Delmar DustPan

Summertime carnivals were one part of summer entertainment in the 1900's but just as important was the summer church camp meeting. Almost every town had a camp meeting and those in our area were well known from the Laurel camp meeting to the Pittsville camp meeting to the Allen camp meeting. Camp meetings didn't just happen they were planned out and there was a commercial side to them. The church had to make money to pay visiting preachers etc and hopefully have some money left over for their projects. The camp itself had a number of tents the families sleep in, supplied by the families. They also had a concession stand for food and ice cream, a horse stable, a boarding tent for those individuals that didn't have a tent and a barber shop (for that daily shave).

The village of Melson in August of 1900 put on a camp meeting. It went from August 3rd to August 13th and had more than 50 tents. Back in early July they granted the privileges for concessions at the camp. The confectionery privilege was sold to I. T. Morris for $46.00. The Horse Pound privilege was sold to Z. Evans for $47.00. G. W. White got the Boarding Tent Privilege for $28.00 and Ernest Brittingham paid $1.00 for the barber shop privilege. It was not unlike today in which booth fees are sold at fairs and festivals and I am sure there are still concession fees at camp meetings.

It was also mentioned in the same article that the Melson church had a picnic and over 250 Sunday School Scholars received treats, perhaps paid for by last years concession fees. The boys also played a match game of base ball with the West Corner Nine (Where was West Corner?). The score was 8 to 30 in favor of the Melson Nine.

Concession fees from some other camps in the area would be; James Camp, between Laurel and Georgetown, in 1905 the Boarding tent concession went to G. W. Bryau for $30, the confectionery tent went to T. C. and Robert James for $53.50 and the Horse pound went to John Spicer for $70.00.

At the Laurel-Bethel (Delmarva Camp) in 1905 the concessions went to Allan Gabel the confectionery tent at $55.50, the horse pound to John E. Allen for $90.00, and the Photography concession to A. H. Waller for $1.00. The Barber and Boarding tent was held back until later.

The concession fees was but one part the income at camp meetings. There was usually a gate fee or entrance fee for the people that just came for the day. It was usually a dime or fifteen cents. This was an additional amount of income money for the larger camp meetings such as the Laurel-Bethel (Delmarva Camp) which would have 5,000 visitors in a day.