The attached letter is from Ron Hack. It is a wonderfully written letter on how the fair once was and is today. Thank you Ron for your years of service and kind words. 110 years of the Will County Fair I would like to say THANK YOU to all the Directors and Superintendent’s for all the hard work to make the 110th Will County Fair one of the best in the state. I served as the General Livestock Superintendent for 37 years and 3 years Swine Superintendent before that. I would like to say thank you to all the livestock superintendents who served under me, they all did a great job. I started out showing swine and steers as a young 4-H/FFA member of the fair. My good friend Dr. James Nadler had a tent we would put up under a tree by the old swine barn, which we would stay in all three days of the fair. Jim had Black Poland China hogs and I had Spotted Poland China hogs. The tree is gone and the old swine barn is gone. Jim and I looked forward to the fair, and my father would let me stay at the fair all three days. That was a thrill for me and Jim. After I was out of 4-H and FFA I was asked by the board of directors at the fair to take the General Livestock Superintendents job. This was a new position. It was my job to keep the fair book and the agriculture department up to date. There was changes to be made every year. After the entries closed I would have to decide how many stalls and pens I would need. In the early years there was a lot of livestock in Will County and surrounding counties. I recall one year I had 122 pens of sheep all in one tent, we brought gates from Kankakee County Fair to make pens, we didn’t have enough gates. One year the first day went good until 10:00 p.m. when a storm hit heavy wind and rain, all the tents went down, we worked all night to put the tents back up so we could have the fair the next day. We anchored the tents to tractors. The tent stakes would pull right out of the muddy mess. It was a lot of hard work in the early years. One of the highlights of the fair was the Grand Champion Livestock Parade the last night of the fair. It was held just before evening entertainment would start. The trophies were given out and the people in the grandstand would enjoy it. We had a swine exhibitor John Donley would stand on his head and ride the big old boar in front of the grandstand. The trophies are awarded on the day which the livestock showed. No more tents today. The fair has all modern buildings for each of the livestock departments. Livestock today is few and far in Illinois, it went to all huge mega farms. But the Will County Fair still has its share of livestock exhibitors, and I’m proud of that. The fair has the reputation as one of the cleanest, best run fairs in the state. I will attend the Will County Fair as long as I’m able to do so and hope you will too. Retired General Livestock Superintendent, Ron Hack
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 14:14:42 +0000
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