A conversation at the most recent Ridgeway Community Betterment meeting prompted me to do some reading about the Farmers’ Picnic. This event was started in 1920 and originally sponsored by M. F. A. It was held in Bert Neff’s grove, about 10 miles east of Bethany and was a three-day event in early to mid-August that included music, speakers, a baby show each day and livestock show for sheep, hogs, cattle and poultry entered by the vocational agricultural students and of course, picnicking.
The picnic grew each year from one day in 1922 to 3 days in 1928. In 1927, attendance of the picnic was estimated to be around 7500 for both days. That year, the program featured “eight speakers, band and two orchestras, readers, singers, ball games and contests”. (Bethany Republican, Aug 17, 1927). Ridgeway performers included the Show Me orchestra and poet Bud Curtis “who read several of his original poems, and his audience was emotionally impressed by his rendition of his fine poem, ‘Awkward Jim’, a war narrative.” Don Killough of Ridgeway performed a special dancing act on the last night of the picnic.
In 1928, M. F. A. members in northern Harrison County organized a second farmers’ picnic in Blythedale, to be held the week before the one at the Neff grove. An item in the Bethany Republican assured people that “the annual M. F. A. picnic in the Neff grove, east of Bethany, will remain unchanged” and that local M. F. A. leaders said that the news about the Blythedale picnic “came as a surprise to them.” In 1929, there were changes to the picnic when it was renamed the “Harrison County Picnic Association” though unofficially it would always be known as the “farmers’ picnic”.
The picnic was an annual tradition until about 1942 which it was cancelled for the duration of World War II. The money that would have been paid as premiums for the livestock show was instead used to purchase war bonds and stamps. Though the board continued to meet until 1947, the farmers’ picnic was never held again and in 1957, the Harrison County Picnic Association was officially dissolved.
Thank you to Nellie for her suggestion and sharing her memories of going to the farmers’ picnic.
Got a favorite memory of Christmas in Ridgeway? I am looking for personal stories and/or pictures of Ridgeway Christmas happenings. If you would like to share, send an email or call me or stop by Paula’s Sewing Corner!
