Liberty Hotel was located on Liberty street, then outside of the corporate limits, but now a part of the town. For many years it was kept by Boswell Alsop and was headquarters for the sporting men of the town. General Sam Houston, after his return from frontier life, spent much of his time at this hotel, and quite a number of the leading men of the South, on their journeys to and from Washington, made it their stopping place. It is an old-fashioned frame house, one story and a half high, of the same style of architecture as the Mary Washington house, and shows that both of them were built about the same time. AGRICULTURAL FAIRS. We have no means of ascertaining where the fairs previously referred to were held or how long they were continued under the act of 1769, or any similar act that might have been passed by the Legislature after Virginia became a State. In the first of the nineteenth century an agricultural fair was held on the Kenmore farm, near the Kenmore building. The gate leading to the grounds was on Lewis street, where it intersects with Winchester street. The stock was exhibited on the fair grounds and the ladies' department was kept on the upper floor of the present city hall. At one time Mr. Samuel Gordon, then proprietor of Kenmore, was president of the association, who was succeeded by Hon. James M. Garnett, of Essex county. It was the custom of this association to have an address by the president on the first night of the exhibition on agriculture and stock raising, which was one of the main features of the fair, and drew together a large number of farmers and others to hear it. A silver cup, awarded to Mr. Jacob Gore for the best wheat fan exhibited at one of these fairs, is now in possession of Police Officer Charles A. Gore, a grandson of Mr. Jacob Gore. It is in a good state of preservation, the inscription on it being "Presented by the Fredericksburg Agricultural Society, 1823." On the left of the inscription is a wheat fan, beautifully engraved, near which is the letter J, which stands for Jacob, and on the right is another fan, near which is the letter G, standing for Gore. We do not know when these annual fairs ceased. About the year 1850, possibly a little earlier, fair grounds were laid out on Green House Hill, covering most of that part of the town where Prof. A. B. Bowering now lives. A Mr. White, of Caroline county, was the first president, Mr. W. N. Wellford succeeding him to that office. The first steam engine for threshing wheat ever seen in this country was exhibited at one of these fairs by the Hope Foundry, of this place, then operated by Messrs. Scott and Herndon. It was constructed by Mr. Benjamin Bowering, foreman of the works. A committee of farmers was appointed to examine it and report upon its merits. After witnessing its work the committee condemned it, because "it would burn all the wheat up." Fairs were held on these grounds about three years.