Fairwater Museum Takes Two Big Steps Forward in March

The deed to the Fairwater Lions/Fairwater Historical Society Condominium Association Unit 2—otherwise known as the Fairwater Public School—was stamped and filed by the Fond du Lac County Register of Deeds in March, completing a year-long process of transferring ownership of the property from the Fairwater Lions Club to the Historical Society. The Lions retain Unit 1 of the condominium, the 1960 addition to the former school.

Challenged by the Lions to organize a society to preserve the 1910 building as an area history museum, members have been working to make repairs on the former schoolhouse since the Society incorporated in 1999. Last summer the Society successfully raised the funds to replace the building’s badly deteriorating roof, ending several years of water damage that has threatened the former school’s 90-year-old pressed tin ceilings. In January, the Society’s Board targeted the restoration of utilities as its next major goal. The utility work was identified as a critical step in stabilizing the building’s interior and making the former classrooms usable for displaying a growing collection of Fairwater area memorabilia. The Board has announced its goal to complete the restoration project by 2010, the building’s centennial anniversary.

Condominium deed to the 1910 Fairwater Public School building. Click on image for larger version.

In response to the Board’s action, Caesar and Rachel Sweitzer ended the month by offering the Society an unprecedented contribution to speed up the museum’s timetable. The Sweitzer’s made their gift in the name of Sweitzer’s mother, Rachel Fairbanks Sweitzer. At their direction, the donation will be used to cover the entire cost of a new heating plant for the building.

In addition to their first gift, the Sweitzers have also challenged past and present residents to match a second gift of $5000 to complete utility work in the building, including restoration of electrical service.

Rachel Sweitzer, the daughter of Frank and Paulina Daane Fairbanks, was born and raised on the Fairbanks farm just south of the Fairwater school. A graduate of Brandon High School, she became a nurse, served with George Patton’s forces in Belgium in World War II--where she met her husband Caesar, a surgeon--and has since been a resident of Illinois. Mrs. Sweitzer returned to the village for the Society’s first open house in October.

The Society will formally recognize the Sweitzers’ gifts during the Fairwater Area Homecoming Days weekend in August.

American Legion-Historical Society Seek Photos, Military Memorabilia for Memorial Day

With Memorial Day approaching, the Mattox-Henslin Post of the American Legion and the Fairwater Historical Society are putting out a call for stories, photographs, letters home, and other memorabilia related to Fairwater area veterans.

Collaborating for the second year, the Legion Post and Historical Society will exhibit items loaned for the day along with their own collections in the Fairwater Museum. The museum will be open for visitors following the Memorial Day parade and the ceremony at the Fairwater Cemetery.

Families with items that they would like to have included in the exhibits are asked to contact Larry Beuthin or Cirena Lenz.

Among the items that will be on display is the following letter home from Loren Lieske, originally published in the January, 1945, Brandon Times. A copy of the letter was donated to the Fairwater Society by the Brandon Historical Society.

LIESKE WRITES OF EXPERIENCES WHILE IN FRANCE

Loren Lieske, stationed "Somewhere in France" writes of his work and living conditions.

Things have settled down again after the hub-bub of the past couple weeks.

For awhile I was doing almost everything but running France. Put in some long, hard days of office work, out on the road and a million or more odd jobs.

A few nites Jerry must have had us as top billing on his list because he was quite a pest. Strafed our neighborhood a couple times but for the past four evenings I guess he’s had his hands full elsewhere.

Two of us fellows "both from Wisconsin" are living with a French civilian couple who really have given us a home. (If that’s possible over here and during a war.) Have a nice room, heated with a little stove, electric lights and I sleep in a feather bed about eighteen inches thick. Every nite she has heated bricks at the foot of the bed to keep us warm. We have hot water anytime we want to shave or wash. It’s really going to be tough when we get out in the field and rough it.

I’ll never forget Christmas eve as long as I live. We had services in a little theater and by the finish we were all half frozen. All during the services we could hear Jerry overhead.

Upon coming back to the house this French couple had three different kinds of the most delicious pies (pasterie) I have even eaten, along with coffee.

We have been giving them a lot of things we have picked up and some things from our packages from home. They certainly appreciate it.

Christmas day we were lucky in haveing [sic] a huge Turkey dinner, with all the trimmings in our Mess Hall. At night these people we stay with invited us for a duck dinner served French style (about eight courses) with plenty of wine and cognac. We donated our rations, talked and had a grand time. They have a little girl about 2 1/2 or 3 years old and we managed to get her an American doll for Christmas. Was she tickled.

Our mess hall is now serving the best chow I’ve had since leaving the States. Always have chicken, roast, steak or the like at least once a day. This noon I had five pork chops and they asked me if I wanted more.

Have gotten a couple of stripes since I last wrote you and feel pretty good about it. The Mail situation has been pretty bad until the last week when we have gotten a little. So far I’ve only received one Christmas package but it contained a box of American cigars which I could easily sell for twenty or thirty dollars over here, but right now they look pretty good to me.

All we ask for is some good weather, ammunition and supplies and I think (I’m sure) we’ll celebrate next Christmas in Brandon.

Say hello to all my friends around the town.

Society Writing Grant Application to Copy, Preserve Photographs

The Society is developing an application for a State Historical Society grant to copy historic family and other area photographs not currently in its collections.

The one time, state grant program is designed to assist the state’s local societies in managing and developing their collections. Applications will be evaluated on the contribution the project would make to the "preservation or presentation of history." Societies receiving grants will be required to match the funds on a dollar-per-dollar basis.

The Fairwater proposal indicates that young societies face a problem in locating and acquiring small but highly personal items like photographs that more established societies do not. It identifies several areas which the Board wants to target in preserving photographic records for the area, among them area farms, early Fairwater area families, and early commercial and public buildings.

