Fairbury, Illinois
| Fairbury | |
| City | |
 Buildings in downtown Fairbury
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Illinois |
| County | Livingston |
| Elevation | 682 ft (208 m) |
| Coordinates | 40°44′46″N 88°30′51″W / 40.74611°N 88.51417°WCoordinates: 40°44′46″N 88°30′51″W / 40.74611°N 88.51417°W |
| Area | 1.80 sq mi (5 km2) |
| - land | 1.80 sq mi (5 km2) |
| - water | 0.00 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Population | 3,968 (2000) |
| Density | 3,060.1/sq mi (1,182/km2) |
| Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Postal code | 61739 |
| Area code | 815 |
   Location of Fairbury within Illinois
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Fairbury is a city in Livingston County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,968 at the 2000 census.
Fairbury was laid out on November 10, 1857 by Caleb L. Patton and Octave Chanute. Like most Illinois towns of the 1850s, the original town of Fairbury was centered on a depot ground. It consisted of twenty-six blocks, each divided into fourteen to sixteen lots. There was no central public square, but one was later included in Marsh's addition. The plan used was virtually identical to that at Chatsworth Illinois, including the street names, and the plan very similar to that at Gridley and El Paso on the same railroad.
Octave Chanute was a civil engineer employed by the new Peoria and Oquawka Railroad, which is now the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad. Caleb L. Patton was an early settler on the land where the town was built. Chanute, a French native, was later famed for publishing Progress in Flying Machines, which helped pioneer aviation. The Wright brothers even mentioned Chanute as a mentor to them. Chanute built the railroad that made Fairbury possible, but did so against the will of Patton, Fairbury's first citizen.
It is Caleb Patton who should really be credited for the creation of Fairbury. It was he who owned the land that the original town was built on, and it was he who advertised lots for sale and attracted other people to live there. Today, the original town's area starts at the corner of Maple Street and First Street and stretches to the corner of Oak Street and Seventh Street. When Patton heard that Chanute wanted to build a railroad in his general direction, he saw it as an opportunity to make use of his otherwise deserted land and struck a deal. If Chanute built his railroad through Fairbury, then Patton would give Chanute half of the town's property.
Patton and Chanute reached an agreement, and Chanute kept up his end of the deal. Patton gave a small chunk of the land to the Baptist Church and set aside an area for the railroad and a depot. However, when Chanute reached Fairbury, he was met by a group of armed citizens. The town had passed an ordinance that no railroad would pass through Fairbury, and they advised Chanute to simply build around the town (preferably where the golf course is currently). They had even received an injunction from Pontiac, Illinois forbidding Chanute from building a railroad through the town. Alma Lewis-James, author of Stuffed Clubs and Antimacassars: Account and Tales of Early Fairbury best describes what Chanute did next:
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