How Have Things Changed?



A lot of things have changed since Fairland first became a town in 1852. I once again ask Mr. Bud Mendenhall, that oldest faculty member that resides at Triton Central, I asked him what the biggest change was in the school system he said, " Well the school is modernized now, then it was." Mr. Mendenhall was a teacher at the very first building that Triton Central was at. I asked him why he still teaches he says, "because I love it, and would'nt be here if I didn't." When Mr. Mendenhall came to Triton Central he coached basketball, softball and track. He later also coached the very first football team that Triton Central ever had. My dad was privelaged to be on the very first team. I asked Mr. Mendenhall how his very first season went and he said, " Well it was a winning one, I know that for sure." " Fairland is unincorporated, meaning there is no true town government. Shelby County's three commissioners are the only official governing authority over Fairland. What locals consider to be the "town" of Fairland is a modest collection of homes and businesses, but because Fairland has the post office nearest to much of rural northwestern Shelby County, many homes far from the town have a Fairland address"(Fairland Indiana). I also asked him about the town itself and what he can remember, and what has changed. " There were four little stores, one where Mr. Ts is, one across the street, one right over the railroad tracks, and one where Frodies is." To me having four stores in a small town was confusing I asked him if they all sold the same thing for the same price, he said that they all did see pretty much the same thing for the same price and only one of them and meat to sell. In 1952 pork chops were sold for only 29 cents a pound and a half a gallon of ice-cream cost 89 cents. Though now the town has changed from four stores to one, it still has a sense of history. There were some lodges near Fairland but the only one that is still exists is the Sugar Creek Lodge. A big event that still happens today is the Fairland Fish Fry. It still happens every July. It is held where the old school building used to be in the town of Fairland. Even when the school building was there the Fish Fry was held beside it. Fairland has a lot of unique history. A special event that happend in Shelbyville Indiana which is only about ten minutes from Fairland was Ronald Reagan, future president appeared at the Shelbyville Corn Festival. At this festival there was a 70 foot corn shock in the center of the circle.Though the contest is not held anymore, Ronald Reagan visting a city near by is something to remember.

Fairland is still a small town like it was when our ancestors first came to create it out of the swampy waters. In fairland there is 23% German ancestry, 11% Irish,and 7% English. There are also others that are Swedish, Scottish, Swedish-Irish, French, Cherokee, Italian, Dutch, Mexican and Polish. German ancestry is the main ancestry in the town of Fairland (Fairland History). All of these ancestors make up the people of Fairland today. There are 1,278 non-farm home owners living in Fairland today. The number of males and females fluctuates throughout the ages (Houses). Fairland is an amazing town, it has had its ups and downs but in the end it is still going strong. It has come from being a swampy area with very little sunshine, to a quiet little bright and sunny town. Over the next several years my guess is this town is going to grow greatly in size, but I doubt that this small town will ever forget where it has come from to get where it is going.

Entertainment

How were people entertained?

