The society’s plans to restore one of the rooms of the former Fairwater Public School as a classroom was given a running start in August when the Markesan School district donated furnishings for the project. Included were chairs, tables, and desks for all grades and from a variety of periods.

Former Fairwater teacher, Les Schruck, now an administrator in the Markesan district, guided historical society board members through the former Manchester school to examine the district’s older and surplus items.

To complement the furnishings, the society also acquired wall maps and a floor-standing globe, as well as two filing cabinets that were once in the Fairwater school.

In addition to the gift to the classroom project, the society has recently received several donations to its collections:

Of particular interest in the records is a notation as early as 1876 that the farm contained a half acre lot deeded to the "Baptist Church," a notation that continues in the records until the warranty deed document transferring the property to William Loechelt. In a mortgage dated 1905, the church property notation has been replaced by a reference to the Fairwater School District.

Tom Montag and Barb Vande Brink completed an interview with Diane Klosterman Bliefnick in August as part of the society’s oral history project. Mrs. Bliefnick remembered her father, Gilbert Klosterman, an osteopathic physician who practiced in the village for 33 years, from 1940 to 1973. She also described an idyllic life growing up in Fairwater, mentioning ice skating and tobogganing, and discussing her years in the Fairwater School. Mrs. Bliefnick singled out one teacher, Mrs. Palachek, as the best teacher she ever had.

On October 7, the society will hold an open house to celebrate its one-year anniversary and the start of its project to restore the former Fairwater Public School building.

Fairwater history was represented at the County’s August 5 "Old Settler’s Day" through the personage of Captain William Plocker, one of the village’s first settlers. Better known as the owner of a stagecoach inn and tavern just south of the village, Plocker is also described by Joseph Schafer, former Director of the State Historical Society, as "the type of man, rare in any society or occupation, who did much to free Wisconsin farming, in the early period, of the suspicion of sordidness. There was no suggestion of the peasant about him; rather, he was the cosmopolitan living contentedly on a Wisconsin farm." Evidence of his broad interests is the will he left at his death in 1878, described in the 1880 History of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin.

His will was remarkably clear and concise, and written in that elegant hand which, even after three-score years had passed, was the pride of the "Captain." The special cash legacies of the will amounted to about $6,000, and the remainder of his large property was divided ratably among his sisters and brother, or their heirs. The special legacies were, however, to all appearances, bestowed upon faithful servants or cherished friends—no one whom he loved being forgotten.

To the Wisconsin State Historical Society he bequeathed his copy of the Nuremberg Bible, described hereafter. To H. T. Henton, a favorite spy-glass. To Charles Forbes, his collection of coins, which comprises many rare and valuable ones. To R. C. Kelly, of Brandon (whom he paid the highest compliment of making his executor without bond), Harper’s Monthly, bound, from the beginning. To Mrs. George Todd, his niece, twelve volumes of rare books not otherwise bequeathed. To Mrs. Cornelia Spence, of Fond du Lac, his niece and sister to Mrs. George Todd, "the contents of his leather trunk." To James Spence, of A. Spence & Son, Fond du Lac, husband of his niece Cornelia, Harper’s Weekly, complete; London News, complete, and numerous rare novels collected, arranged, and bound by him. To Francis McK. Plocker, his nephew, manuscript book of "Anecdotes and Comicalities," in his own handwriting, and further described below. To Charles P. Knapp, his Patent Office Reports, which were complete from the time the first report was issued. To Cornelia Spence, ‘above named, the same," in addition to other things, a peculiar and valuable silk quilt, wrought in ancient times in an Italian nunnery. This quilt was the gift of a priest whom Mr. Plocker had befriended.

The document ends in rhyme—In witness whereof I hereunto My hand and seal have set, In presence of those whose names Below subscribe and witness it.

Then follows the signature of William Plocker.

This will was published, sealed and signed, By the testator in his right mind; In presence of us who at his request Have written our names these facts to attest.

Then follow the signatures of C. P. Knapp, Leander Ferguson and William D. Ash. In one clause of the will is disclosed a bit of the tenderest romance, strongly characteristic of the fidelity and constancy of the man, which, as the party interested is now living in the county, will not be mentioned further. Suffice it to say it furnishes one of the reasons why he lived and died an old bachelor.

