Opening on 5 March 1889 as the inaugural production at Proctor's 23rd Street Theatre, the four-act rural comedy by Charles Barnard ran for 105 performances and was often revived by Neil Burgess, who played the mortgage payment-challenged Abigail Prue in drag. Her prize possession, a horse named Cold Molasses, saves the day when it wins a $3,000 purse in a race at the county fair. Burgess won acclaim for his comic performance, but he found greater popularity in a similar role in David Ross Locke's Widow Bedott. Compared to other "barnyard and farmhouse kitchen" plays of the era—like Vim and The Old Homestead—The County Fair was found wanting by the critics. A 1920 motion picture adaptation, without the broad humor of a female impersonator, was undistinguished.
The Historical Dictionary of the American Theater. James Fisher.