In 1900 traveling shows were extremely popular. The traveling shows would come to Fairland and reside in the Fairland Hotel, which was owned by Thomas B. Maze, nicknamed Daddy. Bussiness was booming in Fairland when shows came. The entire hotel was full, and later on there had to be a balcony added on just so everyone could come in and enjoy. To heat the building there were two big stoves.Since the stoves were big, but not big enough, some people would sit to close and get extremely hot, and some wouldn't even be able to feel the heat because of sitting so far away. Most of the plays were melodrama type (Gray 19). The audiences were captivated by the actors and would cheer and boo for the hero and the villian. One of the most remorable plays was "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The actors and actress were honored to act in the plays. Activies that ladies participated in was the Ladies Concert Band of Fairland. The director of the badn was Fredrick W. Rasp of Sugar Creek Township. For these ladies to get instruments they had to raise money. They raised money by holding the Ice-Cream Festival. The ladies would ride around horse and buggy trying to collect extra milk, eggs and cream to make the ice-cream. It would take all day to make the ice-cream and later that night when everyones chores were done they were served the ice-cream that was made, and also cake. They had a beautiful seeting with Japanese laterns above the tables. After a lot of hard practice, the girls made their outfits, and their debut at the Eighth Grade Commencement of the fourteen townships in the county. " A thousand people attended the Shelby Township commencement under the big tent at Wilson Wednesday night. a class composed of seven bright girls and one intelligetn thogh lonesome boy, highly entertained the audience."(Gray 20).
A new and interesting game introduced was a game called auto polo. This game consisted of two players, a Model T Ford that was stripped down to running gears, a ball the size of a football and a mallet. The length of the course was 350ft long. Two eight and a half stakes were placed at either end of the course and the ball was placed in the middle. Each car resided between its two stakes and when the referee gave the signal each car was to rush to the center to try to prevent the other from getting the ball in between his two stakes. One of the two players was the driver and the other was the man with the mallet. For almost the entire game the car would be kept in reverse. The main rule was you had to be on your machine when you hit the ball. This game was very popluar throughout the country for 10 to 15 years. To see how entertainment now and then has changed is amazing. Now we have televison and computers, rather than just having a band and a very interesting game. Entertainment has change significantly throughout the years.

Transportation

The roads that were built in Fairland were not very accountable. They had all kinds of debris and rubish in the roads. The debris went from big tree roots to big tree stumps, which made it very difficut to take a horse and buggy on. The roads were mainly only used in the summer, spring and fall. It was nearly impossible to go on these roads in the winter time. More and more roads were added eventually, but the main road that is still used today runs north and south is Michigan Road. An unusal and interesting fact I thought was that toll roads were introduced in our area. The toll road spanded from Michigan Road to the Red Mills. In 1883 a big change was amoungst Shelby County, the toll roads were cut and were turned into a public highways. Next the railroads were becoming a means of transportation. Indianapolis Cincinnati, St. Louis and Lafayette are all apart of what was called "The Big Four". The Big Four connected Shelby County to the most important cities in the midwest. When I asked Mr. Bud Mendenhall about the huge train wreck in Fairland, Indiana, he says " I can remember seeing it, but I wasn't invovled in it. It was a mess." I am not postitive what year the train wreck was but it setback a lot of shipments. There were several train wrecks, some were fatal. On July 24, 1952 Fairland residents petitioned the Indiana Public Service Commission and the railroad authorities to install utomatic flashers at all crossings in the town (Gray 36). All that the train conductor had to warn any on coming cars or people was a bell, that many didn't ever hear. After a bunch of legal problems were handled construction began on the saftey lights. Going from dirt roads with roots all up in it to roads still used to day and train tracks that are still there all of these are big accomplishments.

The Small Town of Fairland

When and How was Fairland established?

