Historical Information about Ashley, Ohio
First Junior Fair - The Biggest Little Fair
11/21/2025 by L. Ashbrook - - Did you know that the Village celebrated a 100-year anniversary in 2024 of the first Junior Fair in the world be held right here in the Village? Thanks to generous local donors a historic plaque will be installed in 2026 commemorating the celebration. A Friendsgiving fundraising event was held at Harrison Place on November 21, 2025, to finalize the 2024-2025 fundraising effort that raised over $4,000 to support the memorial project.
The plaque text is proposed to read...
The Junior Fair movement began in the Village of Ashley, a small Delaware County village. The Ashley Junior Fair is believed to be the world’s first junior fair. In 1923 a total of 35 boys from a local 4-H Pig and Calf Club, under direction of superintendent and vocational agricultural teacher R.B. Warner, were asked by the Ashley Fair Association, led by editor and publisher of the Ashley Star Charles Ashbrook, to exhibit their pigs. This event was held at the local fairgrounds, then located on the end of South Main Street in the Village of Ashley, an addition to the senior fair that dated back to 1892. In 1924 the idea expanded to be “better than ever” forming a Junior Fair open to, all youth, boys and girls.
In 1930, Charles Ashbrook organized the first Ohio State Fair, incorporating Junior Fair exhibits. He later died in 1934. This first Ohio State Fair was held in Camp Washington near downtown Cincinnati. The junior fair concept then began to spread out to today’s 94 fairs throughout Ohio. It spread to Indiana and eventually nationwide. Today, it is an international movement with Junior Fairs across the world. The Ashley Junior Fair involved participants from Delaware, Knox, and Morrow Counties with gate attendance estimated at 20,000 in 1940 by the Ashley Fair Board president Carl McCurdy. The Ashley Independent Fair operated until 1950, when it was closed and relocated to a new Delaware County Fairgrounds.
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Historic Junior Fair Program Cover (Source Delaware County Historic Society 2024)
Documenting Ashley's History
09/25/2025 by J. Clase - - Growing up on Claypool Road, just outside of town, I heard much of Ashley's history as a series of stories that I know we should share for future generations to appreciate. I invite local historians of all types to submit articles for us to document and share with the community through this blog. I will start here by sharing a composition of town's history that we compiled in 2005 when working with the Village Council to publish a Master Plan.
Town of Oxford - Early Years
Ashley is currently located entirely in Oxford Township, which was originally known as Marlborough Township. Marlborough Township included portions of today's townships of Oxford, Troy, Westfield, Waldo and Marlboro. In 1815 John Shaw successfully petitioned to have Oxford Township organized as an individual township with its existing boundaries. That same year, the Methodist Episcopal Church became the first church organization in the vicinity. The first school was opened in 1828, just north of the current schoolhouse.
Originally called the Town of Oxford, the Village was renamed, Ashley, after major landowners L. W. Ashley and J. C. Avery subdivided their property to create the original village plat (pictured here, 1888 source Bridgman’s Atlas of the State of Ohio, 1888). On June 15, 1849, county surveyor Charles Neil platted the Village of Ashley. In 1850 the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railway was built through the village on a path from Delaware to Mansfield and the village got its first post office. These changes caused the village population to increase significantly. The sixty-nine (69) originally platted lots had expanded to over one hundred and eighty (180) by 1877 as the village expanded.
Village of Ashley Incorporation
On March 3, 1855 a petition for incorporation, signed by approximately fifty residents of the village was filed with the Auditor of Delaware County. At the Delaware County Commissioner's June 1855 session, they heard and granted approval of the petition. On August 30, 1855 the first election for officers was held at the village schoolhouse. In 1862, a special school district was formed of the village and a few of the adjoining farms. (Source Ashley Wornstaff Library 2003)
A few notable historical notes that we look to highlight in more detail in future articles (Source www.pe.com, 2003):
- In 1893, A Spiritualist Camp Association was formed to the north of the village, on land that is now called "Wooley Park." The Camp Association is still active on this property.
- In 1926, the first Junior Fair Building in the United States was erected at the Ashley Fair Grounds. The Vocational Agricultural Department of Ashley School and the Ashley Fair Association promoted this project.
- In 1972, Margaret Fling, a spiritualist minister who founded the White Lily Chapel in 1922 in her Ashley home was nominated for the 1972 Nobel Prize for religion.
If you are interested in being a contributing author or historian, send me an e-mail at joe@plan4land.net. I am looking forward to seeing this blog grow in popularity!
Historic Town Plat, Ashley Ohio (Source Delaware County Recorder's Office 2025)