1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach grow: Pioneer spirit added to ’64 Hanover Fair

The Town of Steinbach followed the example of their neighbours to the west when they combined their annual country fair with a major event honouring pioneers and reminding visitors of the history of the Mennonites in Manitoba.

Morris has “The Big M” Stampede and Exhibition, and Steinbach would have Pioneer Days and Hanover Fair as their major combined event in 1964.

Hanover Agriculture Society president Bill Mooney, repeating remarks he made a year after the 1963 fair, said the 1964 Hanover Fair was “the best ever,” with gate receipts doubling the average of previous years. About 8,000 people passed through the gates during the two-day event, held in conjunction with Steinbach’s week-long 90th anniversary celebrations.

The 19th edition of the Hanover Agricultural Society Fair was kicked off, as usual, with a parade down Steinbach Main Street, but the 1964 fair parade was like no other, coming in the midst of Pioneer Week.

The combination of the two events resulted in a spectacular display of floats on a pioneer theme and many of the participants in period costume were already decked out long before the mile-long parade wound its way down Main Street.

Along the town’s business section, window shoppers were treated to a close-up view of many museum pieces on display. Dave Friesen at Penner Merit created a particularly fine display of artifacts, provided by the Baird family of Giroux.

With storefronts decorated with a façade of logs, staff members already dressed in the styles of yesteryear, the town simply outdid itself in projecting that last-century theme.

In a special gesture of respect for the pioneers, spectators lining Main Street had to wait an extra half-hour, while the parade detoured down Barkman Avenue and Creek Road to give the residents of Rest Haven Home for the Aged a porch-front view of the 90th anniversary parade.

Just as the business community put a great effort into ensuring there would be a real pioneer spirit for the week-long celebration, so had the creators of the dozens of imaginative floats displaying pioneer life.

The Derksen Printers float introduced the steam engine to the Steinbach parade route for the first time. The float depicted an old-time printing shop, complete with a manually operated Gordon press, turning out miniature newspapers, reminding parade spectators that “The Printed Word Lives On Long After the Spoken Word is Forgotten.”

One of the biggest attractions of the day, a huge Case steam engine owned by Standard Engine Works of Morden, pulled the float down Main Street, burning up a cord or two of wood and causing spectators to cover their ears every time the engineer blew the whistle.

C.T. Loewen’s parade entry combined the old and the new with an old-timer mixing cement on a float being followed by a Loewen Ready-Mix truck.

The Hanover Fair again featured all of the old favorites, like the 4-H rally, livestock and horticultural exhibits, and business displays on the grounds, and again drew record crowds. This year, the Hanover Fair gladly took a back seat to Steinbach’s 90th anniversary Pioneer Week celebrations.

Almost everybody got into the act. About 500 people got up early enough to attend a sunrise service at Kleefeld, and hundreds more appeared in full costume for the Main Street breakfast in Steinbach, which followed.

Some 40 volunteers worked feverishly over frying pans to prepare fried eggs, bacon, farmer sausage and coffee in the blocked-off portion of Main Street, with lines of tables stretching from Pete’s Inn to Marshall Wells.

Some of the costumes worn by the breakfast-goers were heirlooms handed down for several generations. There were no horse-drawn carriages to bring the visitors, but several vintage cars helped to add to the old-time atmosphere of the gathering.

Later in the afternoon, some 1,500 people attended a religious service of thanksgiving at the Steinbach Collegiate auditorium.