Meeting News
   Fairwater Historical Society organizers met for the fourth time December 4 at the Fairwater Lions Club. Attending were Arlene Erdman, Marie Hardesty, Florian Laper, Cirena Lenz, Arlene Lepin, Bill and Betty Loechelt, Tom Montag, George and Marian Sanders, Harlan and Lois Schmuhl, Bob Schuster, Barbara Vande Brink, and Robert Zabel.
   The next meeting has been scheduled for January 8 at the Lions Club. An informal exchange of photographs and other materials at 2:00 will precede the 2:30 business meeting. The business agenda will include completion and approval of the society’s bylaws, planning for the restoration of the old public school scheduled to begin in April, and a discussion of priorities for collection and exhibit development in the proposed Fairwater Historical Society museum. Everyone with an interest is invited to attend.

Lions Vote to Transfer Old School
   At their Christmas dinner on December 7, the Fairwater Lions Club voted to approve the transfer of the old Fairwater public school building to the Fairwater Historical Society for restoration as an historical museum.
   Following the recommendation of a subcommittee comprised of Dave Gallops, Stanley Harmsen, Lowell Laper, and Cora Lawson, the Lions approved a plan proposed by historical society attorney, Steve Sorenson, to give the historical society title to the original 1910 building and to share on a condominium basis the original school grounds and well as the restrooms and utility corridor in the building’s 1960 addition. The Lions would retain storage space in the lower level of the older structure.
   On behalf of the historical society, Bob Schuster expressed appreciation to the Lions for their donation and their long history of generosity to the village. Schuster observed that, "this may be the most unsual and one of the most meaningful presents Fairwater has ever had under its Christmas tree."

Montag Proposes Video Documentary Project
   Tom Montag has suggested an ongoing project to document the history of the village through videotaped interviews with long-time Fairwater residents. Montag, author of nineteen volumes of poetry and essays and the former editor of Margins and the regional Fox River Patriot, believes that the video-based oral history project would provide an irreplaceable complement to the traditional genealogical and historical research activities already underway by members of the Fairwater Historical Society.

Plocker Inn Restoration Is Museum Priority
   At its December meeting, members of the Fairwater Historical Society identified the restoration of the 1848 parlor of the old Plocker Inn as their first exhibit project.
   The society has proposed moving and reconstructing the parlor inside the former Fairwater public school building, itself targeted for restoration as a museum.
   Originally constructed as a stagecoach stop near the intersection of Wisconsin’s military road and the early Watertown road by Fairwater pioneer, Captain William Plocker, the inn was a popular overnight stay for twenty years early in the village’s formative years. It later served as a home for the Gottlieb Stelter family until 1916, when it was replaced with a new home. In the 1940s it was largely demolished. The parlor wing of the old inn was retained, however, and has been used as vehicle garage on the Stelter farm.
   The current owners of the structure, Oliver and Frances Stelter, have agreed to donate the old structure to the historical society as a monument to Captain Plocker’s memory. Concern over potential damage to the building should it be relocated to a public park has led historical society members to propose its restoration as an indoor exhibit.
   The society is appealing for early photographs of the structure to assist with restoration and is soliciting the donation of period furnishings for inclusion in the exhibit. Volunteers will be needed early in the spring to assist in moving and reassembling the building.

Pangburn Gravestone To Be Replaced
   Arlene Erdman, caretaker of the Fairwater cemetery, learned in December that the gravestone of Fairwater Civil War veteran, Henry Pangburn, will be replaced by the Veterans Administration in Washington.
   Pangburn, a 41-year-old Fairwater blacksmith was a Union army volunteer in the fall of 1864. Receiving a medical furlough early the following spring, Pangburn made his way home to Fairwater on april 4, only to die the morning after his arrival.
   The original stone, long missing from the cemetery, was discovered earlier in the fall buried beneath several inches of soil near Pangburn’s grave. When it was excavated, it was discovered that decades of weathering had eroded and broken the original sandstone so severely that restoration was judged to be impossible.
   The new stone will be installed in the spring and will be dedicated in a Memorial Day ceremony.

Lula Pangburn Giffey, daughter of Henry Pangburn, and husband Charles W. Giffey, photo courtesy of Neil Giffey. C. W. Giffey was one of the area’s early schoolmasters, teaching in the Fairwater Public School in 1886.

Records Added To List of Teachers/Students
    The Fairwater Historical Society is soliciting names, photographs, and other documentation of the village’s students and teachers over the years. Among the recent discoveries was an 1882 article in the Brandon Times announcing that Brandon resident, J. W. Dame, was teaching in the Fairwater school. Before his stint as a village teacher Dame, and his mules, had been employed by the Markesan-Brandon Railway as a grader on the rail right-of-way being constructed between Brandon and the Pine Hill (Utley) quarry.

Donations Solicited for Museum Reroofing
   The Fairwater Historical Society expects to make the replacement of the old public school roof its first step in restoring the 1910 structure following the anticipated donation of the building by the Lion’s Club. Vacant for more than two decades, the building has deteriorated inside and out, but the most serious threat at present is water damage that has affected ceilings and walls in several areas.
   The most urgent need is to replace the roof over the west-facing slopes and over the bell tower, although the entire roof will need to be reshingled in the near future. A bid of $5000 has been received for initial repairs to the tower roof and areas that are currently leaking.
   Members of the historical society covered major damage areas with a tarp earlier this fall in an effort to prevent winter damage.

Roofing repairs being made in November (above)
and interior damage to staircase walls (below).