At a Meeting of the Brookfield Agricultural Society, on the 25th day of January, A. D. 1813: ...voted that, to incude exertions for raising the best Cattle and Sheep...

A VERY EARLY AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL FAIR

[AGRICULTURAL FAIR, BROOKFIELD, MASS.]. At a Meeting of the Brookfield Agricultural Society, on the 25th day of January, A. D. 1813. Upon the Report of a Committee appointed at the last meeting, Voted that, to induce exertions for raising the best Cattle and Sheep, the following Premiums, to be paid out of the Funds of the Society, be offered---viz. First Lot...The time and place for the exhibition of said Sheep and cattle shall be on the first Monday in September, A. D. 1814, at the present dwelling house of Capt. Simeon Draper, in Brookfield, when and where the estimate shall be made and the premiums adjudged... 4to broadside, 9 3/4 x 7 1/2". [Brookfield, Mass.: Printed by E. Merriam & Co., 1813]..

We find no reference to the existence of this early American agricultural society, except by the only other copy known which is at AAS. The first American agricultural fair was organized by Elkanah Watson in Pittsfield, Mass., September, 1811, after organizing the Berkshire Agricultural Society, then known as a "Cattle Show." Brookfield's event, like Pittsfield's, was also a competition, with prize money awarded. Nine separate premiums to be awarded for first, second and third best sheep, bull, and heifer in three separate competitions, or "lot," from a low of $3.00 to a high of $10.00. Premiums list followed by 7 lines setting out rules and time and place for the exhibition on the first Monday in September, 1814 at the present dwelling of Capt. Simeon Draper, In Brookfield. "Published by order of the Society. John Muzzy, Recording Secretary." Manuscript note at bottom: "Meet at Capt. Bond's in North Brookfield on the last Monday in January 1814 at 1 l'clock P. M." Docketed by hand on verso. Simeon Draper was a soldier during the Revolution, owned the old Brookfield Tavern in West Brookfield, owned and operated the stage line between Brookfield and Springfield, was an elected state official, and hosted Lafayette as a guest in his house on the former's tour of the United States in 1825 (see, Thomas W. M. Draper, The Drapers in America [1892], pp. 59-60). Somehow the existence of the Brookfield Agricultural Society is unnoticed by the online history of such Massachusetts fairs by the Massachusetts Agricultural Fairs Society. OCLC (AAS only). The same source records four other society broadsides, 1814, 1816, 1817, respectively, and an undated one from the same period, otherwise the society is completely unknown. Not in American Imprints. Folded, and slightly browned.