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History · Fairchild

Fairchild’s post office opened in 1870, and 33% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the California Wine and Liquor Store. Below: maps from 1894 on and the census since 1880.

1870first post office

1on the National Register

33%homes built before 1940

1famous people

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Quick answers

How Fairchild began

When was Fairchild founded?

1870

The Fairchild post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 304 in 18802020 census: 451156 years

Founding year: the first Fairchild post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Fairchild’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Fairchild are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,120 in 1950; 451 people lived here in 2020.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Fairchild’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Fairchild’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

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People over time

Fairchild, census by census

Peaked at 1,120 in 1950; 451 people lived here in 2020.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Fairchild’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Fairchild came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Fairchild.

Read it all →

The first inhabitants of the area were the Dakota, Ojibwe, and Ho-Chunk tribes.

The West Wisconsin Railway reached the area in 1868, and the Fairchild post office was established in 1870. Starting in 1872 farmers began acquiring land in the area through the Homestead Acts.

Fairchild was incorporated in 1880 and was named for Lucius Fairchild, the 10th Governor of Wisconsin. By the late 1800s the village became a commercial hub due to the logging and railroad enterprises of businessman N.C. Foster.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Fairchild in 1914

Passages that mention Fairchild, cut from the printed page as they were published.

began practice at Lee Center, Illinois, remaining there for sixteen years, whence he moved to Amboy, Illinois, and practiced there six years. In 1902 on account of ill health he came to Wisconsin and purchased eighty acres of land in the town of Fairchild, Eau Claire county, and was there engaged i… — **History of Eau Claire county, Wisconsin, past and present**1914Read the page →
Read the text
began practice at Lee Center, Illinois, remaining there for sixteen years, whence he moved to Amboy, Illinois, and practiced there six years. In 1902 on account of ill health he came to Wisconsin and purchased eighty acres of land in the town of Fairchild, Eau Claire county, and was there engaged in farming two years. He later took the examination before the Wisconsin State Board of Medical Examiners and has since been in the active and successful practice of his profession in the village of Fairchild.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Fairchild Township was formed in 1874, and is identical in size and sliape with one of government survey. It is bovinded on the north by the town of Bridge Creek, on the south by Jackson county, on the east by Clark county, and on the west by the town of Bridge Creek. It is watered by Coon and Brid… — **History of Eau Claire county, Wisconsin, past and present**1914Read the page →
Read the text
Fairchild Township was formed in 1874, and is identical in size and sliape with one of government survey. It is bovinded on the north by the town of Bridge Creek, on the south by Jackson county, on the east by Clark county, and on the west by the town of Bridge Creek. It is watered by Coon and Bridge creeks and their tributaries. Its business center is the village of the same name, which is located in the extreme southeast corner of the county and the township, and was settled in 1868,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Fairchild, 1870 to 1950

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

19th century
1870Post officeThe Fairchild post office opens
1896BuiltCalifornia Wine and Liquor Store is built
20th century
1919Born hereCarole Landis is born here
1948On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
1950CensusPopulation peaks at 1,120

By decade

Fairchild, decade by decade

Today6 recent

2024WEAU-13 TV Tower

2024Fairchild, Wisconsin

2024Fairchild Village Hall

2017Fairchild Wisconsin downtown

2012Historic Store in

2004WIMap-doton-Fairchild

On the map

Fairchild on the map, 1948 to 1979

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fairchild. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

1948Fairchild sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Fairchild.

Every building

Fairchild, building by building, 1894

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Fairchild fire insurance map, 1894, sheet 1

1894Sheet 1 of 2

Sheets

+1 more at the Library of Congress

BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Fairchild

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

each building in a district counts

first listed

1982

California Wine and Liquor Store

Buildings

California Wine and Liquor StoreBuilt 1896

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Questions about Fairchild’s history

What year was Fairchild founded?

The Fairchild post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Fairchild?

One place: the California Wine and Liquor Store (listed 1982).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

Start a conversation

Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.

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