The Early Years
Not many people have heard of our small town called Fairland. When your out and about and someone asks you where you are from and you respond, Fairland, there is hardly a single person out there who could tell you where that is. But Fairland has become more than just a town with a little market, it is a piece of history.
Before Fairland had all of the roads and houses, it was basically a big swamp. There were several different types of trees surrounding the town. The trees were so intertwined that the sun could not penetrate through. For more than half of the year the ground was submerged in water except for some high places. “ Fallen leaves, trunks of prostrate trees half submerged in the oozy soil prevented escape of surface water and made it almost untraversable for man or beast(Gray, 3). It was a heroic task to chop down all of these giant trees surrounding the town, but it was done. Fences were put up and the water was drained and ditches were done, it was one of the toughest hardships that was faced, along with the prowling wolves and the Indians. Indians were not a problem for long, when the Indians learned that settlers were coming they fled to the west. The man that lead the way was Jacob Whetzel. Jacob Whetzel was a former Revolutionary War soldier,scout, Indian fighter and spy(Gray 3). Whetzel and his men traveled through many well known cities that today people live in. They traveled through Anderson, Rushville, Shelbyville, and even Greenwood. Along the way men would put marks on trees so that if a man got lost, even in the night, he could find his way through all of the debris. Of course they had to make stops and build camps when the night fall came, they would gather bunches of leaves for their bed, and one night just five miles east of Sugar Creek Jacbb Whetzel shared a bottle of peach brandy with his men. The bottle of brandy was the inspiration for the Brandywine Creek today. Brandywine Township came from the subdivision of the townships, and they named the one closest to Brandywine Creek, Brandywine Township. News got out about the new virgin land. Soon settlers, and the building of transportation systems wanted to come, build, and trade. Fairland was starting to become the small town it is today.
A man named Allen Fessenbeck conducted a general store that hauled products to Cincinnati where he got his goods. Making that trip in a wagon was tough on the oxen and horses. When the construction of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lafayette Railroad began in 1849 it helped Allen Fessenbeck and his general store and his animals. After Henry Jenkins, a man from Ohio, built a house out of huge yellow poplar trees, him and another man named Isaac Odell pushed for the progress for the town of Fairland. Isaac, and Henry met with the J.M Elliott Company of Shelby County to draw plans of the town. They drew up alleys,lost, and they named the streets, twelve days later the birth certificate of Fairland was entered in the Shelby county records on October 21st, 1852. With Mr. Odell being a citizen, he helped the town become what it is today. He set up a store to serve the builders of the railroads and the farmers. On January 10, 1854 a U S Post Office was awarded Fairland with Mr. Odell as postmaster(Gray 5). Isaac Odell was a popular man that the citizens loved. He was elected Justice of the Peace and became a skilled lawyer. Not only was he popular in Fairland he was popular in the whole Shelby County. He was elected to represent Shelby County in the State Legislature from 1869 to 1871. Isaac Odell died in 1879 in Mitchel Ham's Justice of the Peace court house in Fairland. It is amazing how advanced the town has become since the days the settlers came through.
Now that the town of Fairland was official, it didn't take much time before the town grew. There were soon many churches and houses being built. Before the churches were up and going many families had a form of worship called family prayers. Usually these family prayers were done early in the morning before breakfast and late in the evening before bedtime. The family prayers were generally held by the head of the household, and if a guest were staying then they would have the privilege of holding the prayer and the family would gather around the leader and if you prayed in public and the family didn't pray as if it were their last day their piety was questioned. There were many churches developed in the town of Fairland. There were about six churches, but the first was the Wray Methodist Church, the methodists was the dominant religion. The six churches were, the Wray Methodist Church, Brandywine Methodist Church, Fairland Baptist, Old Union Methodist, Fairland Methodist, and Fairland Christian. An exciting event that happened in 1935 was the Rural Sunday Hour. The Rural Sunday Hour was a weekly radio program that began on Sunday June twenty-third. The Rural Sunday Hour was actually only a half an hour that played over Indianapolis radio stations. Now that the churches were settled the building of the schools began.
