LAST WEEKEND, THE FANELLI FAMILY WAS BACK IN TOWN AS PART OF THE NORTH HAVERHILL FAIR. I MET FEW OF THEM IN BACK IN THE EARLY 1980S WHEN THEY WERE HERE TO PROVIDE RIDES AND AMUSEMENTS FOR THE FAIR.
Bernie Marvin
July 31, 2025
In the days of my earlier life, after the Marvin family bolted from Massachusetts and escaped (as fast as we could), to Haverhill Corner, New Hampshire, I trooped the blistering hot grounds of my first North Haverhill Fair during the last week of July and first week of August 1979.
During the summer before that, which was our family’s first year in God’s Country of Haverhill, I was honored to be sent to the Part-Time Police Academy and later certified as a part-time cruiser operator for the Haverhill Police Department.
Police Chief Stephen C. Savage, my fellow officers, and I provided police security for the fair, which was then located on the grounds of the Post 5245 Veterans of Foreign Wars Field, behind the James R. Morrill School, a building later reborn as the Haverhill Municipal Building on Route 10.
When the fair was in town at the VFW Field, it was jammed packed full of an exciting assortment of family entertainment. The popular fair was smaller then, but the heavy traffic still flowed slowly into and out from the fairgrounds, crammed with amusements, tents, booths, fairgoers, and exhibition rings, animal shows, the midway, and everything else it took to run this growing event, which in 1974 had been lengthened to a four-day fair.
During those early years, around 1982, I recall Fanelli Amusements coming to the fair and setting up their array of different rides and amusements. The company leader at that time was Mr. Jack Fanelli (whose father had set up the company many years earlier), who roamed the midway and other areas, making sure everything was operating safely, that things were going smoothly and that everyone was having a good time.
That was at the time the fair moved from VFW Field to Fred C. Lee Memorial Field down Route 10 to where it is now located. On a recent golf cart ride through the fairgrounds last week, just before the fair opened on Wednesday afternoon, Fair President, David Lackie explained to me that this is his 15th year as the leader of the pack when it comes to working with the fair committee and up to the 300 volunteers needed to run the fair from beginning to end. That is quite a community commitment.
David loves his volunteers and fellow committee members. He indicated that the Fanelli family brought several new rides with them for this year. He said that Fanelli had returned to the fair after nearly a 30-year absence. Besides Fanelli, there have been a number of other companies that have also operated the fair, such as LaGasse Amusements, Marc’s, and Fiesta Shows.
The brothers Joe and John Fanelli now own the Fanelli company. When I worked at the fair it was owned by their dad, Jack, who ran it from his office in a large camper trailer that was parked on the property.
Son, Joe told me that the company started in 1956, basing its winter quarters in Greenville, New Hampshire. In this small town, the fair rides spend their winters before being dispatched to towns and cities throughout New England during each annual fair season.
David Lackie agreed that over the past 43 years, and even before that when the fair, first brought together by members of the Pink Granite Grange, opened in Rinther Church Nutter’s field along Sanborn Street in North Haverhill. The fair also used the Odd Fellows Hall, now the VFW Post, plus the Village Improvement Society building as a display hall.
Last week, riding around the fields, passing animal barns, 4-H display areas, and other fair buildings, it was amazing to see just how far the fair has come since it took its first breath back in 1944.
All those busy people who worked so hard to put the first fairs together, then watching as the fair became too big and had to be relocated, first from a small section of what is now Benton Road over to behind the municipal building at the VFW Field, then move it again from there to the Fred C. Lee Memorial field further south on Route 10.
The old names of Colin and Winnifred Cassady, Florence and Roland Clough, Dr. Frederick and Ellen Erb, Clark and Ernestine Ingalls, Max Robinson, Everett Sawyer, Carroll, Gerald, and Priscilla Stoddard, Forest and Eva Thayer, “Red” and Isabelle Thayer, and Fred Stoddard.
All of these names and more have been preserved in an excellent history of the North Haverhill Fair Association, a book titled “A Look Back, the 50th Anniversary of the North Haverhill Fair.”
Contained within that book, written in 1994, “There is a long list of the contributors' names who gave their time and resources to the fair,” David Lackie said, “and there are many more joining that list each year. That is quite an accomplishment for this area.”
