The heart and soul of Fairfield

FAIRFIELD - Since 1893, the Carnegie Historical Museum has been a center for education and learning in Fairfield, Stan Plum, an archaeologist and curator for the museum, explained in a talk on Saturday afternoon to discuss the history of the building and institution.

Plum started his presentation with Ward Lamson, and called the building 'the transcendental dream of Ward Lamson.”

A founder of the community, started out in Burlington, working for the land department in the 1830s but later moved to Fairfield to run the Land Office and serve as head speculator.

'Lamson was an educated person and found himself with a daughter in the prairies of Iowa with no education system, no way of enlightening young minds. So in 1853, he came up with the idea of a subscription library,” Plum explained.

While Lamson carried the original torch to bring education to Fairfield, his children and other kids of the community would be the true originators of the museum. Plum explained that the group of neighborhood kids would begin a collection of items that would develop into the museum in an old brick house.

Thanks to the support of Lamson as well as other high profile neighbors like James F. Wilson, who would become a U.S. congressman and senator, the club would acquire items from across the country, including arrowheads, ax heads and fossils. Wilson's connection to the federal government would also lead to the museum's acquisition of several collections from the Smithsonian before the building was even completed.

Plum said in 1882, the local library association decided to try to find a more permanent location for the library as well as the small museum when the brick house was torn down. A firm was commissioned to design but without funds, could not actually erect the structure. Again, Wilson's connections would come in handy. His friendship with Andrew Carnegie would lead to the construction for the museum and library, which began in 1892, ten years after the original design was created. Plum said the Carnegie Historical Museum in Fairfield was the first one built west of the Mississippi River and outside of Pennsylvania. The museum would open its doors in Nov. of 1893 to a major economic crash. In 1896, the citizens of Fairfield would vote for the building to be taken into the possession of the city to continue to sustain both the museum and the library.

'The museum is the heart and soul of Fairfield. It was the center of Fairfield's life in the past and it still holds a lot of what Fairfield is about and it's important to bring that to the public's attention,” Plum said about why he wanted to host the presentation.

Plum also said the museum often acted as a 'refuge” for him growing up. He spent countless hours roaming the boxes of artifacts, which eventually inspired his decision to become an archaeologist.

Other Fairfield residents who came to see the presentation shared similar stories. Billie Jo Wiley came with her daughter Abyni Garner.

'I also used to spend a lot of time up here as a kid. I had no clue there was so much here. When I was a kid, I swear it was just those front two rooms, I didn't know there is such a rich collection. The fact that it's being exposed is something and they plan on sharing is very exciting,” Wiley said. Wiley has passed down her love for the museum and history to her own daughter.

'We always try to come to history things, whether it's talks or just meeting people and learning things,” Garner said. For Garner, the coolest aspect of the talk was learning about just how far back items in the museum go.

'The fact that everything is so old, like the 1800s, that's crazy. The fact that its so legendary is amazing,” she said.