Thursday, June 14 – Mercer County
at 7PM
Celebrating the 100th Mercer County 4-H Fair
Howell Living History Farm, 70 Woodens Lane, Lambertville NJ 08530
The Hopewell Valley Historical Society in collaboration with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Mercer County and Howell Living History Farm is presenting a program by speaker Larry Kidder at Howell Farm in the Fish Barn at 7:00PM.
As part of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Mercer County 4-H Fair, it is appropriate to look back at the times and early activities that led to its creation. This talk by Howell Living History Farm historian Larry Kidder tells the story of the changing nature of agriculture that led to changes in rural life in the early 20th century. Because of the many new opportunities in towns and cities developing from the industrial revolution, a focus on celebrating rural life and finding ways to make farming a viable lifestyle led to the creation of educational opportunities for all ages and especially the young. The 4-H programs that we know today grew out of that movement. In Pleasant Valley, one of the earliest and very successful programs for young people in Mercer County developed into the Pleasant Valley Calf Club during the second decade of the twentieth century. One activity of the club was putting on a community-wide agricultural fair in the summer held at the rural schoolhouse in the center of the Valley. The Calf Club and other youth clubs devoted to aspects of rural life became part of the growing 4-H program and the annual county 4-H fair. Today, the Mercer County 4-H Fair is held in central Pleasant Valley near where those early Calf Club Fairs were held.
