About Us

The village is named after Philo Fairchilds who settled here around 1840. He built a house approximately one mile south of the present-day community. Theo Aderholz, August Bede and Charles Blohm founded the original settlement in 1890. A group of Mennonites from the north established a colony in 1896 by buying property on Big Creek. Soon about fifty families were working the land. They built roads, businesses, and schools. After a malaria epidemic swept the area, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 wrecked most of the town. Most of the unlucky Mennonites abandoned the site; only a few stayed. A post office served the village from 1912 to 1918 when it closed. In 1914 the community had one general store. By 1936 there were four businesses and about 25 people living in Fairchilds. Between 1940 and 1953, the village's population grew from 75 to 125. In the 1960s there were 110 people in the community. In 1990, Fairchilds had 150 inhabitants with a cafe and three stores selling tires, feed and general goods. The population was said to be around 1225 in 2018.