Parade participants competed for the best decorated and most comical rides. These people are posing in front of cars decorated with vegetable and grain products.
Courtesy of the New Bremen Historic Association
Fire bells rang out over New Bremen streets as people lined up their cars decorated in vegetable and grain products. The New Bremen parade immediately dispersed as participants and onlookers rushed to the accommodation barn of St. Paul’s church. After they put out the flames, the parade commenced. Not even a fire diminished the crowd’s enthusiasm for the New Bremen Farmers Picnic in 1920.
This popular, widely advertised event drew crowds from across northwestern Ohio and eastern Indiana. In 1915, its first year, 6,000 people attended. The crowd grew, amassing up to 20,000 people by its last year. New attractions appeared each year, transforming the community picnic into a gathering that resembled a one-day fair.
The annual Farmers Picnic took place around August 15 at Kuenning’s Grove, a wooded area on the northwest corner of Frank Kuenning’s 120-acre farm that was located one mile north of New Bremen. The venue was a popular destination for community gatherings. Kuenning served as the first president of the Farmers Picnic Association and was the former director and president of the New Bremen Tri-County Fair.
For over a decade, the community decorated their rides for prizes and followed a band down the New Bremen streets and onto the grove. Although the parade started between 9 and 10 a.m. every year, its parameters changed to focus on horses and mules, automobiles and trucks or both in 1924. Fifty-five men and two women rode decorated horses in 1921. Participants adorned automobiles with vegetable and grain products, such as oat and corn stalks, greenery and artificial flowers. By 1923 the 75 automotive competitors were judged on three categories: the best fancy decorated, best decorated with farm products and most comically decorated. That year the Forty & Eight Band of Greenville, who had won third place at the national American Legion convention in New Orleans, led the way.
Orchestras played throughout the day and evening. They provided music for the evening dances starting in 1916, when people normally danced past midnight, and afternoon dances beginning in 1920. Orchestras ranged in size from Wapakoneta’s 42-piece Elks Band to Van Wert’s 6-piece Ohioans. Local ensembles, such as the New Bremen-Minster Band and Sidney Municipal Band, made repeated appearances over the years. Other musical groups came from Wapakoneta, Kettlersville, Van Wert and other areas.
The meal took place around noon in the picnic’s first years, when people brought their own picnic baskets. By 1921 the Farmers Picnic Association added refreshments and advertised “amusement concessions.” Four years later, food offerings continued with ads declaring that there would be concessions with lunch and refreshments.
The community listened to speakers after their meal. The first year, attendees braved the heavy rain to listen to Governor Frank Willis’ address and A. P. “Put” Sandles, former president of the state agricultural commission, give a talk titled “Dirt, Dollars and Cents.” T. P. Riddle, Lima Chamber of Commerce secretary, also spoke. Lima attorney B. F. Welty, Democratic congressional candidate, addressed the crowd the next year. F. L. Allen, Farmers Institutes’ state supervisor, served as the 1917 principal speaker. The 1921 guest speaker was Walter F. Kirk, the Ohio General Assembly representative from Ottawa.
Farm-themed demonstrations provided entertainment and education to the crowds. Gordon, Hauss & Folk Company of St. Marys ran a gasoline engine that operated a cream separator, washing machine and pump during the second Farmers Picnic. Ohio State University provided canning and packing demonstrations from 1916 to 1919 and played the educational film “How to Conduct a Dairy Farm” in 1922.
Farm equipment companies also provided tractor demonstrations starting in the picnic’s second year with two local participants, the New Bremen Implement Company and Gast Implement Company. The following year 12 tractors plowed Kuenning’s 18-acre field in under two hours. Up to 15 tractors provided demonstrations annually. Barney Krampe of Krampe Company in Fort Loramie was a regular participant who became known for his demonstrations with Moline tractors. Krampe also displayed his tractors and plows as a merchant exhibitor.
Merchants from across Auglaize County and beyond exhibited their products every year. Guests could peruse displays of farm implements, electrical machines, automobiles, musical instruments, building and plumbing supplies, household appliances, shoes and general merchandise. Businesses from New Bremen, Minster, St. Marys, Lima, Celina, Kettlersville, Fort Loramie, New Knoxville, McCartyville and Coldwater exhibited.
The picnic’s free spectacles took to the air. Two airplanes from Bellefontaine flew in around noon in 1920, but they left five hours later after no one took a ride for $10. For the next two years, Sgt. R. W. Bothrell provided the aerial entertainment. He was forced to parachute early due to engine trouble so the crowd could not see his landing in 1921. The following year, he performed stunts in his plane and parachuted from 6,000 feet. Claude Baughman of Springfield performed wing walking stunts and swung from a trapeze suspended below the plane in 1924. That evening he provided an aerial fireworks display.
Entertainers came from Detroit, Chicago and other cities. For at least six years acrobats entertained attendees for free. They performed comedic stunts, high wire walking, barrel jumping and trapeze. Vaudeville performers and magicians also presented shows.
J. H. Meyer of Lima provided the picnic’s first merry-go-round in 1917. A merry-go-round, giant Ferris wheel and the Merry Mix-up, or rotating swings, became recurring rides.
Several contests amused picnic goers. Participants won prizes for trap shooting in a field near the grounds in 1922. For a chance to win overalls, people guessed the height of a large balloon fastened with a cord in 1926. They also competed for prizes in a team pulling contest in 1928. The public also entered drawings for animals.
The picnic association added sports in the picnic’s later years. New Bremen played Wapakoneta in baseball in 1927 and 1928. Starting by 9:30 a.m., the teams played on a diamond on the grove’s east end.
The grove underwent several additions over the years. A new dance pavilion with a roof was added in 1919. Dances were held in open-air without a cover from the weather prior to this addition. Six years later, Kuenning enlarged the dance pavilion to house a 48-foot square walnut floor. Concessions were also rearranged that year to better serve the visitors. In 1926 Kuenning Grove added its last major addition for the Farmers Picnic: a 0.5 mile dirt race track for automobile and motorcycle racing located on the far east end. The inaugural 10-, 15- and 20-mile races were to be held at the Farmer’s Picnic that year.
The downpour at noon in 1926 caused the dirt track to be too dangerous to race. Most of the contestants left; however, two remained for an exhibition race. “Dusty” Farno of Lima won the 5-mile race, finishing in 5 minutes and 54 seconds. The races in 1927 fared far better. Twenty-six contestants participated in the races. Bill Cummings of Indianapolis won the 5-mile in 4:42. Paul Bost of Detroit won the 10-mile in 9:15, and Francis Quinn of Los Angeles won the 20-mile in 18:42.
Despite its success, the New Bremen Farmers Picnic at Kuenning Grove came to a surprising halt after 14 years. New Bremen Speedway Company bought Kuenning’s Grove in 1928. For the first time, no major new attractions were added that year. Newspapers announced without reason that the organizers would not be having the picnic in 1929, and the Farmers Picnic moved to another location in 1930.
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SOURCE
This feature is a cooperative effort between the newspaper and the Auglaize County Museum and Historical Society.
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