During the summer before that, which was our family’s first year in God’s Country of Haverhill, I was honored to be sent to the Part-Time Police Academy and later certified as a part-time cruiser operator for the Haverhill Police Department.
Police Chief Stephen C. Savage, my fellow officers, and I provided police security for the fair, which was then located on the grounds of the Post 5245 Veterans of Foreign Wars Field, behind the James R. Morrill School, a building later reborn as the Haverhill Municipal Building on Route 10.
When the fair was in town at the VFW Field, it was jammed packed full of an exciting assortment of family entertainment. The popular fair was smaller then, but the heavy traffic still flowed slowly into and out from the fairgrounds, crammed with amusements, tents, booths, fairgoers, and exhibition rings, animal shows, the midway, and everything else it took to run this growing event, which in 1974 had been lengthened to a four-day fair.
During those early years, around 1982, I recall Fanelli Amusements coming to the fair and setting up their array of different rides and amusements. The company leader at that time was Mr. Jack Fanelli (whose father had set up the company many years earlier), who roamed the midway and other areas, making sure everything was operating safely, that things were going smoothly and that everyone was having a good time.
That was at the time the fair moved from VFW Field to Fred C. Lee Memorial Field down Route 10 to where it is now located. On a recent golf cart ride through the fairgrounds last week, just before the fair opened on Wednesday afternoon, Fair President, David Lackie explained to me that this is his 15th year as the leader of the pack when it comes to working with the fair committee and up to the 300 volunteers needed to run the fair from beginning to end. That is quite a community commitment.
David loves his volunteers and fellow committee members. He indicated that the Fanelli family brought several new rides with them for this year. He said that Fanelli had returned to the fair after nearly a 30-year absence. Besides Fanelli, there have been a number of other companies that have also operated the fair, such as LaGasse Amusements, Marc’s, and Fiesta Shows.
The brothers Joe and John Fanelli now own the Fanelli company. When I worked at the fair it was owned by their dad, Jack, who ran it from his office in a large camper trailer that was parked on the property.
Son, Joe told me that the company started in 1956, basing its winter quarters in Greenville, New Hampshire. In this small town, the fair rides spend their winters before being dispatched to towns and cities throughout New England during each annual fair season.
David Lackie agreed that over the past 43 years, and even before that when the fair, first brought together by members of the Pink Granite Grange, opened in Rinther Church Nutter’s field along Sanborn Street in North Haverhill. The fair also used the Odd Fellows Hall, now the VFW Post, plus the Village Improvement Society building as a display hall.
Last week, riding around the fields, passing animal barns, 4-H display areas, and other fair buildings, it was amazing to see just how far the fair has come since it took its first breath back in 1944.
All those busy people who worked so hard to put the first fairs together, then watching as the fair became too big and had to be relocated, first from a small section of what is now Benton Road over to behind the municipal building at the VFW Field, then move it again from there to the Fred C. Lee Memorial field further south on Route 10.
The old names of Colin and Winnifred Cassady, Florence and Roland Clough, Dr. Frederick and Ellen Erb, Clark and Ernestine Ingalls, Max Robinson, Everett Sawyer, Carroll, Gerald, and Priscilla Stoddard, Forest and Eva Thayer, “Red” and Isabelle Thayer, and Fred Stoddard.
All of these names and more have been preserved in an excellent history of the North Haverhill Fair Association, a book titled “A Look Back, the 50th Anniversary of the North Haverhill Fair.”
Contained within that book, written in 1994, “There is a long list of the contributors' names who gave their time and resources to the fair,” David Lackie said, “and there are many more joining that list each year. That is quite an accomplishment for this area.”
Joe Fanelli, one of the two leaders (with his brother John) of the popular Fanelli Amusements Company, now works with the North Haverhill Fair to bring the top-flight event to this area each year. The Bridge Weekly/Bernie Marvin
President of the Vermont/New Hampshire Fair Association, Terry Straight, assists at the North Haverhill Fair that was in town last week. The Bridge Weekly/Bernie Marvin
John Aldrich, long-time Vice President of the North Haverhill Fair Association, was pleased the weather was top notch for last week’s fair. The Bridge Weekly/Bernie Marvin
David Lackie, as he assists in setting up Wi-Fi for last week’s North Haverhill Fair, is president of the North Haverhill Fair Association and also vice president of the Vermont/New Hampshire Fair Association. The Bridge Weekly/Bernie Marvin
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