Friday, July 15, 2011

Murray Seasongood's Fair Memory

Murray Seasongood was a great figure in Cincinnati history. He was a scholar, author, lecturer, and philanthropist. He served as mayor of Cincinnati from 1926 to 1930. Later he was a professor of law at Harvard University. Seasongood was named one of the 100 Greatest Ohio Citizens in 1974.

The website of the Cincinnati Historical Society Library provides digital copies of many publications in PDF format. Remembrances of a Youthful Nonagenarian by Murray Seasongood is available in its entirety (patience, the PDF takes a few seconds to load). Near the end of the publication, Seasongood shares his memory of Carthage Fair. Here's a quote:

There were side shows, some of doubtful taste. An outstanding feature of the fair was the derring-do ascent of a man in a gas balloon. Another feature was watching Maude S., the world's champion trotter, which made the mile in 2:08%.

Go to page 27 to read about the buggy ride to the fair and the vegetables, jams, vases, and paintings entered in the competition.

Seasongood leads into this paragraph discussing the Schenk family, with whom his family boarded as visitors for several summers. I wonder if this is the Schenk farm in Deer Park (Seasongood mentions the "nearby Silverton Station"). I believe the original farmhouse still stands on Schenk Avenue. Author Lester V. Horwitz describes the farm and a visit from John Hunt Morgan during his infamous Civil War raid of Cincinnati in The Longest Raid of the Civil War: Little-Known and Untold Stories of Morgan's Raid into Kentucky, Indiana & Ohio.


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