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County Fair
During the early 20th century, county fairs were anticipated with a passion that might only be compared to the modern fans’ fervor about an approaching Super Bowl. For most rural families the excitement built all year long, transmitted through the community and magnified to unendurable proportions as the opening of the county fair loomed. Everyone in the community prepared for the competition with gusto, bragging and circulating whoppers of contentious proportions. Governor Kraschel of Iowa (1933-37), for example, managed to humiliate the governors of neighboring states with the entry of a 19-foot cornstalk ― claiming that the 16-foot entries of the others were supposed to have been stolen by night from some thin patches in Iowa that had been replanted late in the season. Author Phil Stong grew up in Iowa and spent fifteen years as a reporter for the evening Stock Shows at the Iowa State Fair. County Fair is a summary of the highlights. From 2000 pound hogs, “dainty-footed as ballerinas, deadly as scythes gone maniac” ― to a horse called Walnut, a seven-gaited wonder (only two gaits were forward) ― to the breathtaking career of Dan Patch, a harness racing horse purchased in 1902 for $60,000 and who never tasted defeat, County Fair is a collection of stories that is bound to give readers an insightful and entertaining glimpse into Iowa’s history and evoke a nostalgic twinge or two for a bygone era.
40 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 14, 2015
2 people want to read
About the author
Phil Stong
54 books5 followersPhilip Duffield Stong (January 27, 1899-April 26, 1957) was an American author, journalist and Hollywood scenarist. He is best known for writing the novel State Fair, on which three films (1933, 1945 and 1962) and one musical by that name were based.
Stong was born in Pittsburg, Iowa, near Keosauqua. His father operated the general store, which is now an antique store. The 1844 brick house where Stong was born is located adjacent to the store and is now a private residence. He attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
Stong scored his first success in 1932 with the publication of his famous novel, State Fair, which was later adapted for the screen as the hit Rodgers and Hammerstein musical of the same name. In addition to his novels, his short stories were published in most of the leading national magazines of the time, and he wrote several screenplays.
As a nine-year old city boy travels from Des Moines, Iowa by train to visit his grandfather's farm in the early 1900s, he imagines how he will impress his cousins ― with stories of skyscrapers and trolley cars, automobiles and the Union Park Zoo, Ingersoll Amusement Park, and the Capitol ― things he thinks might dazzle farm boys. However, as his cousins and his grandfather introduce him to country life, the eyes that are dazzled become his own.
The Iowa Kids 1910 series is a collection of three unforgettable stories -- humorously captured and simply told. Farm Boy, High Waters, No-Sitch the Hound.
As a boy, the author Phil Stong spent many hours on a farm owned by his maternal grandparents -- the Duffields -- where he walked the land, fished in the creek, played in the dairy barn, chored for his grandparents, and otherwise immersed himself in the wonders and wisdom of rural life. Linwood Farm, as it was called, was located just three miles west of Keosauqua across the Des Moines River on the ridge line in Pittsburg. The farm remained in the Duffield family until it was sold during World War I. But in 1932, Stong bought back the family's historic farm which he owned until he died in 1957.
Phil Stong's experiences on Linwood Farm were later captured in many of his literary works, particularly in his books for young people. The Iowa Kids 1910 series is a collection of three unforgettable stories -- humorously captured and simply told.
About his writing career, he once said, "Fell while trying to clamber out of a low bathtub at the age of two. Became a writer. No other possible career."
Stong's The Other Worlds: 25 Modern Stories of Mystery and Imagination, was considered by Robert Silverberg (in the foreword to Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction) to be the first anthology of science-fiction. Compiling stories from 1930s pulp magazines, along with what Stong called "Scientifiction" it also contained works of horror and fantasy.
Stong published more than forty books. He died at his home in Washington, Connecticut, in 1957. Stong is buried at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Keosauqua.
Asked in 1951 to comment on humanism, Stong responded: "I’ve never gone deeply enough into any of the various definitions of “humanism” to be able to make any intelligent or instructive comment on the subject. When I read any of these tenuous expositions, they remind me (a) of the blind men and the elephant and (b) that I’d better have a glass of beer and get to bed. I don’t see how you distinguish between the humanism of More and that of Dewey or of Aristophanes or Lackland or Chaucer or Bunyan or Saintsbury or Taine. The boys that practice it seem to me tremendously more effective than the ones who preach it from the varied pulpits."
Stong was born in Pittsburg, Iowa, near Keosauqua. His father operated the general store, which is now an antique store. The 1844 brick house where Stong was born is located adjacent to the store and is now a private residence. He attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
Stong scored his first success in 1932 with the publication of his famous novel, State Fair, which was later adapted for the screen as the hit Rodgers and Hammerstein musical of the same name. In addition to his novels, his short stories were published in most of the leading national magazines of the time, and he wrote several screenplays.
As a nine-year old city boy travels from Des Moines, Iowa by train to visit his grandfather's farm in the early 1900s, he imagines how he will impress his cousins ― with stories of skyscrapers and trolley cars, automobiles and the Union Park Zoo, Ingersoll Amusement Park, and the Capitol ― things he thinks might dazzle farm boys. However, as his cousins and his grandfather introduce him to country life, the eyes that are dazzled become his own.
The Iowa Kids 1910 series is a collection of three unforgettable stories -- humorously captured and simply told. Farm Boy, High Waters, No-Sitch the Hound.
As a boy, the author Phil Stong spent many hours on a farm owned by his maternal grandparents -- the Duffields -- where he walked the land, fished in the creek, played in the dairy barn, chored for his grandparents, and otherwise immersed himself in the wonders and wisdom of rural life. Linwood Farm, as it was called, was located just three miles west of Keosauqua across the Des Moines River on the ridge line in Pittsburg. The farm remained in the Duffield family until it was sold during World War I. But in 1932, Stong bought back the family's historic farm which he owned until he died in 1957.
Phil Stong's experiences on Linwood Farm were later captured in many of his literary works, particularly in his books for young people. The Iowa Kids 1910 series is a collection of three unforgettable stories -- humorously captured and simply told.
About his writing career, he once said, "Fell while trying to clamber out of a low bathtub at the age of two. Became a writer. No other possible career."
Stong's The Other Worlds: 25 Modern Stories of Mystery and Imagination, was considered by Robert Silverberg (in the foreword to Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction) to be the first anthology of science-fiction. Compiling stories from 1930s pulp magazines, along with what Stong called "Scientifiction" it also contained works of horror and fantasy.
Stong published more than forty books. He died at his home in Washington, Connecticut, in 1957. Stong is buried at Oak Lawn Cemetery in Keosauqua.
Asked in 1951 to comment on humanism, Stong responded: "I’ve never gone deeply enough into any of the various definitions of “humanism” to be able to make any intelligent or instructive comment on the subject. When I read any of these tenuous expositions, they remind me (a) of the blind men and the elephant and (b) that I’d better have a glass of beer and get to bed. I don’t see how you distinguish between the humanism of More and that of Dewey or of Aristophanes or Lackland or Chaucer or Bunyan or Saintsbury or Taine. The boys that practice it seem to me tremendously more effective than the ones who preach it from the varied pulpits."
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