Fairview

Fairview is near the Lake Whitney Dam 9½ miles northeast of Valley Mills and twenty-three miles northwest of Waco in southeastern Bosque County. A church was organized there in April 1889, probably on Coon Creek. In 1897 Gip Smith, who owned most of the land in Fairview, donated the grounds for a church and a school. A one-room school and church was erected in August 1897. A separate building for the church was built later that year. Local histories suggest that a post office was established in R. E. Conine's home, which also housed the general store. Outlaw Myra Shirley (Belle) Starr owned 160 acres of land in the Fairview area that served as a hideout. The Fairview school was consolidated with the Valley Mills schools in 1949. The Fairview Baptist Church continued to serve the area in the late 1980s.