Origins of the Crawford County Fair

Ohio race horses helped bring about the county fair

With the excitement of the Crawford County Fair upon us, it’s worth taking a belated look at the origins of the what arguably is the county’s largest and most popular annual event. The fair of as we know it today is nearing 75 years of continuous operation, but in actuality, the county fair—or fairs as it turns out—traces back much farther than this, and not without a little drama along the way either.

We'll Leave the Lights On: Hotels of Crawford County

Hotel Conneaut with new south and north wings added - 1920's

What do the coming of the railroad, the discovery of oil, a major lakeside resort, the healthful promise of mineral springs and travel have in common? The answer lies in the role they played in the development of the hotel business in Crawford County. To list every hotel from the early days of Crawford County would be an exhaustive exercise; and thus we are limited to highlighting a short list of notables.

Mapping History: How Chasing Sanborn's Show What Once Existed

The Sanborn Map Company 

Those interested in the past often obsess over the "when" of things. The first person settled in 1822. The first brick home was built in 1845. The first train arrived in 1888. Columbus sailed the ocean blue in…

But the "where" is important, too, because things exist in both time, and space. There's a reason your home, your town, or the road you travel is where it is. Hardly anything, in fact maybe nothing, ends up where it is purely by chance.

The Meadville Mutuals: Baseball Champions of 1875

Meadville Mutuals Team Photo

Opening day of the 2016 Baseball season is upon us yet again which among other things, presents the opportunity to highlight the area's curious place as part of America's pastime.  Like many towns of the day, organized baseball first started to be played in the area sometime during the 1860's. The sport's growing popularity led to the organization of semi-pro clubs in rural and urban communities across the Eastern and Midwest parts of the country. Crawford County followed the trend with the formation of the Meadville Mutuals in 1871. Other area teams would follow in the decades to come--the "Meadvilles" of the 1880's who eventually entered the Oil, and NYPANO Leagues of the 1890's followed by competition in the Erie Railroad of the 1900's. Allegheny College fielded its first team in 1881, competing against the Mutuals in addition to the Keystones, Meadville Stars, and Meadville Grays. Moving into the new century, teams were built from the employees local companies, such as the Spirella-Pullmans who dominated regional play throughout the tri-state area from 1909 to 1913, and the Meadville Machinery Company Nine who were the main draw of the 1920's.

The Underground Railroad's Secret Operations in Crawford County

As we reflect on this country's African American heritage, it’s worth noting Crawford County’s role as a branch of the Underground Railroad. In the years leading up to the Civil War, area residents, like much of the state, predominantly held to anti-slavery views, even though the Census of 1810 shows that 32 slaves were registered by owners in the northwestern counties including Crawford. Pennsylvania, however, was among the first states that attempted to legislate the abolition of slavery beginning with the 1780 Act which prohibited residents from importing new slaves into the Commonwealth. This was further reinforced in 1788 by an amendment closing loopholes in the original Act that slave owners had been using to their advantage. 

While Pennsylvania may have chartered an anti-slavery course, at the Federal level the stance was much different. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 which, in effect, gave teeth to the Constitution’s provision under Article 4, Section 2, protecting the rights of slave owners to recover their property in the form of escaped slaves. When Pennsylvania attempted to extend freedoms to these escaped slaves in 1826, it sparked a legal debate concerning state versus federal authority on the matter.  With Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the issue reached the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Court deemed the escaped slave law unconstitutional as well the previous Acts of 1780 and 1788. The harsher penalties imposed by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 only aggravated Northern states which by then, were already teaming with slave owners, agents, and spies relentlessly hunting down escaped slaves without recourse. 

How Crawford County Forever Changed Women's Undergarments

Lady Mary Crawley's corset in an early episode

Change stands prominent as the obvious theme depicted in TV’s historical drama, Downton Abbey. The show begins famously with news of the Titanic’s sinking in 1912 and spans to 1925 where it will close out its sixth and final season. Most familiar with this period recognize the breadth of change that took place between those years and the lasting impact yet to come in the decades that followed. While there are almost innumerable aspects of this that could be analyzed through the story of the Crawley family and their house staff, the increasing freedom for women is consistently at the forefront of a larger majority of plot lines.

The topic of women’s growing independence could alone be scrutinized through varied contexts, and in fact, has already been visited in an earlier Crawford Messenger post dealing with women’s right to vote and to hold public office. Another representation of change for women can be seen, quite literally, in the evolving fashions highlighted throughout each season. Fashion offers one of the clearest expressions of women's growing freedom, and no item of apparel better represents this than the corset.