Fairwater Busy with Plans for Memorial Day and August Heritage Days

Fairwater promises to be a lively place this summer.

Four years after the Wisconsin State Journal announced that Fairwater’s Memorial Day parade was being discontinued, The Mattox-Henslin Post of the American Legion and the Historical Society are hoping for one of the village’s biggest holiday turnouts.

And, as announced by the Fairwater Lions, the Legion Post, Zion Lutheran Church, the Fire Department, and the Society, the first Fairwater Heritage Days has been scheduled for August 4-5.

Heritage Days activities planned for Saturday, August 4, include historical tours of the village by carriage, an evening service with music and an ice cream social at the church, free movies on the lawn at the old schoolhouse, and a street dance at the Civic Center.

Sunday activities will include the Lions traditional corn roast, baseball and volleyball tournaments, an antique car show, and numerous events for children.

The Historical Society will host an open house both days to show off progress on its restoration project in the school and its growing Fairwater area historical collections.

A highlight of the Society’s open house will be a photo exhibit. Area families, past and present, are being invited to contribute family and early photographs to the displays. A special appeal is being made to locate photos on the Society’s priority list, among them the Laper dance pavillion, the first Fairwater School, and the village of Utley.

Preparations for Memorial Day include a military display at the school honoring Fairwater’s servicemen. Activities will feature the Born family, which contributed four sons to military service during the Second World War.

Soma Family of Hirosaki, Japan, Starts Society’s Efforts to Match Sweitzer Gift

Dr. and Mrs. Shin Soma and family of Hirosaki, Japan, have donated the first $1,000 toward matching the Society’s $5,000 challenge grant from Caesar and Peggy Sweitzer.

Mrs. Soma, an English tutor in Hirosaki and a student of American culture, made the family’s gift during a recent visit with her daughter Nao in Madison. Her daughter has been living with Bob and Kathy Schuster while attending Monona Grove High School this year as an exchange student.

At its April meeting, the Society also received two additional contributions toward the Sweitzer challenge. Marge Ries, an original member and long-time supporter of the Society, added to the Sweitzer match with a $400 donation. Bob, Kathy, and David Schuster also donated $500 in the name of Schuster’s father, Maynard Schuster.

The Sweitzer’s challenge accompanied their $10,000 gift in March to the Society’s project to restore the Fairwater schoolhouse as an area history museum and research center.

The Society is appealing to project supporters to complete the match of the Sweitzer grant this summer. The funds will be used to complete critical utility work this year and continue the restoration of the building’s classrooms.

Mrs. Shin Soma and son Wataru with daughter Nao during their recent visit in Madison.

Charles Kuehn Letter Home from India, September, 1944, among Items Located for Memorial Day

Among the letters sent home by Fairwater area servicemen during the Second World War was the following from Charles Kuehn. Dated September 3, 1944, and addressed to his mother, it was published in the October 12, 1944, Brandon Times.

Charles Kuehn, who is thought to be serving in the army in India, has written the following letter to his mother, Mrs. Hattie Kuehn, in Fairwater.

September 30, 1944

Dear Mother:

Our squad, which was on a problem, have off today. I just finished cleaning my rifle and bayonet and washed my cartridge belt and pack, so I have all my equipment in fine shape.

The first day we rode a truck as far as we could go and started walking. We followed trails made by natives, crossing many streams, gulleys, and high hills or mountains. In the two days we passed through about 15 native villages. They vary in size, but most of the villages, way back in the hills, contain about 30 people, boys, girls, men and women. Each village has a commander who talks some English. There is also a constable who has jurisdiction over two to five villages. They also have their courts.

The natives are our woods best engineers. All their trails are where the easiest walking is possible. Their construction of grass huts is marvelous. They put up a frame of logs using boughs where necessary. The frame work and boughs are all wound and tied together by a thin vine about one-fourth of an inch in thickness.

The first day we were about one fourth mile from entering a village when we saw a counselor. He led us to the village. There we traded cigarettes for jupius, which is a vegetable I guess; it tastes OK. We had a first aid man with us who treated several sores the natives had on their bodies.

About four pm. the first day we arrived at the place where we were to stay for the night which was about 100 yards from a native village. We had been there only ten minutes when all of the natives came to greet us and trade jupius, sweet corn, pumpkins, squash, and poi, which is similar to our potato, only more starchy. We traded them cigarettes, C rations, for vegetables. Our aid man treated many men, women, and children here, too. He told them sick call would be next morning at 7 am. and he was plenty busy.

