Josiah Hunt, a railroad engineer, reportedly used inside information about the coming of the Great Western Railroad to purchase 40 acres (160,000 m2) of land along the new route to found a town. He originally named the town Salina, but this was changed because of an existing Illinois town named Saline; Francis Dougherty, an early settler, is said to have selected the name Fairmount. The town was incorporated in 1863.
Coal mining was attempted east of Fairmount, but this proved to be impractical because of water. Later, Jacob C. Sandusky discovered an outcropping of limestone in his farm, and quarries were established which at one time employed about 400 people. The quarries are now flooded and make a popular fishing location.
Passages that mention Fairmount, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Magee's illustrated guide of Philadelphia and the Centennial exhibition1876 · page 157Read the page →
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Spruce and Pine Streets, Green and Fairmount Avenue, Race and Vine Streets and Callowhill Street railways, also, Fairmount Branch of the Union Line, run to Fairmount, near the Waterworks, where you take the steamer; and if you are a good pedestrian, have a most delightful walk through the Park, crossing the magnificent Girard Avenue Bridge, and out the Lansdowne drive to the Centennial Buildings — occupying about 30 minutes.
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History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources1879 · page 982Read the page →
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District No. 2, which embraces the village of Fairmount, built its first school-house in 1859, at a cost of $400. The present building, 40x48, two stories high, brick, with four rooms, was built in 1865.
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History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources1879 · page 975Read the page →
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Folks platted additions at various times since. The name of the town was changed to Fairmount, but on the record it remains Salina. The first building put up on the site of this town was built by Parish & Bowman, in 1836. They had a "job on the railway" to do grading in that ancient time, and John Dougherty relates that he used to come here to sell potatoes, onions and cabbages in their season, to the railroad men.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Fairmount, 1857 to 1943
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In 1863, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Fairmount’s post office opened in 1857, and the census of 1880 counted 503 people here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
