JOHN F. FAIR, a successful physician and surgeon of Freeport, is a native of Stephenson County, and has established himself in the esteem and confidence of his fellow-townsmen, both as a practitioner and a citizen. Dr. Fair was born in Waddams Township, Sept. 16, 1855. He is the son of Samuel Fair, one of the early settlers of the county, who was born in Pennsylvania, where he grew to manhood, and married Miss Mary J. Hartsough, who was also a native of that State. He emigrated to the West in 1850, locating in Waddams Township, Stephenson County. For many years the pair resided on a farm in that township, and then removed to the town of Lena, where they still reside. They are the parents of eight children, all boys, one of whom died at the age of thirteen, of lockjaw from a wound on the knee joint received while cutting corn. The other seven children lived to maturity.

Dr. John Fair was the second child. His boyhood was spent in Waddams Township, where he attended the district schools, and afterward was a student in the High School at Lena, and graduated from Carthage College, Carthage, Ill., in the class of ’78, having taken the classical course leading to the degree of A. B., and subsequently to that of A. M., which degrees were conferred upon him. The time intervening between college terms he spent in teaching school. Concluding to adopt the profession of medicine he became a student in the office of Dr. F. W. Byers, of Monroe, Wis. He prosecuted his studies there for a period of six months, and then entered Rush Medical College, Chicago, where he took a winter and spring course of lectures, when he came to Freeport and entered the office of Dr. Caldwell, a most eminent physician and instructor. In the fall of 1880 he went to the city of New York, and entered the University and Medical College of that city, from which he graduated in 1881. He then returned to Freeport and associated himself with Dr. Caldwell in the practice of medicine, where he remained until the summer of 1884, when he made an extended tour through the Western States, including Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas. Upon his return to Freeport he was married to Miss Clara H. Miller, daughter of Capt. F. O. and Ruth A. Miller, in October, 1884, and in the same fall went to Philadelphia, and took a course of lectures at the Jefferson Medical College, from which he received the degree of M. D. In May, 1885, he entered actively upon the practice of his profession in Freeport, where he has ever since enjoyed the large patronage for which he so eminently fitted himself.

Dr. Fair stands high in several of the social and benevolent orders. He is a member of Winneshiek Lodge I. O. O. F., and is a Mason of high rank, having received the 32d degree. To show the esteem in which he is held by the people it is pleasant to note the fact that at a fair held by the G. A. R., where a gold-headed cane was voted to the most popular physician of Freeport, Dr. Fair carried off the prize by a large majority. Although he seldom carried the cane it is kept as one of those pleasant mementoes so cheerfully bestowed and gratefully received. Dr. and Mrs. Fair have one child, a son named Paul J.

Contributed by Carole Parrish - Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. 1888