A Peek into Summers County’s Past: The Greenbrier Valley Fair

FAIRLEA W.Va. (Hinton News) – I had forgotten I had this piece until I found it buried in a box of old local calendars and advertisements recently. Even though it does not have direct ties to Summers County, it is one of the counties that makes up the Greenbrier Valley. And this is such a rare piece I couldn’t pass up sharing it. 

The West Virginia State Fair in Fairlea, was originally called The Greenbrier Valley Fair as can be seen on the pamphlet for it from 1930. It started in 1854 when Greenbrier County was still part of Virginia. In 1941 the West Virginia State Legislature passed an act to officially change its name to “The State Fair of West Virginia.”

Prior to then and until recent times the fair was primarily focused on agriculture, livestock and other things of that nature. It was common for the citizens of Summers County to travel to the fair, either The Greenbrier Valley Fair or especially once the name was changed to The State Fair of West Virginia.

My grandfather, Bernard Thompson, loved telling the story of when he was seven years old in 1934. His family loaded up in their Model A Ford and traveled from Talcott to Fairlea to “take in the fair” as he called it. At that time you could park on the fairgrounds itself, it wasn’t until much later the parking lot across the road was built. 

As families would often do at that time my great-grandmother Gladys had packed a lunch and the family intended to picnic around the large oak tree that stood by the grandstand. Even when I was a child this tree was known as “the meeting spot” if you were at the fair. But like many odd happenings that occurred in 2020; asteroids close to Earth, locusts, odd weather events, the beginning of the pandemic and many others. For instance, the tree, or “the meeting spot” as it was more commonly known fell victim to 2020, as well when one-half of it fell and the remaining part had to be cut for the public’s safety. A large section of the tree fell, forcing them to cut the remainder of it.

I digress, Granddad got separated from his parents and spent the entire day looking for them and finally spotted his father, Orice Thompson, after about an 8-hour search. Getting back to this pamphlet, it advertised it as “Our fair is conducted for the benefit of farming, livestock and industrial & educational interests.” It further discusses this topic by saying “An Exposition Reflecting the Agricultural, Industrial and Commercial Achievements of this Section.”

As you can see in the 1938 photo of the Greenbrier Valley Fair it would have been very easy for a little boy from Talcott, West Virginia to get separated from his family. In one of my precious pieces, I discussed my Grandfather, David “Gene” Jones, and the ox yolks he hand-made on his farm in Pence Springs. For decades he would show and compete his prize draft horses at the fair. My father would sleep in the barn of the night when my grandfather would have to come home.

In its early years, The Greenbrier Valley Fair was five days of events as is reflected by this piece. What would later become the State Fair of West Virginia immediately started taking shape and growing over the first few decades. In 1921 an old private railtrack that ran through this area was removed, and the concept of the race track was created. Many prominent names are known in the Greenbrier Valley to this day and a team of horses that was supplied by Wilson Bros. built the one-half-mile track that is still in use to this day, 103 years later.