1937: The Tipton County Fair

In the latest issue of Cypress (The September/October), we visited the home of Mr. Bobby Bomar of Drummonds, Tennessee where we got a chance to meet his pride and joy, his guineas.

While there he showed us a very interesting piece of history when we were interviewing him. It was a 1937 bulletin to the Tipton County Fair, very proudly kept between the pages of his Bible. It contained the names of the owners, riders, and horses from the Tipton County Horse Show held September 9th, 1937 at the Covington Fairgrounds. Mr. Bobby and his family used to go to all the horse shows they had at the old fairgrounds, “It was a big fair. I saw all kinds of things there.”

When asking around about the fairs in Tipton County, Gaylon and Carolyn Combs were eager to share their memories of the fair, “We met at the fair in 1958!” Mr. Gaylon told us. Mrs. Carolyn recalled how much the Ferris Wheel scared her, “It just went way too high!”

Lee McMurray also recalled going to the fair as a child, “On the first Saturday of the fair, they would run a school bus from Drummonds to Covington.” He also recalled that, “The fair was located over across from Byers Hall High School on the old football field. We would go see all the exhibits and people would bring cows and hogs for ribbons. People would bring jams--all kinds--to be judged; basically like they do at the Mid-South fair. I think there were pies and all kinds of stuff like that.”

To learn more about the fairs’ history, we reached out to David A. Gwinn the Tipton County Genealogist and Local Historian. He was able to confirm that the fair had “staples you would find at any fair. There were agricultural items, livestock, pageants, all types of exhibits. They also had  carnivals, a midway, food vendors, and in the early days freak and snake shows.”

According to Mr. Gwinn, “the Tipton County Fair Association was composed of a Board of Directors and numerous committees made up of leading citizens from all over the County. It was their job to raise funds to conduct the fair, to promote the fair as well as to form committees to look after various aspects of the fair.” The fair associations headed by J. H. Bennett and later Jack Guttman were some of the best known fairs. It was Mr. Guttman that was able to get a young Jerry Lee Lewis and Charlie Rich.

If you have any information about the history of Tipton County Fairs or fair’s in your own county, we would love to know more! Please contact us at 901-840-3139 or at contact@cypressmag.com.

Historical Information provided by David A. Gwinn
Tipton County Genealogist and Local Historian