A treasure trove of local history

The Fairbury Echoes Museum maintains a website called FairburyEchoes.org. This website is an invaluable resource for anyone researching Fairbury or family history.

Under the website's Resource Tab, a list of 14 different resources is available to researchers. Many of the rare or unusual Fairbury-related documents in the museum's archives have been scanned and uploaded to the Internet Archive (Archive.org). This website is a huge non-profit that allows people to upload rare documents for free. Once the documents are uploaded, they can be easily found by conducting a Google search. There is a link to browse through all 320 documents stored on this website easily.

Another resource is a series of 42 short audio recordings about various Fairbury history topics. Between 2016 and 2019, Fairbury Historian Dale C. Maley recorded these sessions for the WJEZ radio station that used to be in Pontiac, Illinois.

The Fairbury Blade newspaper archives are another invaluable resource when researching local history. As this newspaper was published, copies of each edition were bound into large books. The Blade graciously donated these books to the Fairbury Echoes Museum. The old Blades can be electronically searched from the Dominy Library's website.

Did you know that Bobby Hankins recorded a song about Fairbury, Illinois, in 1975? You can listen to the song and read the lyrics on the website.

The Livingston County Historical Society presents information about local history at its meetings. The Fairbury Echoes museum website provides links to all presentations related to Fairbury's history.

One primary resource for researching local history is the four old history books about Livingston County published in 1878, 1888, 1900, and 1909. The website provides links to download these books in PDF format, allowing users to perform a word search.

Fairbury has two buildings on the National Register of Historic Places: the old City Hall and the Beach House on East Hickory Street. Jack Tollensdorf conducted the historical research necessary to have these two buildings listed on the National Register in 1996. The website provides links to the applications, along with Jack's historical information.

The website also has a listing and short description of the 25 local history books researched and written by Dale C. Maley. Copies of these history books can be borrowed from the Dominy Library or purchased at Fairbury Furniture in the Walton Building or from Amazon.com.

Fairbury native Bill Goold has recently released two unpublished manuscripts about Fairbury area history. One manuscript is about the Underground Railroad, and the other is about the Kickapoo Native Americans who once lived in the area south of Fairbury. Both can be accessed using links on the website.

Another valuable resource is the negatives from the Pantagraph newspaper. These old photos can be accessed using a link on the website. There are now 1,061 negatives released about Fairbury. You can also use links to find negatives related to Cropsey and other nearby towns.

Alma Lewis James (1899-1979) was a Fairbury historian. Her most famous book was titled Stuffed Clubs & Antimacassars. New copies of her book can still be purchased from the Fairbury Echoes Museum.

About twenty YouTube videos pertain to Fairbury history. The website has links to watch these videos. The oldest videos were created by Watt Nakamaru (1923-2008), a Fairbury photographer. These circa 1960 videos have scenes from Honeggers, the Fairbury golf course, the swimming pool, and a homecoming parade.

Besides the Resources Tab, the other tab on the website, which can be very valuable for historical research, is the Stories Tab. There are links to many stories about Fairbury's History. Some of the major story categories include school history, Native American history, public parks, businesses, African American history, Cropsey history, Fairbury hospitals history, and biographies.

If you have old documents that you would like to donate to the Fairbury Echoes Museum for digitization and public sharing, please send an email using the link on our website. The Fairbury Echoes Museum is open from 1:00 to 4:00 PM on Thursdays and Fridays, and from 9:00 to 11:00 AM on Saturdays.

If you are researching Fairbury or performing family genealogical research, check out the Fairbury Echoes Museum website. It can be a very valuable resource for your research project.

Dale Maley's weekly history feature is sponsored each Monday by Dr. Charlene Aaron.