FAIRFIELD MUSEUM
- A Vision FOR THE FUTURE

Fairfield Museum & National Historic Site is located between Bothwell and Thamesville at 14878 Longwoods Road, (Formerly Highway 2) Bothwell, Ontario. Open from May to October, Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm & Sunday from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Other times by appointment.

For more information, contact Chris Aldred, Curator, at 519-692-4397.

See The Fairfield Excavations at The Virtual Museum of Canada.

Please Select:
♦ The Past ♦ The Present ♦ The Future ♦
♦ Organization ♦ The Museum ♦ More History ♦
♦ Thames River & Trans-Canada Trail ♦
♦ The Meeting Place ♦

THE PAST                                                                    Top of Page

The story of Old Fairfield begins in Pennsylvania and is the outcome of a noble experiment by Protestant Moravian missionaries who came to America in 1735 seeking a safe home. The Moravians were members of the Episcopal Church of the Unity of the Brethren (Unitas Fratrum) from Bohemia and Moravia. They lived simple, pious lives impelled by missionary zeal toward all neglected people of the world.

In America their philanthropic aspiration was to love the Indians as brothers and to bring them the gospel of the Cross. By 1792 the Delaware Indians inhabiting the Delaware River Valley near the Moravian towns of Nazareth and Bethlehem were almost reduced to starvation by the loss of their ancient hunting grounds to the relentless advance of white settlements. The Delaware Indians accepted the Moravian's offer to form Indian mission towns where they could live without fear and learn enough European skills to enable them to live successfully as Indians in the white man’s world. They would also learn to know and to love God. Many able Moravian men and women devoted their lives to this work.

Brother David Zeisberger, the best known, spent 62 years in remote Indian outposts as their teacher and leader, accepting no salary from his church. During the American Revolution the Moravians who were pacifists incurred the hostility of both the Americans and the British. Zeisberger, leading the Moravians and their Delaware friends, fled the persecution and after wandering through the wilderness of Ohio and Michigan eventually settled in 1792 in southern Ontario.

Fairfield for 21 years was a centre of hospitable and cultural influence in southern Ontario. It was set up on a well-established pattern of a Moravian Indian mission. Wooden blockhouses each with its own garden lined both sides of the main street. A meeting hall doubling as a church and a schoolhouse completed the physical design. Barns and workshops were located a little further from the town as was the mission cemetery. Fairfield was the only community of its size on the Thames River in the 18th century. Fairfield preceded Fort Malden and Sandwich, present-day Amherstburg and Windsor, by four years. Chatham and London were well into the future.

Although a good deal of communal work was done, Fairfield was not a commune. The notion of private property and profit was something Moravian Indians understood and cherished. Each family lived and worked separately for its own subsistence and traded surplus goods for whatever wares were needed. Times were not always prosperous. When times were good Fairfield contributed sugar, corn, wheat, furs and cattle to the regional economy. Demographically it changed little from start to finish. People came and went for a variety of reasons leaving the average census around 150. In the main, Indians had to ask to join the mission but were rarely turned away. The missionaries were careful not to interfere with the Indian family unit. No married people were accepted without the consent of both parties.

The Moravians stressed the importance of education of both sexes and Fairfield children were seldom without formal instruction. Writing and reading English as well as rudimentary mathematics were taught regularly. Learning 'European' skills like knitting and spinning made for interesting evening classes for young girls. Fairfield was a multilingual community where German, English, Delaware and several other native tongues were spoken.

In founding Fairfield the Moravians had hoped to make a place where they and their converts could observe the ideals of Christianity in peace and quiet. This was not to be.