If approved, the Fairwater grant would cover the costs of having archival quality copy negatives made for up to 50 photos.

The Society is considering inviting current and former area residents to loan their photographs for an exhibit during Fairwater Homecoming Days in August. Members would be asked to identify those with the highest priority for inclusion in the Society’s collection.

Examples of photos recently shared with members but not in the Society’s collections are two of the interior of the Fairwater Public School taken between 1925 and 1935, one of the crushing works at Utley taken around 1900, one of the interior of the the original 1872 Zion Lutheran church taken prior to its remodeling in 1936, the Zion Ladies’ Aid Society taken shortly after its creation in 1909, and the Eggleston--later Beilke--farm house taken around the turn of the century.

Other priorities for which no photographs have been located include the Laper Dance Pavillion, destroyed by fire in the early 1920s; the Mill House, razed in 1904 to make way for the John Laper house on Washington Street; the one room Fairwater school building, replaced in 1910 by the current three classroom building; the Amend Brothers creamery, located just south of the School on the property now occupied by the Civic Center; and the Fairwater Brick Company, located at the west end of the mill pond.

Two recent acquisitions representative of photographs the Society hopes to preserve.
The top photo, a 1915 post card photo courtesy of Richard Damerau, pictures
the Main Street foot bridge prior to the construction of the Fairwater Creamery in 1910.
The bottom photo,courtesy of Florian Laper, pictures Fairwater’s WCTU at the
Laper cottage on Little Green Lake, ca. 1930. From left they are Reba Rodgers,
unidentfied, unidentified, Ruby Swartzlow, unidentified, Mae Knapp, Paulina Fairbanks,
Flora Abercrombie, Nellie Laper, and either Mazie Laper or Jennie Johnson far right.

Plans Progressing for Fairwater Area Reunion Days in August

The first of what it is hoped will become an annual Fairwater Area Reunion Days weekend has been scheduled for August 4-5.

Members of the Fairwater Lions Club, the Fairwater Fire Department, Zion Lutheran Church, the Mattox-Henslin American Legion Post, and the Fairwater Historical Society met on March 3 to begin planning the event.

Among the ideas shared at the meeting were the renewal of the annual Lions Club corn and brat roast, an antique car show, a water fight and pony rides for youngsters, volleyball, T-ball, and baseball tournaments, carriage tours of the village, and an evening candlelight service or an ice cream social at the church.

Two long-time Fairwater traditions will be resurrected. The Historical Society will sponsor free movies on the lawn, and Leahy’s Pub with hold a "street dance" in the Civic Center parking lot. Both are scheduled for Saturday evening.

Free movies were a summer tradition beginning in the 1930s and continuing to the 1960’s. Originally staged on the lawns at the corner of Church and Main Streets, the movies eventually were moved to the front lawn of the school.

Street dances in the village are an older tradition, dating back to the early 1920s, when downtown Main Street was closed and the Fairwater Band entertained until late into the evening.

The Historical Society will hold its second annual Open House throughout the weekend. It will feature photo and other displays as well as its classroom restoration project and the collections room being developed this spring. It will also host a reception during the weekend to recognize the Sweitzer family for its donations to the building’s restoration project.

The Society will host the Carriage tours and is developing a booklet about historic properties in the village to accompany the tours.

Current plans are to schedule the corn roast and children’s events throughout the day on Sunday.

A second planning meeting will be held at the Civic Center April 7 at 11:00.

Society Holds Second Annual Meeting Elections, Accepts Bids

At its second annual meeting on March 3, the Historical Society voted to continue its current activities and direction for another year, re-electing Marie Hardesty to the Board of Directors and its current officers to a second term.

Marie Hardesty, elected to a staggered one-year term a year ago, was elected to a full three-year term this year.

Reelected to a second one-year term as officers were Bob Schuster, President; George Sanders, Vice President; Arlene Leppin, Secretary; and Arlene Erdman, Treasurer.

During the meeting the Society also accepted two bids for restoration work on the former Fairwater Public School building. A bid by Blair’s Heating of Ripon to install a new heating system for the building was accepted, along with a bid by Dave Duley’s Painting Service of Eldorado to complete ceiling work in the former classrooms.

Duley’s bid includes the removal of paint and rust from the building’s pressed tin ceilings, application of a rust inhibitor, and the application of a finish coat of enamel paint.

Blair’s bid includes the installation of high efficiency furnaces with a combined 360,000 BTU capacity, removal of the old furnace, new duct work, and installation of new gas service.

Request for Newsletter Received

The Society has received a purchase order for copies of its newsletter from the Allen County Public Library of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

NEWSLETTER
Fairwater Historical Society
PO Box 151
Fairwater, Wisconsin 53931

Meetings

The Fairwater Historical Society meets the first Saturday of each month at the Fairwater Lion’s Club on south Main Street. An exchange of photographs and information begins at 2:00, followed at 2:30 by the meeting. The public is invited. The annual meeting is held the first Saturday of March.

Acquisitions

The Fairwater Society accepts donations of items with historic ties to the immediate Fairwater area. Contact Lois Schmuhl, accessions officer, at Radio Road, Brandon, WI 53919.

Membership

Membership in the Fairwater Historical Society is $10 annually for individuals and families, $100 lifetime for individuals. Contact Arlene Leppin, PO Box 151, Fairwater, WI 53931

Web Site

The Society maintains a Web site on the Wisconsin Local History Network. Featuring projects, activities, calendars, and copies of the FHS newsletter, the society’s site can be browsed at:

www.wlhn.org/fairwater_histsoc

Newsletter

Current issues are available at the Fairwater post office. Past issues and mailings are available through Bob Schuster, 6020 Kristi Circle, Monona, WI 53716 (608-221-1421).