Over the last several years, many people have donated interesting items to the collection of Fairbury-related items at the Echoes Museum.
Many Baby Boomers are now downsizing their homes and de-cluttering. These Baby Boomers often donate Fairbury-related items to the museum. Other citizens who are charged with managing the estate of a family member are also museum contributors.
A few years ago, the existence of the Sanborn Insurance maps of early Fairbury was discovered. The five different years of maps cover the period from 1885 up to 1911. They are a treasure trove of information for people seeking information about where businesses or houses were located. The museum sells paper copies of the 1885 maps to museum patrons.
Early Fairbury was a wild town of coal miners from 1862 to 1910. Two Fairbury City Marshals were killed in the line of duty. The museum has a photograph of one of these City Marshals, Amos Brown. Unfortunately, the only photograph of the other City Marshal killed in the line of duty was a poor-quality old Blade photograph.
One of the Echoes Museum board members arranged for an artist to make a new drawing of Fred Baird. This new drawing is now on permanent display in the museum.
William Stackpole was a very interesting early citizen of Fairbury. During his lifetime, he was a gold prospector, pioneer, farmer, merchant, grain speculator, oil field worker, real estate salesperson, inventor, writer, publisher, and visionary. In 1871, Stackpole wrote a novel titled The Heart of the West. After a worldwide search, one copy of the 150-year-old book was found and donated to the museum. This book is in the museum's reading room.
Stackpole kept a diary during his trip overland to the California gold fields in 1849. A worldwide search found his old diary, which is still in existence today. It is at the Yale Research Library on the East Coast. The Yale library scanned all the pages of his diary and sent the information back to Fairbury. With the assistance of several Fairbury volunteers, the entire diary was transcribed from Stackpole's longhand writing to modern typed text. The easy-to-read modern typed version is available to museum patrons in the reading room. The diary is a fascinating collection of adventures encountered by Stackpole as he traveled by oxen-drawn wagon to California in 1849.
Levi Judson Odell grew up in Fairbury. He invented a check-row corn planter and manufactured it in Fairbury. Levi married a woman from Wisconsin. He then moved to Wisconsin and invented an early form of a typewriter. Levi licensed several Chicago companies to build several million of these typewriters. During the last portion of his life, he moved to Los Angeles and manufactured women's razors.
Odell's 130-year-old typewriters are now fairly rare. About once a year, one comes up for sale on eBay. They typically sell for between $500 and $2,000. An Echoes Museum board member purchased an excellent-quality Odell typewriter on eBay and donated it to the museum. The unique typewriter is on permanent display in the museum.
One of Odell's 100-year-old woman's razors was also donated to the museum. It is on permanent display with one of his typewriters.
Over the years, many people have donated items related to Honeggers. Recently, a brand new Honegger jacket was donated to the museum. Two different employee newsletters were also donated. A large red and white sign for Honegger's feed was also donated.
A friend of a Fairbury person lives in California. This friend noticed there were two very old autograph books for sale on a website. These two autograph books belonged to a Fairbury girl, Hattie Earnheart, and dated back to 1883 and 1884. In that era, young girls would have their friends sign their autograph books. These books contain names, poems, and sketches from Fairbury citizens who lived here 140 years ago. A museum board member purchased and donated the two old autograph books to the museum collection.
When Fairbury was founded in 1857, almost all the farmland was swampland. In the 1880s, clay field tiles started to be installed to drain the swamp. Tiling converted the worthless swampland into the most productive farmland on the planet.
There was such a large demand for clay field tile that two Fairbury farmers, Rufus Strait and James McDowell, set up massive tile manufacturing facilities on their farms. Initially, the clay tile had a D shape, with the flat part of the D being placed on the bottom of the field. It was soon discovered that round clay tile drained the land better than the D-shaped tile. The manufacture of D-shaped tile was discontinued in favor of round tile.
Recently, it was discovered that tile was also manufactured on the Fugate farm northeast of Fairbury. A descendant donated samples of the clay tile that was manufactured on this farm to the museum, including a very rare sample of the D-shaped tile.
Another recent donation to the museum was rare photographs of the 1919 Fairbury Fair. These old photographs show that the Fairbury Fair had elephants, artists on flying trapeze, lions jumping from platforms in a large cage, and auto racing.
You can see these recent additions by visiting the Fairbury Echoes Museum at 126 West Locust. The museum is open on Thursdays and Fridays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. During the winter months of January and February, it is only open on Saturdays.
If you want to donate a Fairbury-related item to the museum, you can visit the museum, call the museum at 815-692-2191, or contact Dale Maley.
Dale Maley's local history feature is sponsored each Monday by Dr. Charlene Aaron and Antiques & Uniques of Fairbury.
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