Antedating of Amusement Park(1901)

[Sam Clements]

M-W and OED both have 1909.  I didn't find earlier in the archives.

Using Ancestry.com, from the Sandusky(OH) Daily Star, March 12, 1901, page
?, col. 4:

An article titled <A MIDWAY>  <Will Be a Feature of the Next Ohio State
Fair>

<There will be a number of spectacular features, though the exact nature of
these is not yet determined upon.  A man at St. Louis created a sensation
last summer with his "sky cycle."  The fair managers have opened
correspondence with him with a view to securing his attraction and will
probably get it.
    A section of the grounds has been set aside to be devoted to this use.
It will be known as "Amusement Park."  It will be the Midway Plaisance of
the fair, but the standard will be much higher than is generally understood
by that term.>

(ed.--The Midway Plaisance is probably in reference to the midway at the
Chicago Fair in 1893, which area is still called that today.)

As an addenda, there appeared in the April 19th, 1901 edition of the same
Sandusky paper, an article which indicated that a Frank Burt was the
owner/promoter of a string of parks in the Midwest, including Cedar Point in
Sandusky.  There was the blurb <Amusement park trust the latest out.  Frank
Burt of Toledo, promoter.>

If anyone wanted to research this, he no doubt had a lot to do with the
origin of "Amusement Parks."

SC