Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-02-14
FAIRPLAY.
Much ado about Nothing-siin' ng viliase-sur
rounding Country Stores Educa,Ion
and heiigion-Easly Davs


seems to be no end, and much scrib-
bling is most certainly confohnded
WEAKNESS to tho journalistic cere-
brum and flesh. But how can it be
helped. We have put our hand to
the reportorial plow, and it will not
do for US to look back. 1t is mighty
big field that we have to turn over
yet, as they say on the farm and if
we at all hope to finish the work be
fore the winter closes, it behooves us
to trudge right on, without another
word of PREDATORY prating This
time, Fairplay is the subject of our
story. 1t is a fair topic, and must
needs be handled as fairly as possible,
lest we give offence TO some mascu-
line Diana that is even greater than
was she Of the old Ephesians.
The village Of Fairplay is noted for
many things. 1t has charming
and well-sheItered location, in the
heart of what was once the most pro-
ductive mineral land in the county.
More or less digging" is always CO.
ing on in its vicinity, and sufficient
lead is generally raised to keep the
miners and their families supplied
with the necessities of everyday life
Northward from the village as well
as eastward, we fiud some very good
farm land, well-improved, and valued
at fifty dollars per acre and upward
There is not much wood here, but in
the south and west, where the sur
face OF the country is broken into
knobby, bluffy elevations, with whole
books full of geology "sticking out"
whithersoever you may choose to di-
rect your gaze, timber-yielding trees
of the common varieties abound
and furnish an annual supply of wood
for the villagers az well as for the
people OF the surrounding prairie
country. The valley of the Menom-
once affords some choicely pictur-
esque scenery, and is lined in MANY
places with trees primeval and
bearded with moss like those wonder
full Druids Of ancient Gaul and Brit
ain. This stream, which rises near
| tho tovpe hipis mont ham l;,o oa.c =,
motion Mr.. L. Pallets extensive
Touring mill in motion, has some
capital fishing places, and pours it.
self the great Mississippi, at some
desolate spot in Illinois, where no
one comes or hath come since the
making of the world" But let US
now get ourselves back 10 Fairplay
The business interests of the viii
lage are at present in the experience
ed hands of Mr.. w. Anderson and
Mr.. Peter euler. The latter keeps a
snug little trade agoing near the up
per limits of the burg. He is fair
dealing man, and accommodating to
his customers. The following does
not appear in any of the lately pub
lished editions Of "Hiawatha," but
tina, is by no means proof sufficient
and conclusive that it will not be in
corporatcd in that great work by
some learned Lcngfeilowian COM
mentator of the future:
In this good old town of Fairplay.
In this hamlet fair and famous,
In this town of lucky miners,
Jolly men and love maidens,
Dwels man nam'd Gongaware, who,
As the clerk of Squire Warden
Anderson, the leading business
| Man IN all the country lying
| Round about the "Jimiow diggins"-
Dwells and deals in coffee, sugar,
Treac e, pepper, cheese and crackers,
! Deals IN drygoods and IN notions,
| Deals in fine cut and in behring's
Buys your eggs and buys your butter;
Sells for cash or trades for produce,
Gives you credit if you chance to
Be good and honest fellow.
Fairplay has two or three good
hotels, shoemaker, blacksmith, a
doctor, "a lawyer, u bachelor and n
big level company. 1t has also a
church, school, a growing lodge of
| Odd Fellows, and, we believe, sort
of half-aIive institution of the Order
of Good Templars.
Concerning Fairplay of the olden
time, much that is readable as well
as romantic might be written, and
several acres Of printers ink could
easily be devoted to the alluring
theme. But for the present we must
content ourselves with few branch
es of barren facts, seeing that the
dread ard mercless blasts of editori-
al prerogative have just swept over
our incipient literary forests and our
prospective pleasure grounds of po-
esy aud romance, scattering our
leaves of Rhetoric along the shadowy
shores of oblivion's sea, and sweeping
all our budding flowers of Fancy
away into the unmapped regions of
nothingness and night. But to pro-
coed.
The first big Fairplay lead was
discovered in the summer of 1841.
Previous to that time, deal of pros
pecting, always more or less profita-
BILE, had been done in the immediate
neigbborhood Of the town; but the
quantities of mineral raised were not
sufficient to give it anything like no.
toriety or distinction. 1t was just
little huddle of shauties, dreadfully
like unto any other conglomeration
of miners cabins that abounded al
most everywhere in those rude and
early days. But as soon as it became
known abroad that the mines were
beginning to yield large and paying
quantities Of lead a rush was at once
made for the valley wherein the
present village is so snugly situated
and then began what a writer in the
"Grdnt County Herald for July 10,
1S43, describes in the following man
| ner:
"The ravine in which the town
now stands, became lined, almost in
3 day, with dwellings, after the ma
terial and style of which it will be I'M
necessary to enquire. and into which
1 ID L