His collection of stereoscopic views number over five hundred, and covered the places most interesting to him in Europe and America. Many of them were very fine. The Nuremberg Bible, bequeathed in the will to the State Historical Society, is a book about 18x12 inches, and six inches in thickness. It is heavily bound in what appears to be thick, whitish hog-skin, and is in perfect condition, although printed in 1710. It is in good German, printed on thick, yellow paper which looks as if it might have been made of wheat straw and water—the straw not finely cut—as it undoubtedly was. The title-page is in glaring red ink, which has not faded, apparently, in the least, All the principal events are finely but quaintly illustrated by steel engravings. Many of the passages are greatly dissimilar from the corresponding ones in modern Bibles, the fault, probably, of translating into German. His scrap book is of absorbing interest. On the first page is a yellow leaf of paper on which is written in brown ink and in the "Captain’s" clear hand, the following:

Left Amsterdam on the 5th of April, 1827, at 7 o’clock in the morning. Left the Helder on the 8th of April, 1827, at 4 o’clock in the morning. Arrived in London on the 12th of April, 1827, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Left London on the 13th of May, 1827, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Arrived in Boston on the 1st of July, 1827, at 4 o’clock in the morning.

Everything he ever did is thus accurately noted down. His father paid his passage money for the trip here mentioned, but in order to gratify his desire for information, he worked before the mast as a common seaman. This "scrap-book"contains all the notes he ever gave and receipts for all the money expended by or for him. He must have been an honest man, or he would not have dared thus to preserve for the public the record of every act of his life! Among other receipts is one for board, washing, room-rent and fires at the Park Hotel, Madison, for $129.70 in full, and signed by M. H. Irish. The amount included all his expenditures while in Madison as Assemblyman from the First district. This was the only time the Captain ever was in the Legislature. On the middle pages of the book, which is a large one, are bills of various denominations of all the insolvent State banks, as well as counterfeit bills on those and other banks—each marked "fraud," "failed," or "counterfeit," as the case might be, with the date of issue or failure. Among these—and there are very many of them—is a counterfeit on the Wisconsin Fire and Marine Bank, of Milwaukee, dated July 4, 1847, and signed by Alexander Mitchell. It must have cost some time and money to collect even these bank bills. Further on may be found page after page of signatures. These comprise almost all the prominent men of the county and State—many of them marked, as is the signature of Gen. Halbert E. Paine, "a good friend of mine;" or "an honest man," or "good business man," as he might know the different men. He has also at least a thousand signatures of such persons as Jeff Davis, Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, Lin-coln, John G. Saxe, Fillmore and the leading authors, statesmen and poets, beginning from the earliest colonial times. when or how he became possessed of them he left nothing to indicate. The signatures of the prominent county and State men were evidently clipped from business or other letters received during the last twenty-five years. Further on in this scrap-book, appear to be all the letters he had ever received, many of them fifty years old and written in various languages. also all the receipted bills of expenses in his European travels. These bills are all modest.

The manuscript book of "Anecdotes and Comicalities," mentioned in his will, is one of the most interesting in the whole collection. All the incidents, stories, jokes, anecdotes and peculiarities of all he ever knew, are recorded in his own hand in the quaintest, drollest manner imaginable. Sometimes an anecdote is written in the form of a snake, or like a triangle, or a house, parallelogram, crescent, full circle, star or whatever at the time seemed to strike his fancy. Every letter and mark of punctuation is perfect throughout. Probably no other book was ever written like it in the world. It is quaint, interesting and valuable. He had also a large number of Chinese and Pacific Island curiosities, some of them not to be duplicated in any antiquarian in the country. He saved, arranged systematically, and properly marked, everything coming into his possession. All his newspaper, secret society and other receipt papers were arranged in groups, and all the papers received from the federal Government, and so on, in other groups.

The Fort Wilkins Agate, one of the greatest newspaper curiosities extant, was found carefully preserved. The first copy is dated July 4, 1846. It is a folio, and all printed with a quill pen. It is as fine as ordinary bourgeois type. The name of the editor and printer could not be learned, but from the peculiar expressions it may be presumed to be the work of the Captain. He had also carefully preserved his first commission as Postmaster of Fairwater, which is signed by Cave Johnson as Postmaster General, and dated July 1, 1848. His collection of postage and revenue stamps was also large and valuable.

