Fairview, Utah

History

Located at the confluence of the San Pitch River and Cottonwood Creek, Fairview is the largest city in the northeast end of the Sanpete Valley. Founded in 1859, soon after the resettlement of nearby Mount Pleasant, Fairview was one of the first new towns established during the second wave of Mormon settlement in Sanpete County.

Impressed with the area's possibilities while gathering wild hay in early 1859, James Naylor Jones, Isaac Young Vance, Warren P. Brady, and Jehu Cox wrote to Brigham Young asking for permission to create a settlement. The church president responded pragmatically, "If there is water for thirty families, you have my permission." At an organizing meeting held on 1 October 1859 in Mt. Pleasant, James N. Jones was chosen to lead a band of about twenty families interested in the new colonizing opportunity. The town site was surveyed, and by the end of 1860, a large log meeting house had been completed to house church, school, and social functions. Rows of poplars were planted, streets were graded, and fences were constructed as Fairview took on the appearance of the ubiquitous Mormon village. In 1864 the town obtained a post office and forsook its original name of North Bend in favor of the more descriptive name Fairview because it "commands an excellent view of the great granary extending south even beyond Manti, thirty miles distant."

From the History section of Fairview, Utah on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.