Granddaddy of the Fair
J.E. "Gene" Rowell, what the manager of the Fredeicksburg Agricultural Fair for 47 years (from 1948 to 1995). Gene helped the fair move to is current Route 2 location. When Gene started with the fair tickets were a mere 75 cents, gas cost 26 cents a gallon and you could buy a new car for around $1,550. Back then there were at least 40 farms between the fairgrounds and the 5-mile fork area of Spotsylvania. Now, there might be one still hanging around.

The fair was Gene's joy.  It's where he and his family spent their vacations.  They didn't go away on trips for their vacation, they went to the fair.  (They lived 50 miles from the Nation's Capital and never went there.)  Gene took his vacation during the fair and than the week between Christmas and New Years.  Gene lived and breathed the fair even when it wasn't fair week.  He spent most every weekend and some nights after work at the fair from March to November.  During the summer when school was out, Gene would take his family out to the fair to work.

He had a garden that he planted every year (it was located right behind where the sheds are today for holding the golf carts)...it's fenced in still today.  He provided fresh vegetables to everyone who helped with the fair.
There were more vegetables than they could eat so often they would rot on the vine.

Every year he'd buy two Virginia County hams thinly sliced and gave them out to his friends at the fair.  There were always ham biscuits for everyone when they 'divided up' the money with the carnival people at the end of each night.

After attending 52 fairs, he missed Fair 2000. The "granddaddy of the Fredericksburg Agricultural Fair" passed away in the later part of 2000 and will be greatly missed.

This year the fair will be renaming the Commercial Building to the Gene Rowell Commercial Building at a dedication ceremony being held July 25th at 12:00 p.m.
The public is invited to attend. All three of Gene's daughters (Pat, Tama, and Fran) will be at the fair on July 25th for the Memorial.  Gene's granddaughter Anne and her children Joey and Darby (Gene's great grandchildren) will be also be there.

Read article printed in Free Lance-Star (July 1995) about Gene and see more photos here.