A group of citizens once formed an Anti-Horse Thief Association. However, since horse thievery was not very common, the group spent the majority of its time hosting picnics and oyster suppers, and held parades.
Fairbury formed a Bicycle Club. This club would take all day trips to Forrest or Pontiac. They rode on the railroad tracks because the ties were smoother than the roads. A bicycle race was introduced at the fair, and was very popular.
Fairbury once claimed to be the motorcycle capital of the world. The town had more than 300 of them, more per capita than any other place in the world.
Three large flag poles were erected on Main Street that represented the three political parties. On the east end, near the town dump ironically enough, was the Republican's flag pole. In the middle of Main Street, near the depot, was the Democrat's flag pole. And on the west end of Main Street by the arcade block was the Prohibition Party's flag pole. Neither the Blade nor the Local Record had one news report about January 1, 1900. It was just another day to the citizens of Fairbury.
Fairbury passed an ordinance forbidding people from launching missiles within the town. Violators could be fined up to $100.
Judge Woodford McDowell had Fairbury's saw mill disassembled and reassembled in Jefferson County, Nebraska in 1869. A town sprouted up around the mill, and he named it Fairbury, in honor of his home town in Illinois.
An ordinance was passed forbidding saloonkeepers from opening before 5:00 A.M. and closing after 10:00 P.M. No pool tables or games were allowed inside saloons, and they must be closed on Sundays. In fact, the owner of a saloon was not permitted to even go inside it on Sundays any longer than one minute.
Fairbury was once known as the most flammable town in the Midwest due to the large number of fires that started in the town.
One of Fairbury's famous natives was Francis Townsend. He was the son of a farmer and was born in Fairbury on January 13, 1867. When he was a child, the family moved to Nebraska. After leaving school, Townsend worked as a farm laborer in Kansas and Colorado. He eventually attended Omaho Medical College and graduated in 1907. He set up as a doctor in the Black Hills of South Dakota, but joined the Army Medical Corps when the United States entered the First World War in 1917. After leaving the army, Townsend worked in Long Beach, California. His medical practice was not a success and he obtained employment as assistant city health director. He lost his job during the Great Depression and was forced into retirement. In 1933, he witnessed three old women rummaging through the garbage cans in his alley for food. He was horrified by what he saw and decided to get involved in politics. Later that year, he proposed a scheme whereby the Federal government would provide every person over 60 with monthly pension of $150 (later increased to $200). Townsend argued that the pensioners would immediately spend the money and would thereby create new jobs and bring an end to the Great Depression. He suggested that his Old Age Revolving Pension Plan could be financed by a Federal tax on all sales (wholesale and retail). The plan obtained a great deal of public support and by 1935 his Townsend Club had over 5 million members. In 1935, Townsend handed President Roosevelt a petition supporting the Old Age Revolving Pension Plan that had been signed by over 20 million people. In response to the petition, Congress passed the Social Security Act. Townsend claimed that Roosevelt's social security legislation was completely inadequate and in 1936 joined with Father Charles Coughlin, Gerald L.K. Smith, and followers of Huey Long to form the National Union of Social Justice. William Lepke was selected as the party's candidate in the 1936 presidential election, but won only 882,479 votes compared to Franklin Roosevelt (27,751,597) and Alfred Landon (16,679,583). In 1936, Townsend was prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice for contempt of Congress. However, President Franklin Roosevelt commuted Townsend's 30 day prison sentence. Francis Townsend died in Los Angeles on September 1, 1960.
Apparently Francis Townsend returned to Fairbury several times. In the August 9, 1946, edition of The Blade, the Fairbury newspaper, reported "Delegates and visitors to the eighth annual homecoming for Dr. Francis E. Townsend, founder of the Townsend old-age pension plan, will start coming in today. Several thousand people are expected here for this annual event. The room formerly occupied by Fun Haven has been leased during the homecoming and the business sessions and other activities will be held there, including a dance Saturday."
Green Frog Productions produces video history of U.S. railroads including the TP&W which passes through Fairbury. According to the video history, the TP&W railroad holds the dubious record of the only railroad taken over by the U.S. government 3 times. The takeovers were related to union activity on the railroad.
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