For about 100 years, privies or outhouses were built at every home in Fairbury and on each farm.
In her Fairbury history book titled Stuffed Clubs & Antimacassars, Alma Lewis James described the design of the typical home in the 1880s. These homes were usually constructed of wood framing and often had elaborate gingerbread decorations from that period. These homes had wide lawns with plenty of shade trees, and every yard had a fence around it. Most fences were white wood picket fences, but a few were made of iron or hedges. The fences were needed to protect children and property from wandering animals and packs of stray dogs in the streets.
Just outside the gate in the fence, abutting the street, was a hitching post and stepping block. The hitching post was used to tie up horses. The stepping block made entering high horse-drawn buggies or mounting saddle horses convenient. It consisted of two steps made of stone, with the flat side of the rock facing the street. The early streets were dirt.
Most of the private and public sidewalks were made of wood boards. A few wealthier citizens had flagstones leading to their front door. A barn, woodshed, and perhaps a chicken coop were at the back of every home.
A privy stood a short distance back from the house and was often painted the same color as the house. The woodpile was usually on the path from the house to the privy. A resident would take out a bucket of ashes from the wood-burning stove in the home and dump the ashes on the path to the privy. After using the privy, the same resident would take some wood from the woodpile back into the house, accomplishing two tasks on one trip to the privy.
The most common size privy was a "three-holer." One of the holes was reduced in size to fit the smaller youngsters. There were no windows in the privy, but ventilation holes were usually added in the upper part of the building. Diamond and crescent shapes were the most popular for ventilator holes.
The door for the privy was designed to open inwards into the privy. If someone was using the privy, they could keep the door closed with their foot if someone else came to the privy. Inside the privy was a box for the corn cobs that were used instead of toilet paper. In later years, a nail was added to hold a catalog that had the sheets ripped out for use as toilet paper. If the homeowner wanted an artistic effect for the privy, morning glories were planted and trained to climb over the small building.
One annual Fairbury event impacted the design of privies located in town. This yearly event was Halloween. In the late 19th century, the custom was for Fairbury youth to play many pranks on homeowners on Halloween night. Homeowners expected such antics as stealing the front fence gate and depositing it in a neighbor's yard. Other common tricks were to throw rotten vegetables and dead cats on front porches. Often, sections of fences or boardwalks would be moved elsewhere in town. It would take homeowners several days after Halloween to search, find, and carry back their missing property.
One of the worst pranks ever done on Halloween was placing a horse-drawn wagon onto the schoolhouse roof. It took real work by the boys to get the wagon apart, hoist it piece by piece to the roof, and reassemble it up against the stars. After Halloween, the owner had to pay someone to return the wagon back to Earth. To the annoyed homeowner, it was anything but a joke.
On Halloween night, young boys would search for an occupied privy in Fairbury. When they found one, they would push it over so it landed with the door side down. Escape was impossible for the luckless prisoner trapped inside. The poor prisoner had to yell loud enough for someone to come to the rescue.
To combat the tipping over of privies, many homeowners installed some long vertical boards on the outside of the privy. These boards were sunk five feet into the ground. These boards prevented the Halloween pranksters from tipping over the privy.
The South Side grade school was built in 1880 at the northeast corner of Fourth Street and Route 24, and the North Side grade school was built in 1895 at the northwest corner of Fourth and Maple Streets. In 1918, a city-wide naming contest was conducted. The North Side school was renamed Isaac Walton, and the South Side school was renamed Edison.
According to Alma Lewis James in her Stuffed Clubs & Antimacassars book, the South Side school was initially designed with outdoor plumbing. A boy's privy was built on the boy's side of the playground, and a girl's privy was constructed on the girl's side of the playground. Each privy building had a many-holed seat that stretched the length of each building. There were no interior walls in these buildings.
By 1911, indoor plumbing began to appear in Fairbury city homes. Mr. C. B. Day (1886-1974) was one of Fairbury's early plumbers. Mr. Day was an excellent marketer. He came up with an innovative exhibit for the 1911 Fairbury Fair. Mr. Day set up a mock indoor bathroom. In this mock bathroom, Mr. Day exhibited the latest features of indoor plumbing, including toilets, bathtubs, and sinks. His innovative display caused many Fairbury women to switch to indoor plumbing.
In December of 1957, the City of Fairbury voted to issue new bonds to pay for the first waste treatment plant. In May 1958, the City Council voted to add a sewer charge to the water bills to pay off the bonds. The plant was built and put into operation in 1959.
Improved plumbing technology and the availability of public sewers to each home in Fairbury spelled the end of the privy. Modern versions of the privy are still used in some remote areas in the United States.
(Dale Maley's weekly history article on Fairbury News is sponsored by Dr. Charlene Aaron)
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