The real estate rolls identify the location of properties, names of owners, valuation, state, county, and school taxes, names of the individuals who paid the tax, and the date of payment.

The personal property tax rolls follow the same format and include names, valuation, tax assessments, names of individuals paying the tax, and the date of payment.

The records are extremely helpful in identifying the residents of the village for a given year and in establishing the locations of their properties. A set of the records from 1890 copied by Mark Hull indicate, for example, that the notorious Hildebrant saloon, scene of many an early brawl, was located on the south side of Washington Street, 21 rods east of the "west line" (the quarter section line). Taxes amounted to a total of $1.23 on a valuation of $125 and were paid by William Daehn on January 6, 1891.

The records also highlight questions. The 1890 records indicate that Lot 2 in Block C, the Fairwater Free Baptist parsonage property, was owned by Jacob Carter and valued at $50. The question of why Carter owned the parsonage property aside, the property valuation is by far the lowest in the village, suggesting that there were no improvements on the lot. Other village records indicate, however, that the parsonage was constructed in 1863 at a cost of $1000. A story in the Brandon Times reporting a fire in the parsonage in 1888 may offer an answer, but it is also possible that Carter owned the undeveloped west half of the lot, the site, later, of a second home.

Blocks A-D, 1852 Village Plat

Property owners in 1890 on the south side of Washington street from west to east were Jas. Angers, E. A. Connely, Julius Butz, George Mitchell, G. Hildebrandt, William Loechelt, William Zellmer, August Briese, August Kraft, G. Hildebrandt, August Schultz, and Mrs. R. M. Harwood.

North of Washington Street, property owners included N. C. Hurlburt, John Leach, William Deahn, William Erdman, John Glaff, Rudolph Becker, Jacob Carter, T. J. Williams, George Wightman, Emil Fenske, G. A. Bock, B. J. Wikkerink, Austin Kenyon, J. H. Brown, Charles Daehn, D. J. Wikkerink, R. K. McCune, Jacob Carter, and Harris Brown.

The largest property owners were William Loechelt--with a valuation of $600 for Lots 1, 2, and 3 in Block L, on the south side of Washington Street--and B. J. Wikkerink, whose store on Lot 4 of Block D north of Washington Street, also was valued at $600.

Individuals assessed for personal property in 1890 include F. E. Jones, David Jones, Mrs. Victoria Jantz, Orlando Kibbe, Thomas Kubehl, August Kubehl, the estate of Ludwig Kussman, Charles Krause, August Kuehn, August Kentopp, Austin Kenyon, A. W. Kenyon, M. H. King, Koehler & Vedder, R. C. Kelly (executor of the Plocker estate), W. B. Kingsbury, O. B. Knapp, and C. M. Little. Of these O. B. Knapp was credited with the largest valuation of personal property, $1,095, and paid total personal property taxes of $18.01.

Contingent on the completion of the legal transfer of the former public school building from the Fairwater Lions Club to the society, the society has scheduled an open house for October 7 to celebrate its first year of orrganization and to launch its project to restore the school building as an area history museum and headquarters.

The agenda for the open house will include tours of the school beginning at 2:00 and again at 3:00. A brief program describing the society’s plans for restoration will be held in the Civic Center at 2:30. Refreshments will be served at the Civic Center at 3:30. On display throughout the afternoon will be exhibits of photographs, documents, and memorabilia donated to the society over the past year and information from its ongoing oral history project.

In honor of the restoration project, the society is requesting that everyone who attends bring a written recollection of their favorite back to school story. The stories will be collected in a book commemorating the open house, and copies will be given to every family attending the event.

The society has planned the day as a fund raiser to assist with the roofing project now underway to prevent further damage to the old schoolhouse. In addition to asking for donations, the society will be selling reproductions of Fairwater postcards, notecards with a selection of village photographs, and computer CD’s with collections of Fairwater photographs and the 1850-1944 journal of the Fairwater Free Will Baptist church.