Fairview Community
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| My research is on the Fairview community. My
family has lived here all of their lives and the land has been handed down from generation
to generation. My great-grandfather made his living farming peanuts and raising cattle. My
grandfather had a dairy farm and is now retired. My great-grandfather and
great-grandmother are both deceased now. My great-grandparents' names were Melvin and
Myrtle Lothringer. They are both buried in the Fairview cemetery along with a number of
other past residents of the Fairview community. The Fairview Cemetery is located next to the Methodist church that was organized before 1876. The cemetery was originally called the "rock church cemetery" due to its position next to the Methodist church built in the 1870s. In the middle of the cemetery you will find grave markers dating from the 1860s. The cemetery is one of the few remaining physical reminders of the town of Fairview. The Fairview community began shortly after the Civil War. Henry Hudson opened a store on the Oakville road. A post office was established in the store in 1868. Fairview grew to include several doctor's offices. Our relatives still live on the property where several of the doctor's once lived. A public school was built which is where my grandfather went as a child. My grandfather still shares stories and fond memories of the old school from time to time. They tore the school down in 1952 and built a new school in 1953. My mother went to the Fairview school for a short time when she was a small girl. They later moved all the classes to Floresville. Fairview had a telephone exchange, blacksmith shop and a cotton gin. The main crop that families worked was cotton. My great-grandfather and grandfather primarily farmed peanuts and raised cattle but were close friends with a number of people who farmed the cotton which is now long gone. The town thrived while the cotton crops were good and a number of people were very prosperous. The decline of Fairview was due primarily to the decline of the cotton crops caused by insects and the boll weevil. The boll weevil is a grayish beetle whose larvae hatch in and damage cotton bolls. Twenty-seven Texas peace officers and twenty Texas Rangers have lived in Fairview and one was well remembered for his role in pursuing Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Most left to work on the border when the town declined. Although the Fairview Community still exists with two small churches and a few families, it is only a remnant of the thriving community established shortly after the civil war. The doctors' offices, school, post office and cotton gin remain only in the minds of a few of the elderly. Despite this Fairview is still where I call home. Credits: My information comes from my family members, who have my sincere thanks. |