They made our campfire for us that night. There were three native men around the fire and I gave one three cigarettes to give to the others but he kept them all, so I had to shell out two more for the other two. There were two boys there who asked for cigarettes so I gave them two. In return, they got more wood for the fire and put some sweet corn on the fire with husks on to roast.

They kept bringing me all the corn I could eat and more. It was very good. Of course, a little Wisconsin butter would have made it more tasty. The next morning we got up at 5 am. The natives had a fire built for us already. They put squash and poi in the fire. They took the seeds out of the squash first. I opened a can of salmon and the squash went good with it.

I could not eat all my salmon so I had about one-third left and gave it to them. They had sticks to eat with. A little boy smiled and patted his stomach after his first mouthful. The boys are very sharp. They like to smoke, as do the women. Several boys attended mission school. They can write and spell their names, also write numbers. The natives are very friendly and honest.

When a native finds a girl he wishes to marry, he goes to the father and deals with him. Mostly they pay the father one pig and a dog, etc. But there always is a pig in the deal. After they live together, say for three years, and the man finds he does not have a good wife and she does not provide good food from her garden, which she must keep up, the man can go before their court and if the court finds he has a good reason, the father of the girl has to give him his pig back and whatever else he paid.

We made 13 miles the first day and about eight the second. The second day was by far the more rugged. We climbed and went down about 15 mountains. They were all about 150 yard down and up. We did not cover the same ground twice. We got back to camp at 11 the last night. I am going to church tomorrow morning. We have a movie tonight and I will go to that. Your son, Charles

Charles Kuehn and coin collection, from a newspaper clipping, ca. 1960
(from the Gordon Berg estate).

Service Record of Fairwater Native, Rachel Fairbanks, Tracked in WWII Era Brandon Times Articles

The Brandon Times tracked the military service of Fairwater native and later Brandon resident,Rachel Fairbanks, through a series of articles during World War II. Fairbanks, the daughter of Frank and Paulina Fairbanks, was a surgical nurse with a mobile surgical unit on the front lines in Europe. Among the articles printed in the Times were the following.

2nd Lt. Rachel Fairbanks writes from France that there is plenty of fireworks where she works. It is evident that her hospital unit is not far behind the battle lines and that it moves forward as there lines do.

She apologized for the condition of her writing paper, which had been soaked. This indicated that she had to wade ashore when landing.

Lt. Rachel Fairbanks, a nurse member of a mobile medical unit in France, is mentioned in the following article taken from a recent issue of The Chicago Sun which vividly describes the wonderful care given our wounded.

U. S. Field Hospital East of Nancy Oct. 25--The Army Medical corps is developing a system for treating serious battle wounds which promises to reduce almost to nothing the mortality rate among casualties who, without surgery, would be certain to die in a few hours.

The idea is to bring the operating table as close as possible to the spot where the soldier falls. It is being accomplished by newly organized flying squads of crack surgeons with highly mobile equipment which can be set up anywhere in four hours. It permits the most complicated and delicate operations to be performed within sound of the guns.

The unit handles only patients whose condition is so grave that they cannot be moved even a few miles to a field or evacuation hospital. They suffer mostly from chest and abdominal wounds, with occasional head injuries. Mansfield said virtually every operation the unit performs would be worth a special article in the medical journals in peacetime.

The personnel includes Maj. Edwin M. Limbert, Council Bluffs, Iowa, chief of one surgical team; Lt. Rachel M. Fairbanks, Brandon, Wis., a nurse who formerly was employed in Chicago; 2nd Lt. Helen F. Grimsie, Waukegan, a nurse, and T-4 Chester A. Hills, Webster, Wis. They are now enjoying their first rest since the invasion of Normandy.

At the time of the Normandy landings the Army had a large number of independent teams of surgeons and other specialists, but they were required to function at relatively immobile field and evacuation hospitals. When the armies of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton and Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges broke loose and ran wild across France, it was impossible for the hospitals to keep up. The Proco unit, which is nothing more than a traveling operating room, was the result. It can be moved in three trucks and set up in two tents.

"Some times you come into a hospital tent jammed to capacity with men in pain," Limbert said. "When you enter, you are almost overwhelmed by the smell of antiseptic, sweat, infection and the general atmosphere of agony. But you can’t hesitate. You can’t stop to think. You must improvise, and you always have to hurry.

