Perry County has held at least five separate agricultural fairs across two centuries. The first took place in Landisburg in 1821, only decades after frontier society. A second fair was held in New Bloomfield from 1852 to 1859, during a period when agriculture prospered as 68% of the county was involved in farming and enlarged markets were made possible by the Pennsylvania Canal in 1829 and the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1849, but the Civil War brought that fair to a close. After the war, a third fair began in 1868 in Everhartville, Oliver Township, an area of growing industries, and continued there until 1874. In 1885, the Perry County Agricultural Society started a fourth fair a mile north of Newport on the John Kough farm in Oliver Township. After the Newport and Sherman's Valley Railroad began service in 1891, visitors from middle and western Perry County could easily reach the grounds, and the fair thrived, drawing as many as 5,000 visitors a day to exhibits, competitions, and attractions. During this period there was harness racing, automobiles ran around the half-mile track in the late 1930s, hot air balloons launched parachutists in the 1890s, and one of the county's first airplanes performed in 1912. With the coming of World War II and a meningitis outbreak, this fair ended in 1941. A new fair board formed in 1970 leased the former fairgrounds from John Snyder, and in 1971 dedicated leaders including Paul Britcher, Sr., John H. Fox, Leonard Gochenaur, Nila Graybill, Virginia Kling, Jane W. McMillen, Robert S. Mitchener, Harry A. Schreiber, Ralph L. Smith, and Samuel R. Wagner revived the fair. This fifth Perry County Fair, a state-rated Class A extravaganza, attracts thousands annually, and after almost two centuries farming remains the mainstay of Perry County's economy despite the rise and decline of industry.