History
The first fair was held in Madison County in 1923.
Then it was known as the "Madison County Fair & annual School Meet".
Exhibits were displayed in the school buildings and in middle of the Huntsville Square.
At the time the county was divided into nine districts and from what we read in newspaper clippings and the stories that have been passed down through generations, they were very competitive.
Within a couple years the fair had grown in county wide participation and was renamed the
Madison Country Fair & Harvest Festival.
Exhibits were displayed in the American Legion Hut, Grade School buildings & the new ball park.
Floats were built on horse drawn wagons as a parade made it way through the town square.
There was approximately $300.00 in premium money which was donated by local businessmen from the Huntsville, Hindsville, and Kingston areas.
Present
Making sure that our roots are not forgotten we proudly display exhibits in the traditional divisions of canning, cooking, heritage skills, sewing, horticulture and of course the displaying of hard work year round in the livestock show. We have continued the tradition of education by having local clubs and organizations set up educational booths as well as local Extension Homemakers Clubs displaying the lost but not forgotten skills of homemaking. We continue on with a steady growth but admit, each year becomes increasingly harder to keep a county fair going. We are among the top in the state as a small county fair. We have a hard working group of people who are dedicated to making our fair a success. We take pride in our county fair and with the exhibit buildings & livestock barns being filled and the continued support from those local and state wide, we are debt free.
Future
Our goal is to continue to grow, educate and to get more youth involved.
We will continue our educational process through new techniques of heritage skills, food preservation, horticulture & livestock which has affect on family life whether it be direct or indirect. Exhibiting at county fairs help to educate the public in these new techniques. Future plans are to enlarge the livestock barn & the continuation of renovating the exhibit building that would be suitable for entertainment & could be rented to other organizations for meetings. We are committed to making our good fair,better and will strive to continue working to keep the fair growing steadily each year.
"The only thing that endures over time is the 'Law of the farm.'
You must prepare the ground, plant the seed, cultivate and water if you expect to reap the harvest."
-Stephen R. Covey