changed to the Ontario Association of Fairs and Exhibitions which became the Ontario Association of Agricultural Societies in 1936.

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    Scope and content

    Fonds consists of records of the Elma Township Agricultural Society including a minute book, prize account book, prize lists, membership book, correspondence and financial records. Fonds is comprised of the following series: Minute book Prize Account Membership book Prize lists Financial records Correspondence

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    Immediate source of acquisition

    The minute book was purchased by the Stratford-Perth Archives in 1991. The remainder of the fonds was acquired from unknown sources.

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