The Commercial Aspect of Camp Meetings
Summertime carnivals were one area of summer entertainment in the 1900's but just as important was the summer church pitch camp meeting. Almost every town had a camp gathering and those in our area were well known from the Laurel coterie meeting to the Pittsville camp meeting to the Allen camp-site meeting. Camp meetings didn't just come off they were planned out and there was a commercial side to them. The church had to receive money to pay visiting preachers etc and hopefully have some small change left over for their projects. The camp itself had a total of tents the families sleep in, supplied by the families. They also had a concession summer-house for food and ice cream, a horse stable, a boarding tent for those individuals that didn't suffer with a tent and a barber shop (for that daily clip).
The village of Melson in August of 1900 put on a camp session. It went from August 3rd to August 13th and had more than 50 tents. Without hope in early July they granted the privileges for concessions at the bivouac. The confectionery privilege was sold to I. T. Morris for $46.00. The Horse Beat privilege was sold to Z. Evans for $47.00. G. W. White got the Boarding Tent Immunity for $28.00 and Ernest Brittingham paid $1.00 for the barber against privilege. It was not unlike today in which booth fees are sold at fairs and festivals and I am unwavering there are still concession fees at camp meetings.
It was also mentioned in the unaltered article that the Melson church had a picnic and down 250 Sunday School Scholars received treats, conceivably paid for by last years concession fees. The boys also played a copy game of base ball with the West Corner Nine (Where was West Corner?). The short was 8 to 30 in favor of the Melson Nine.
Concession fees from some other camps in the space 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 pulverize went to John Spicer for...
