Read between lines

Regional fairs were popular events in 
pioneer Florida. (Gerri Bauer photo)

About 260,000 people lived in Florida in 1879. They rattled around in the state's 67,760 square miles. For comparison, the state's current population is about 22 million -- 22,000,000 versus 260,000. 

The state in 1879 was basically empty. Regional social or other events were limited. People were more focused on survival. And intrastate travel was challenging and time-consuming.

But residents flocked to gatherings that did take place and made the most of them. That's clear in an 1879 Florida Agriculturist newspaper article about that year's Central Florida Fair. Which, for some reason, took place in Tallahassee in northern Florida.

I don't know about fairs where you live, but in my area entries into the county fair food division have dwindled over the years. They're almost down to nothing. Imagine my surprise when I read that Mrs. W.H. Gibson entered "355 articles, all prepared by the same lady" at the 1879 fair. Her entries included 117 types of preserves and 82 varieties of jelly. 

Even weirder is how one item, a jar of watermelon citron preserves, was noted to be 25 years old. Did competitors save their items and enter them year after year in one giant pile? They must have. Because Mrs. Gibson wasn't an outlier.

Mrs. W.H. Scott entered 220 kinds of jellies, preserves, syrups, marmalades and other items. Mrs. T.J. Young bemoaned how she only had 116 varieties to enter because several jars broke during her journey to Tallahassee from Thomasville, Georgia. Other things were too difficult to transport. I wonder what they were. Among the items that did make it were an intricately carved and preserved watermelon rind basket and seven kinds of wine.

The fresh fruit and vegetable divisions were also popular categories. In these areas, people seemed to enter a lesser number of goods per person. Several outstanding competitors, most of them men, were listed by name and type of entry or entries.

This was a time when members of local black populations often weren't dignified by given name in or out of print. I was glad to read that, "Three very large and fine pumpkins were put on exhibition by Becky Pope, a colored woman of this county."

Not sure why there was a need to mention race. But it was a very different time, almost 150 years distant from our 21st century eyes. I credit the reporter for including Becky's name and the editors for keeping it in the story. Their actions gave her an identity and preserved it through time. 

Read between the lines, though. The precise wording could have constituted a slight snub or simply an acceptance of local tradition. Becky's name is presented in a less-respectful way than dictated by the era's formal naming conventions. The women who entered all the preserves were each identified by their husband's initials. That's how married women were named in public and in print at that time and into the 20th century. Names of unmarried, presumably white, competitors at the 1879 fair were given in full and preceded by the title Miss. 

We don't know if Becky was single or married, but we do know her full name. That's more than we can say for the married women whose preserves and jellies were entered under their husbands' names. We don't know anything personal at all about the lady who entered 355 items except that her husband's name was W.H. Gibson.

All in all, I was intrigued to see the acknowledgement of black competitors in print only two years after Reconstruction ended. Another part of the article reported that "Several loaves of light bread and other articles in this department were entered by colored women for prizes, against their fairer competitors."

The use of the word "fairer" instead of "white" could have been an intended slight against the black women. Or not. Maybe that was the only way the reporter was able to mention the black women's entries and get it past the editors. Ditto for how Becky Pope was named. I'm a retired journalist. I know how the profession operates  - or operated decades ago, anyway. I don't consider today's bias-driven news to be real journalism.

Back to the fair. No word on who won the bread competition, although all entries were deemed "very creditable." The reporter mentioned that an awards list was issued separately by the fair.

The article goes on and on, listing numerous people - primarily men - and their entries of fruits, vegetables, grains and livestock. The fair must have been a fairly recent initiative, because it was proclaimed a "complete success" and everyone believed it had a bright future. I wish the future of race relations had proved as promising. And I wish I knew the given names of those ladies who produced such marvelous preserves.