Grant County Place Names: F

Fair Play. First settled in 1833 and known as Hard Town because of the rough miners who came here to prospect. In 1841 a rich lead mine was discovered by some honest landholders. Claim jumpers laid plans to take the claim over, but the lawful owners banded together to protect their find. Bloodshed seemed inevitable. Someone called for a parlay, and one member of the party said, ‘Let us have Fair Play and render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.’ The result was a favorable decision for the rightful owners. The mine became known as Fair Play and the village adopted the same name.

Fennimore. During the Black Hawk War John Fennimore started a farm on a section of land adjoining the Old Military Road leading to Prairie du Chien. He chose the site because it had a large spring. During the war he disappeared and was never heard of again. Other farmers moving into the area decided to remember him by calling their settlement Fennimore Center. Center was dropped from the name in 1881.

Finney Patch. A mining settlement near Galena named after a Mr. Finney, who owned a mine with a Mr. Williams as his partner.

Flora Fountain. Mrs. William Beswick, the wife of the carpenter who built the sawmill, selected this name. Flora was for the myriads of wildflowers that grew on the surrounding bluffs, and Fountain for a spring on the bluff across the river. Early settlers conveyed this springwater across the river in troughs made of basswood bark, forming a fountain.