Schools were developed basically by the teachers. A teacher would recruit students from around the neighborhood and charge fifty cents to a dollar and seventy-five cents. The early schools were only around a three month term and because of a state law in 1833 a teacher's pay in cash could not be more than sixty dollars for three months. The schools were made of logs. In the winter the building would get very cold and the door to the school was left open for the warm sunshine to shine in. There was also a school law that said that the floor had to be one foot from the ground and eight feet from the floor of the building. There were many school laws, one of which was that the authorized Circuit Court had to appoint examiners to look at the qualifications of the teacher, but many times the teacher was more intelligent than the examiner so not very many teachers were eliminated. “In 1848 a revolution in education began in Indiana. The legislature asked the question, “Do the people of Indiana want to tax themselves for free, state-supported schools? Shelby County said YES. Many other counties voted NO; however, by a slight edge the referendum passed. The year 1852 marked the beginning of the free schools in Indiana” (Gray 9). It is said that in 1850 Brandywine Township had a population of 772. Only 188 of the population attended school and 107 could not read of write. There was around 145 families. The only teacher listed in that time was William Alexander, a twenty-six year old from North Carolina. When the town became incorporated school in 1869 school reports became separate from the township that had its own trustee. The Fairland school term of seventy-four days with two men teachers receiving $2.16 per day. The average daily attendance was sixty-six.(Gray 10). In 1879 the first brick school building in Fairland was complete, but was later moved that year. Graded schools were developed in 1884, and what they called a graduation contest was entered in 1887. Miss Gertrude Clark of Brandywine won the graduation contest in the Opera Hall in Shelbyville. Along with the school development, along came libraries. Each township got their own library filled with useful information. Each family could only check out two volumes at a time, and it could not be kept for more than a month. In 1855 there were 214 books in the schools library, and in 1860 there were 329 books. The libraries were rarely being used because everyone had already read the books and stopped checking books out. It was reported in 1864 that only fifty books were taken out. Schools and libraries were important factors to the foundation of the town of Fairland.
Now that the town of Fairland was official, it didn't take much time before the town grew. There were soon many churches and houses being built. Before the churches were up and going many families had a form of worship called family prayers. Usually these family prayers were done early in the morning before breakfast and late in the evening before bedtime. The family prayers were generally held by the head of the household, and if a guest were staying then they would have the privilege of holding the prayer and the family would gather around the leader and if you prayed in public and the family didn't pray as if it were their last day their piety was questioned. There were many churches developed in the town of Fairland. There were about six churches, but the first was the Wray Methodist Church, the methodists was the dominant religion. The six churches were, the Wray Methodist Church, Brandywine Methodist Church, Fairland Baptist, Old Union Methodist, Fairland Methodist, and Fairland Christian. An exciting event that happened in 1935 was the Rural Sunday Hour. The Rural Sunday Hour was a weekly radio program that began on Sunday June twenty-third. The Rural Sunday Hour was actually only a half an hour that played over Indianapolis radio stations. Now that the churches were settled the building of the schools began.
Schools were developed basically by the teachers. A teacher would recruit students from around the neighborhood and charge fifty cents to a dollar and seventy-five cents. The early schools were only around a three month term and because of a state law in 1833 a teacher's pay in cash could not be more than sixty dollars for three months. The schools were made of logs. In the winter the building would get very cold and the door to the school was left open for the warm sunshine to shine in. There was also a school law that said that the floor had to be one foot from the ground and eight feet from the floor of the building. There were many school laws, one of which was that the authorized Circuit Court had to appoint examiners to look at the qualifications of the teacher, but many times the teacher was more intelligent than the examiner so not very many teachers were eliminated. “In 1848 a revolution in education began in Indiana. The legislature asked the question, “Do the people of Indiana want to tax themselves for free, state-supported schools? Shelby County said YES. Many other counties voted NO; however, by a slight edge the referendum passed. The year 1852 marked the beginning of the free schools in Indiana” (Gray 9). It is said that in 1850 Brandywine Township had a population of 772. Only 188 of the population attended school and 107 could not read of write. There was around 145 families. The only teacher listed in that time was William Alexander, a twenty-six year old from North Carolina. When the town became incorporated school in 1869 school reports became separate from the township that had its own trustee. The Fairland school term of seventy-four days with two men teachers receiving $2.16 per day. The average daily attendance was sixty-six.(Gray 10). In 1879 the first brick school building in Fairland was complete, but was later moved that year. Graded schools were developed in 1884, and what they called a graduation contest was entered in 1887. Miss Gertrude Clark of Brandywine won the graduation contest in the Opera Hall in Shelbyville. Along with the school development, along came libraries. Each township got their own library filled with useful information. Each family could only check out two volumes at a time, and it could not be kept for more than a month. In 1855 there were 214 books in the schools library, and in 1860 there were 329 books. The libraries were rarely being used because everyone had already read the books and stopped checking books out. It was reported in 1864 that only fifty books were taken out. Schools and libraries were important factors to the foundation of the town of Fairland.