"You can’t let a boy lie unattended with 15 holes in his belly. And there may be six or eight more waiting for you. You go ahead and work, and the hours go by, and when you are finished you go around to see how they are doing. It always is a surprise when you find that they are alive and are going to stay that way."

There was that boy at St. Lo, for example. When they brought him in his life was slipping away with each beat of his heart. He had been hit in the left side. A shell fragment had torn through his spleen, punctured two holes in the diaphragm, lacerated the large bowel and punched through his left lung. He was bleeding badly.

Working against minutes, Mansfield took out two ribs, removed the spleen and a part of the bowel, sprayed the whole wound liberally with penicillin and sewed him up. The boy lived.

On another occasion a man was brought in with a hole through the atrium of his heart. By transfusion he was given 32 pints of blood, or more than twice the total amount in the normal body while on the operating table. The wound in the heart was sewed up successfully and the patient survived.

In another case, Limbert was required to remove half a soldier’s lung. He survived, too.

Limbert and Mansfield had nothing but praise for the spirits of the badly wounded men whom they had seen.

"For some reason they are many times easier to handle than civilians," Mansfield said. "Time and again we have patched up a man who should have been dead, and two days later he was sitting up in bed talking and smoking. A Civilian hurt that badly would have been flat at least a week."

The two surgeons observed that invariably American wounded had better resistance and more recuperative power that do the Germans whom they have treated. They said the difference was probably due to better food, living conditions, and health habits.

"We treat the Germans exactly the same as we do our own," Mansfield said. "If there is a badly wounded German and a lightly wounded American brought in at the same time, we even take the German first.

"But in every instance the Americans seem to get well faster. And Americans take it better. The Germans cry when they are hit, even the big, tough Nazis."

Mansfield said most of the wounds he had treated were caused by the German 88 mm. gun. He said the shell fragments invariably made a larger and nastier hole than do bullets because they are not streamlined and travel much faster.

He has encountered several difficult splinter wounds caused by German wooden bullets, but never has encountered a bayonet wound.

1st Lt. Rachel Fairbanks, daughter of Frank Fairbanks of Brandon, has been awarded the Bronze Star medal with the accompanying citation:

First Lieutenant Rachel M. Fairbanks, N-730654, ANC, 4th Auxiliary Surgical group, for meritorious service in connection with the military operations against the enemy in France, Luxembourg, and Germany between 9 September 1944 and 8 May 1945.

Lt. Fairbanks, while serving as a nurse with a surgical team, ably and diligently assisted medical officers in the performance of complex surgical operations. Her outstanding professional knowledge and steadfast application to duty are in keeping with the high traditions of the Army. Entered military service from Illinois.

Dr. Caesar and Rachel Fairbanks Sweitzer, from Norma and
Robert Daane’s genealogy of the Peter Cornelius Daane family.

2001 Work on Fairwater Museum Under Way

There is a new sign standing outside the Fairwater schoolhouse. Constructed and installed by George Sanders and lettered by Billy Kuehn’s Markesan High School classes, it reads "Fairwater Historical Society, Established 1999."

The sign is the first of the projects targeted by the Society for 2001. Restoration work has also begun inside.

Dave Duley of Eldorado began work on the building’s metal ceiling panels on April 23. Duley is removing rust and peeling paint and will complete the project with a rust inhibitor and finish coat.

Charles Blair of Ripon has begun removing the building’s old heating plant in preparation for the installation of a new heating system.

The Society is working with the Kettle Moraine Division of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to restore electrical service to the building.

Stellmacher Lumber Co. recently replaced the floor and south staircase in the building’s entryway. Both had deteriorated due to water damage to the point of being unsafe. The Stellmachers expect to complete work on the northeast quarter of the roof by early May.

Gerald Sanders has donated a flagpole for the front of the building. The new pole will be in place for Memorial Day.

The Society’s new sign at the streetside in front of the Fairwater school.

Project Adds Oral Histories

The Society recorded four interviews in its ongoing oral history project during March and April. Adding their recollections to the project were Arlene Erdman, Mildred Weinkauf, Winton Lenz, and Erwin Beilke. The Society is also making arrangements to tape Kurt Kunert, now living in Los Angeles.

Current and former residents who would like to contribute their stories to the collection can contact Barb Vande Brink.

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).