DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to do it justice. Near a crossroads in Wilson County, there was once a town called Fairview — and I do mean a real, flourishing town, not just a wide spot in the road. It started simply enough, shortly after the Civil War, when a man named Henry Hudson opened a store on the Old Oakville Road.
By 1868, there was a post office operating right there inside that store. And from that modest beginning, Fairview just kept growin'. Homes went up.
Churches. Doctors' offices. A blacksmith shop.
A cotton gin. A public school. A Masonic Lodge.
Even a telephone exchange. Cotton was king out here, and the economy ran on it. For a good while, Fairview had every reason to believe it was going somewhere.
Now here's where the story takes a turn. The boll weevil showed up, along with other pests that had a taste for cotton crops, and they did not come alone — they came to stay. The marker says those pests played a large part in the eventual decline of the town following World War I.
A community that had built itself up piece by piece started coming apart the same way. But before we get too deep into the fading, let me tell you about something Fairview produced that nobody would've predicted from looking at a crossroads store on the Old Oakville Road. Twenty-seven Texas peace officers called this place home.
Twenty-seven. Twenty of them were Texas Rangers. Now that alone would be enough to give any little town a considerable amount of swagger.
But among those twenty Rangers was one Frank Hamer, born in 1884, died in 1955, and best remembered — according to this marker — for pursuing two of the most notorious outlaws of the Depression era: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. That name came out of Fairview, Texas. Out of this crossroads.
Most of the town itself is gone now. But the Fairview Cemetery is still out there, still in use, and it carries a name that tells you something about what came before — it was originally called the Rock Church Cemetery, on account of its position next to a Methodist church built in the 1870s. Grave markers in that cemetery date all the way back to the 1860s, making it one of the few physical reminders left of everything Fairview once was.
A post office in a store. Twenty Texas Rangers. One very famous lawman.
And a cemetery that outlasted the town. That's Fairview.
What the marker says
Near this crossroads was once the flourishing community of Fairview. The village began shortly after the Civil War, when Henry Hudson opened a store on the Old Oakville Road. A post office was established in the store in 1868. Fairview grew to include homes, churches, doctors' offices, a blacksmith shop, cotton gin, public school, Masonic Lodge, and telephone exchange. The area's economy was based on agriculture, and the main crop was cotton. The advent of the boll weevil and other pests which attacked the cotton crop played a large part in the eventual decline of the town following World War I. Fairview was the hometown of twenty-seven Texas peace officers, including twenty Texas Rangers. Among the Rangers was Frank Hamer (1884-1955), who is best remembered for his role in pursuing notorious Depression-era outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. Still remaining and in use in the area is the Fairview Cemetery, originally called the Rock Church Cemetery due to its position next to a Methodist church built in the 1870s. With grave markers dating from the 1860s, it is one of the few remaining physical reminders of the town. (1988)