Located at the confluence of the San Pitch River and Cottonwood
Creek, Fairview is the largest town in the northeast end of the
Sanpete Valley. Founded in 1859, soon after the resettlement of
nearby Mt. Pleasant, Fairview was one of the first new towns
established during the second wave of Mormon settlement in Sanpete
County.
Impressed with the possibilities of the area while gathering
wild hay there in early 1859, Warren P. Brady and Jehu Cox wrote to
Brigham Young asking for permission to create a settlement. The
pragmatic church president responded, "If there is water for thirty
families, you have my permission." At an organizing meeting held on
1 October 1859 in Mt. Pleasant, James N. Jones was chosen to lead a
band of about twenty families interested in the new colonizing
opportunity. The town site was surveyed and by the end of 1860 a
large log meeting house had been completed to house church, school,
and social functions. Rows of poplars were planted, streets were
graded, and fences were constructed as Fairview took on the
appearance of the ubiquitous "Mormon Village." In 1864 the town
obtained a post office and forsook its original name of North Bend
in favor of the more descriptive name Fairview, because it
"commands an excellent view of the great granary extending south
even beyond Manti, thirty miles distant."
During the Black Hawk Indian war of the mid-1860s, some Fairview
residents moved to Mt. Pleasant for protection after a few men were
killed in deadly skirmishes. Those who remained complied with
Brigham Young's instructions to build a fort. By the end of 1866 a
thick rock wall ten feet high enclosed the center of town. Within a
few years, the conflict was essentially over and aggressive
settlement and community development commenced. In the course of
the ensuing decade, Fairview's population burgeoned to more than
1,000, making it the fourth largest in Sanpete by 1880. In 1900 and
again in 1940 the town exceeded 1,700 people; however in 1980 the
population was just 900, ranking Fairview sixth in size among the
county's nineteen communities.
Fairview shared with its neighboring villages the fact of its
Mormon origin and governance, together with its significant ethnic
makeup. Yet by 1880 Fairview had the smallest percentage of
foreign-born, married adults (50.3 percent) of any of the major
towns in a county which averaged 72.2 percent foreign-born.
Fairview was distinctive in other ways as well. Initially the
"child" of larger Mt. Pleasant, only six miles to the south,
Fairview eventually became its rival, competing vigorously for
land, water, timber, grazing rights, and a fair share of church and
government funds. The town's Mormon bishops sometimes found
themselves in the center of bitter disputes with leaders of other
communities, much to the dismay of local apostle and stake
president Orson Hyde, who was assigned to arbitrate disputes and
settle contentions.
Yet despite their strong-willed and independent natures, the
people of Fairview took full part in the cooperative society of
their times. In 1874 they enthusiastically followed church counsel
and established a united order. Stock certificates (7,500 shares)
were sold at $10 a share to fund the venture. But like most of the
other united orders in the territory, Fairview's was doomed to
rapid failure. Poor crops and undercapitalization nearly forced its
demise in 1874 after only a few months of existence. Despite
gallant and creative efforts to keep it alive, the order was
discontinued in 1876.
Fairview's economic base has always depended on agriculture and
the livestock industry. Following trapper Barney Ward's lead,
irrigation ditches were dug and reservoir sites identified soon
after settlement. Food crops, hay, and grains were planted and, in
1870, the town's first flour mill was constructed south of town.
Livestock raising, ranging from beef and sheep to chickens and
turkeys, has persisted throughout Fairview's history. Because of
its proximity to canyon forests, sawmills were established in the
early decades to support a lumber industry. By the turn of the
century, there were half a dozen steam sawmills in the mountains
east of town.
Beginning in the late 1860s, Fairview developed a one-street
commercial district along the old territorial road running through
the middle of town. In 1869 a Zion's Cooperative Mercantile
Institution was started in Fairview. Other stores and businesses
followed, so that by 1900 Fairview's downtown could boast of a
public library, several general stores, a furniture store, a
creamery, a harness shop, a butcher shop, and two hotels. In 1881 a
Presbyterian mission school was funded, with a chapel being erected
in 1894. A good public school system was established in the 1890s;
497 of Fairview's 1,800 population in 1898 were students.
Recreational needs were accommodated in a social hall and the
Eclipse Pavilion.
The arrival of the Rio Grande Western railroad in the 1890s
bolstered Fairview's ability to import equipment and export its
surplus goods, immensely benefiting the town's economic strength as
it also did for other Sanpete cities. Fairview's fortunes rose and
fell with the cycle of the regional economy after the
railroad-enhanced boom and its population high-water mark in 1900,
however.
The twentieth century brought diversified businesses and
industries, including dairies, roller mills, coal mining, and fur
ranches. The Fairview State Bank was organized in 1914, reflecting
the optimism of the local economy. Yet, as Fairview approaches the
threshold of the twenty-first century, agriculture and livestock
raising remain the dominant ways of making a living. Unlike other
parts of the county where cattle and turkey raising are the leading
cash producers, sheep continue to outpace all other economies in
Fairview, accounting for 46 percent of the farm and ranch
operations in northeast Sanpete County.
Like most of the other towns in Sanpete County, Fairview has a
rich architectural legacy. The many remaining historic structures
not only inform us of the varied types of materials, crafts, and
styles employed by Fairview's forebears, they also remind us of
many kinds of activities that gave the town its past and present
nature. The two 1920s-30s masonry LDS meetinghouses, replacing
simpler, earlier edifices, speak of the continuing Mormon presence,
while the two-story rock school (now a museum) and brick town hall
suggest something of the town's bygone stature. The Fairview Roller
Mills, one of the most picturesque industrial buildings in the
county, is a monument to the agrarian foundation of Fairview's
existence. Impressive business buildings remain clustered along
Main Street, while houses and outbuildings of every type, style,
and material dot the blocks to the east and west. Long gone are the
log meetinghouse, stone fort, tall rows of poplars, and the Sanpete
infirmary (or "Poor House"), but many other remnants of the rural
landscape remain which identify key elements of Fairview's history
and present character.
Allen Roberts