125 Years of the Dixie Classic
Wheat, cattle gave annual festivity its start
By Janice Gaston
JOURNAL REPORTER
In July of 1882, a group of Forsyth County farmers responded to an invitation to exhibit bushels of wheat and compete for prizes at a wheat fair at Pace's Warehouse in Winston.
According to an article announcing the fair in a local newspaper, the Union Republican (the Journal was founded in 1897), the best of the bunch would get $25 - in cash. That first fair, according to a subsequent article, was a "full, complete and most gratifying success in every particular." The participants included judges for the wheat, orators and 28 exhibitors.
The Dixie Classic Fair, which attracts about 320,000 people each year, traces its origins to that modest gathering, where the Salem Band played and women decorated the warehouse with evergreens, grasses, shocks of green corn and sheaves of grain.
During its 10-day run, which starts today, the Dixie Classic will mark its 125th anniversary. Crowds will flock to the thrill rides on the midway and fill the grandstands to see entertainers. They will try their hands at games of chance and chow down on hot dogs and hot wings, fried Oreos and funnel cakes.
They will also stroll through the poultry barn, marvel at the giant pumpkins and admire displays of fruit and vegetables.
Many county fairs now rely mostly on big-name stars or the latest rides to attract crowds. But the heart and soul of the Dixie Classic Fair is still agriculture, said David Sparks, the fair director since 1993.
"I'm proud that we've kept that part alive here," Sparks said. "I think that's one of the reasons it's treasured so much as a community event."
The line of succession from the first wheat fair to the current Dixie Classic zigzags through fairs devoted to wheat and cattle, fruit and tobacco. Fairs with various names, at various sites, grew, moved and merged.
The wheat fair that started it all expanded to include cattle the next year. In 1887, the fair, held in the district schoolhouse in Vienna township, included competitions for women in such categories as "best pickles" and "best dozen biscuits."
By 1898, the event known as the Piedmont Tobacco Fair had grown enough to fill several warehouses and surrounding streets. Its attractions included a midway, fireworks, a livestock parade, and horse running and trotting.
The railroads were to blame, a story in the Union Republican said, when the Piedmont Colored Industrial Fair of 1900, a separate fair for blacks, failed financially. A lack of transportation kept attendance down. The cars they sent to take people to the fair, a newspaper article said, "were not fit for a decent person to ride in, there being no desirable way to get in and out of them."
The newspaper also gave a description of the parade that opened the Winston-Salem Horse Show, Carnival and County Fair that same year. When R.J. Reynolds founded his chewing-tobacco company in 1875, Winston-Salem was already a production center for flue-cured tobacco leaf. One float contained a model of Winston's first tobacco factory, operated by H. Scales & Co.:
"This float was missing when the parade reached the courthouse, the mules having run away and demolished it enroute," the newspaper reported.
In the early 1900s, the Piedmont Park Co. organized the fairs operating in Forsyth County and formed the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Fair., which operated out of a site on Patterson Avenue. By 1908, the fair outgrew that site. New fairgrounds opened on North Liberty Street, in the area now occupied by Piedmont Park public housing.
The fair stayed in that location for nearly 50 years. In the '20s and '30s, harness racing became one of its mainstays through the influence of Will Reynolds, the brother of R.J. Reynolds. Will Reynolds kept racehorses, said Clark Stephens of Walkertown, and Reynolds backed the fair races with his money. Stephens is superintendent of the Dixie Classic antiques department. Terry Walser, 92, did some harness racing during its heyday.
After Reynolds' death, Walser said, the racing fell off and was eventually discontinued.
Reynolds established the Winston-Salem (Fair) Foundation, which oversaw the operation of the fair. Charles Babcock, the husband of R.J. Reynolds' daughter Mary, donated the land in 1949 that is today's fairgrounds. In 1951, the fair moved in, and in 1956, it took its current name. Jim Graham, who later became the longtime commissioner of agriculture for the state, managed the fair from 1952 to 1955. Other directors included Neil Bolton, 1956-1972; Bill Austin, 1972-1993; and Sparks.
The World of Mirth, which billed itself as "the biggest carnival on earth," provided the midway shows for many years. The midway included minstrel shows, freak shows and "girly shows." In 1963, Sparks said, the company went bankrupt while the fair was in town. Creditors froze its assets, and the rides sat at the fairgrounds for a month before they were auctioned off.In 1964, The Strates Shows started providing the midway attractions for the Dixie Classic. Strates is said to be the only carnival that still travels by rail. For years, tracks ran up to the old fairgrounds, but now the rail cars must park several blocks away.
The Piedmont Colored Fair operated at the fairgrounds for the last time in 1963, and the Dixie Classic became integrated.
It has continued to grow and improve under its succession of managers, Walser said. The fair has been a big part of his life since he was a youngster. After he retired from his job with the post office, he worked seasonally with the Dixie Classic keeping up the grounds and the flowers. He also oversaw the poultry barn.
During the thousands of hours that he has spent at the fair, Walser visited the midway just once, he said. He never cared about the rides or the games of chance; he just cared about the exhibitions.
He has exhibited chickens, pigeons, roses and chrysanthemums. This year, he will compete in the flower shows, and in crafts with a horse he carved. He still keeps a few chickens, but he no longer shows them.
Now, when he visits the fair, he lingers at the education building, the poultry barn and the antiques exhibits.
Della Stephens, Clark Stephens' wife, worked at the fair from 1962 until she retired in 2002 as assistant to the director. She still shows up daily during the fair's run and helps her husband with the antiques exhibits. She remembers some of the famous entertainers who performed at grandstand shows.
The Great Wallendas, the world-famous high-wire act, thrilled crowds with their death-defying stunts. Jerry Clower brought his country brand of comedy there. Reba McEntire sang there. So did Loretta Lynn.
"Most of them have been in my office," Della Stephens said.
Her favorite time at the fair, she said, is when the grounds are filled with people.
"It's just something to see."
