Norfolk Landmark, July 26, 1876
A Word to our Friends on the Eastern Shore
Tourists and sportsmen -- Other recreation - Fairs
No region of Virginia is fairer than the Eastern Shore. It is possessed of a typical population more English in speech, manners, habits and customs than any other part of our population, and for considerably more than two centuries it has been the seat of a brave and energetic people. Take the two counties of Accomac and Northampton all in all, and they may be compared with any part of this or any other State, with no fear of the result; and holding this opinion, we are glad to learn that our friends in that quarter are about to embark in an enterprise which we think will prove greatly to their advantage. According to the Eastern Virginian, our authority on this subject:
There is an effort being made to organize an Agricultural Fair on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, at some time and place to be hereafter determined. This movement is started by the Grangers, but they wish to make it the people's work, for the benefit of all. The membership fees will be $5 for Life Membership, or $1 for annual membership, which entitles each member to pass free with their families into the Fair grounds.
If our friends on "the Shore" have really determined on this experiment we know that they have scratched the world fail out of their vocabulary, and no people are better able to do it than themselves. They have a fine agricultural country of their own, and their horses, we remember, used to be famous in old times, so, with farm products and cattle they would have within themselves the elements of success. But notwithstanding their isolated position, their means of communicating with Baltimore and Norfolk and through these cities with "all the rest of mankind" are so ample that they can readily attract exhibitors of machinery, agricultural implements, and the like articles of interest to the farmer. All they have to do, and we regard the suggestion as of great practical value, is to locate their Fair Grounds at some point easily reached by steam or sail, so that the exhibitors may be saved heavy land carriage with their contributions. There are scores and scores of places on the noble streams which indent the Bay Side, where the water is bold and the primeval oaks still stand, and if some one of these spots be selected we can predict for the scheme a success outside of local support; but even should our suggestion be rejected, we still think that, in a modified degree, the Fair will be a credit to the enterprise of our brothers beyond the Chesapeake.