Saturday the community of Fairfield became the latest community located along the Union Pacific Railroad line that clips Nuckolls County to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its founding. That railroad line has been nicknamed the ABC line as names for many of the towns along the line were selected in alphabetical order. For example Alexandria, Bruning, Carleton, Davenport, Edgar and Fairfield.
Fairfield, which likes to promote itself as “The Best Little Town in Nebraska” was a busy place on the weekend as a number of activities were held to commemorate the milestone.
Like many communities, the town was relocated after the construction of the railroad. The first post office was known as White Elm but the railroad missed White Elm and the fledgling town soon disappeared.
The current town of Fairfield is located on a homestead claimed by Maxmillian Reed in 1871. The next year he sold his claim to 10 men who wanted the land to establish a town.
Fairfield was surveyed by the St. Joe and Denver Railroad Company and laid out by George W. Fairfield in 1872. The first lots were sold in September of 1874. Soon after the lots were sold, stores were moved to the new site from White Elm.
The first house was built in 1875. In 1888 the A. A. Smith sorghum factory produced 15,000 gallons of sorghum, a quantity not obtained by any other Nebraska sorghum factory in that year. Other industries in the 1890s and early 1900s included the Fairfield Roller Mills iron works, brick yard, creamery and incubator factory.
A municipal water works and electric light plant were built in 1910. Natural gas came to the town in 1949 and a sewer treatment plant was built in 1961.
In 1921 three blocks of the main street were curbed and guttered. A short time later they were gravelled. Local citizens donated their time as well as wagons and teams for the hauling and spreading of the gravel.
The community population reached 1,500 people in the 1890s.
George Washington Fairfield, a civil engineer, laid out the town of Fairfield, Geneva and Arapahoe.
The Fairfield Auditorium which is still in active use is located where there was once a large brick slab surrounded by a brick fence. The slab was used for dances, roller skating and other community activities before the auditorium was built. The building which one housed a John Deere farm machinery dealership now houses a privately owned John Deere museum.
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