Situated on the main inland waterway between Niagara and Detroit, the westernmost stretch of the Canadian frontier in the 18th century, Fairfield was hardly the secluded spot Zeisberger had hoped for. For much of the 1790s the prospect of war loomed large as Fairfield felt the rippling effect of the Indian’s desperate attempt to hold on to the Ohio Valley. As with the American Revolution, the War of 1812 saw the Moravians caught up again in someone else’s conflict. Its fate tied to the British, Fairfield was sacked by American troops and burnt to the ground on October 7, 1813, two days after the battle of Moraviantown in which the famous Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, lost his life. Some of the missionaries returned to the Delaware River Valley, while others remained with the Indians who fled into the bush.

In 1814 the mission was rebuilt on the south side of the river and named New Fairfield. New Fairfield functioned as a Moravian Indian mission until 1902 when it was sold to the Methodist Church.

THE PRESENT                                                              Top of Page

The present Fairfield Museum is located on 35 acres of land donated to the United Church by the McGeachy family. One edge of the property is bound by the Thames River. On the south side of the river is the Moraviantown First Nations community within which is located the former ‘New Fairfield’ church. Highway 2 cuts through the middle of the property.

Across the road from the museum is a significant portion of land containing the original cemetery as well as a field offered to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in 2007. Fairfield is part of the Trans-Canada Trail and received some funding to develop trails on its property. Stairs were constructed down to the new trail behind the museum which is part of the Trans-Canada Trail route. Plans are underway to continue this trail six kilometers along the Thames River to the Tecumseh Monument on the site of the battlefield.

In southwestern Ontario Fairfield Museum remains the only enduring remembrance of the War of 1812. This past year native wild flowers were planted on the boulevard adjacent to the highway as part of the ongoing attempt to reclaim the flavour of the original site. There is renewed interest in the museum and the awakening of many to the great potential of the Fairfield site.

Fairfield Museum is taking a lead in organizing bicentennial celebrations of the Battle of the Thames (where the great Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, was killed) and where the sacking and burning of the Fairfield Mission took place.

Partnerships with Ridgetown College, Tallgrass Ontario and the Chatham-Kent Trails Council were established and several projects have begun or have been completed.

Fairfield’s annual 1812 re-enactment was another success this past summer and plans have been made to move the event to the first weekend in October, to coincide with the anniversary date of the Battle of the Thames and the burning of Fairfield Village.

THE FUTURE                                                                Top of Page

The future of Fairfield lies in reclaiming the original vision of its founders which was to create a place of safety, nurture and peace where two distinct cultures could come together. Originally the idea was for natives to learn ‘European’ skills. Today the need is for the descendants of those original cultures to learn to live together in respect, in peace and valuing the gifts each of us brings.

This vision necessitates partnering with First Nations communities in southern Ontario. We will establish this site as a major historical and healing centre for the United Church of Canada, First Nations Communities and all Canadians.

To do this, development will need to proceed along a number of paths:

Organization                                                       Top of Page

The Board of Directors will continue with its bi-annual meeting format in order to ensure the successful pursuit of this vision. It will establish a smaller working group which will include all of the partners in this venture to give form and substance to this vision.

The Museum                                                        Top of Page

The Museum will continue to develop and expand in areas such as interpretive displays and onsite educational experiences. Through negotiation it may also become a repository for First Nation artifacts that currently have no home.

More History                                                       Top of Page

The possibility exists that by delving deeper into Fairfield history and building on community events such as Fairfield Days, a richer awareness of the significance of this site could be built upon. This history could expand on the threads of involvement including the German Moravian history, the missionary movement and the First Nations experience. The original mission cemetery is still in existence, though farming of the land keeps eating away at it.

The Thames River and Trans-Canada Trail    Top of Page

This is a new area of development. Potential exists in planning programs such as nature interpretation (in this Carolinian forest), hiking and canoeing programs based around the Thames River.

The Meeting Place                                              Top of Page

Fairfield has always been a meeting place between cultures. We would continue to develop this history. We will, together with First Nations people, create a gathering place, a teaching space, a meeting place, a healing circle where First Nations and other cultures can gather, live, experience and come to value those things which bring us together rather than those things which tear us apart.