In 1955, many in town still fondly remembered the Fall Fair we had in the 1920s. That long ago Free Fall Fair, actually began in 1922 and continued until 1931. Community leaders felt that starting the fair once again in 1955 would be an asset to the community. The Dublin Development club bought 6 registered Jersey heifers and offered them to students to take care of. The students kept them and bred them and an offspring heifer was donated back to the program for another student to get the next year. Harrell Gilbreath showed his first heifer and won a grand champion ribbon for his efforts. Joe Henderson was the sponsor. Each heifer was purchased by a local businessman for $200.00 dollars. At that time students in Dublin Schools didn’t have a place to show their livestock projects in Dublin, while participating in FFA. That is why the Dublin Fall Fair was so valuable to the school program. (Harrell Gilbreath interview) The Dublin community was ready for the Fall Fair to begin again in 1955. The chairmen were Dr. Joe Pate, Joe Henderson and Vernon Gibson. The plan was to build two pole barns to create a place for the show animals on the fair grounds. Volunteers were asked to come and help with the construction since there was little money to began this new project. The newspaper asked for donations of lumber. Fair leaders arranged for a wrecking crew that could remove any donated building taking the sheet metal as a fee and donating the lumber to help finish the pole barns. The Fall Fair was set for September 29 through October 1st. (Dublin Progress, August 12, 1955) By August 19th, construction was ready to begin. The poles were supplied and put in place by Texas Power and Light. Community labor did the actual roof construction putting up boards and sheet metal roofs on the structures.
The big day in 1955 began Thursday, September 29th with a parade at 3 PM in downtown. The community was coming to life again. All the judges for dairy cattle and beef cattle were well known leaders in their fields. Corey Smith won grand champion junior steer, Dean Bradley won grand champion female, Harold Gilbreath won grand champion Jersey bull and Jerry Pair won grand champion Suffolk ram. The Fair was a huge success and all agreed to continue with the event. (Dublin Progress, October 7, 1955) Local communities had booths where they displayed their products. Lingleville won first place in textiles, Shiloh won first place for farm food preparation and Highland won first place for grown produce. (Dublin Progress, October 7, 1955)