The fair is a longtime attraction for locals and visitors
One of the longest surviving traditions for everyone who lives in Tuscarawas County is the Tuscarawas County Fair, held each September at the fairgrounds in Dover. It also was in Dover that the Tuscarawas County Agricultural Society was organized on Nov. 10, 1849, as described in the “History of Tuscarawas County, Ohio,” published by the Warner, Beers & Company in 1884.
Its first officers were well-known Dover and New Philadelphia residents including George W. Slingluff, John McElderry, Joseph Welty, H.T. Stockwell, George Welty, Martin Mumma, Joseph Slingluff, James Sewell and Charles Deardorff. The group made the decision to hold the annual event in both towns on alternating years.
The first Tuscarawas County Fair took place Oct. 15-16, 1850, in the Hayden’s Grove area of Dover, the location of the Oak Grove School and currently Dover High School. Horses, cattle, sheep and hogs were the livestock featured, and the exhibition of flowers, needlework, fruits and grain was held in the Oak Grove School.
The following year, New Philadelphia hosted the event Oct. 16-17, 1851, with the fine arts and vegetables displays located in the Tuscarawas County Courthouse and the office of the Tuscarawas County clerk. The event that year drew more than 5,000 people.
Because it was clear a permanent fairgrounds was needed, the Tuscarawas County Fair Board proposed a joint location positioned between Dover and New Philadelphia. When a suitable joint location could not be found, it was proposed both communities designate locations and build facilities to use to continue the alternate-year hosting schedule in each town.
When New Philadelphia representatives failed to agree to the terms, a 3-acre site in Dover on the site of the present fairgrounds was purchased and designated as the permanent location for the fair. An additional 8 acres was later purchased from the estate of Christian Deardorff. Additional purchases increased the size of the fairgrounds to 24 acres in the 1880s.
One of the land acquisitions was the site that served as Camp Meigs during the Civil War. Camp Meigs was established in 1861. It joined two regiments of the Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the 51st and 80th, and the troops converged on the site in October and December 1861, respectively.
Six of its 10 companies were from Tuscarawas County, and the men were sent to fight in the battles of Perryville, Kentucky; Stones River, Tennessee; Chickamauga, Tennessee and Georgia; Missionary Ridge, Tennessee; Kennesaw Mountain, Tennessee; and Nashville, Tennessee.
Other battles fought by Camp Meigs companies from Tuscarawas County took place at Corinth, Mississippi; Vicksburg, Mississippi; Mission Ridge, Tennessee; and Bentonville, North Carolina.
It is on this part of the fairgrounds property the first secretary and treasurer’s office was built in 1872. That same year the harness racing track was expanded to ½ mile. The first harness racing track at the fairgrounds covered 1/3 mile and was built in 1859.
This was followed by construction of the first dining hall, covering 80-by-25 feet in 1874; it was demolished in 1877 when a major wind storm damaged it and the other fair buildings.
Local historian, the late Fred Miller, wrote in his book, “Tuscarawas County, Ohio,” published in 2000 by Arcadia Books, the first few Dover-New Philadelphia football games were held Thanksgiving Day at the fairgrounds beginning in 1905.
The game holds the distinction as the third-oldest football rivalry in Ohio. Miller also reported the fairgrounds was an exhibition spot for the Cleveland Indians baseball team in the 1930s and a motorcycle racing venue from the 1940s to the 1960s.