"A Pioneer Boyhood," James B. Pond, from The Century Magazine, 1899; Pond's description of his experiences growing up two miles from Fairwater in northern Alto Township in the 1840's and 1850's

"First Question Answered," James B. Pond, from Eccentricities of Genius, 1900, Pond's autobiographical preface to his portraits of the men and women he managed on the Lyceum circuit, mentioning his early abolitionist activities and emphasizing his experiences with Mormonism in Utah.

"Charles Sumner," James B. Pond, from Eccentricities of Genius, 1900, an autobiographical piece relating a disillusioning encounter between the great albolitionist spokesman and Pond and his father, Willard Pond, in 1858 in Ripon, Wisconsin.

From "Eccentricities of Genius," James B. Pond, the journal account of Pond's 1895 journey across North America with Mark Twain as manager of the first leg of Twain's world tour (transcript on the University of Virginia electronic text site, courtesy of Stephen Railton); Pond's photographs of the trip are included; Pond's role in and publicity for the 1894-95 tour of Twain and George W. Cable is also on the site, titled "Touring with Cable and Huck"

"The Booth War in Ripon," George W. Carter, from Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1902; a firsthand account by a Fairwater native and later a Ripon-area attorney of the armed standoff between Federal marshals and antislavery activists in Ripon in 1860

"I Remember Grandma," Mildred (Dunsmoor) Turner

"The Yosemite House - As I Remember," Mildred (Dunsmoor) Turner

Tom Montag, Fairwater resident since the mid-1970s, has edited Margins: A Review of Little Magazines and Small Press Books (1972-76), has published a collection of critical pieces in Concern/s: essays and reviews (1977), has edited and contributed to the Fox River Patriot, and has published numerous books of poetry, including Making Hay & Other Poems (1975), Between Zen & Midwestern (1981), Middle Ground (1982), and The Ox of Paradox (1999).