Fairbank, IA

Fairbank is a city in Buchanan and Fayette counties along the Little Wapsipinicon River. Albert Clarke and Rufus Conable acquired land on opposite sides of the river in 1852 and 1853, giving the settlement its first pieces. F. J. Everett and C. W. Bacon laid out the village in 1854 beside their sawmill; the name came from Bacon’s grandmother, and the first post office opened in a log cabin that same year. Early stores and schools soon followed beside the water. Fairbank is an Iowa river town whose county-line setting is part of the introduction.