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THE FAIRVIEW MERC Betty Ramsey Fairview, Utah Professional Division First Place Historical Essay The Fairview "Merc" is no more. After a fire in February destroyed its interior, the old landmark was reduced to rubble in April of this year, thus marking the end of an era. For seventy-eight years the old brick building had stood at the center of the city providing area residents with life's necessities and not a few of its luxuries. The business which it housed for many years, began as the Zion Co-operative Mercantile Institution in 1869 with a cap-ital stock of $300. It was first established in an adobe house owned by Peter Hansen and located one block south of the Fairview Fort. Henry W. Sanderson was the first manager and clerk. Area residents invested more money in the business after the completion of the railroad in 1869, and a new adobe building facing toward the south was erected on the southeast corner of the fort, the location where the old Merc has stood all these years. In 1899 a fire destroyed this building and the turn of the century saw a new two-storied brick building, The Fairview Co-operative Institution, take its place. This was to become familiar to all north Sanpete residents as the largest structure on Fairview's business block. As the years passed, the stock of the company changed hands until a few citizens controlled it, and in 1906 the name was changed to the Fairview Mercantile Company. Early Fairview family names connected with control or operation of the Merc down through the years include Sanderson, Lasson, Sundwall, Terry, DeFries, Pritchett, Allred, Peterson, and Amundsen. In more recent years the Webbs, Peatrosses, and Bringhursts, all newcomers to Fairview, have either owned or managed the business. Max and Jenene Peatross were the last owners. During the first part of the century the building was not only a store, but the upstairs was used at various times -79- |
