Local History and Genealogy Abstracts from Fairmount News, Fairmount, Indiana, 1888-1900

The region of Fairmount, Indiana, was first settled "along Back Creek in the late 1820s and early 1830s" by North Carolina Quakers who were "escaping the moral blight of a southern society based on human slavery." By the mid-nineteenth century, these Quakers had established an agricultural community around the new town of Fairmount, named for Philadelphia's "Fairmount Park." The Civil War had its effects on the young town, as many citizens fought and several died in support of their Northern cause. Fairmount's growth stalled for a few decades following the war, but the expansion of the railroads and the discovery of natural gas revitalized the town as factories were built to utilize its resources. It is this last portion of the nineteen century which the contents of this book directly encompass. Within these pages can be found abstracts from "all existing Fairmount newspapers published through 1900." The local newspapers of the time chronicled births, marriages and deaths as well as the migration of individuals from Fairmount to other parts of the country, all topics which can be tracked through these pages. The abstracts have been organized alphabetically by the subject's surname, and some entries are cross-referenced for the reader's convenience.