Husband Robert Willis Fair, Ph.D. 1 2 3 4
Born: 20 Mar 1851 - Black Lick, Indiana Co, PA 5 6
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Father: James Fair (1819/1819-1900) 2 4 5 7
Mother: Harriet Smith (1818-1878) 2 4 5 8
Marriage: 26 Dec 1878 6 9 10
Wife Margaretta Anna Means 6 9 10
Born: 17 Nov 1858 6
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Father: James Ramsey Means (1829-1901) 6 10 11
Mother: Susan Smith McClelland ( -Aft 1905) 10 12
Children
1 F Ethel Marian Fair 6
Born: 15 Nov 1884 6
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2 M James Means Fair 6 10
Born: 21 Sep 1886 6
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Spouse: Mary E. Askew ( - ) 10
Marr: 25 Jul 1912 10
3 F Helen McClelland Fair 13
Born: 8 Apr 1891 13
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4 F Lois Margaret Fair 13
Born: 26 Jan 1897 13
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General Notes: Husband - Robert Willis Fair, Ph.D.
He was born in Black Lick, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. He first attended the public schools of that locality, and later became a student at Millersville State normal school, from which he was graduated in 1875. He taught in that institution the next year, during which the State normal school at Indiana, Pennsylvania, was opened, and he was elected to the chair of mathematics. He filled that position for the twelve years following, meantime continuing his studies to fit himself for higher usefulness in the educational field. His experience there, and observations made wherever and whenever opportunity afforded, impressed upon him the need for a high-class preparatory school for boys in that part of Pennsylvania, and when he resigned from the faculty of the Indiana normal school his plans for founding such a school were already matured, and the practical details, business arrangements, etc., had been completed. In 1888, in association with A. W. Wilson, Jr., A. M., Ph. D., son of A. W. Wilson, a merchant of Indiana borough, he opened the Kiskiminetas Springs School, at Saltsburg. The up-building and development of this school became his life work. His success as an educator was acknowledged when he was awarded the degree of Ph. D. in 1892 by the Western University of Pennsylvania (later the University of Pittsburgh) at Pittsburgh.
Mr. Wilson and Mr. Fair purchased the hotel property then known as Kiskiminetas Springs, in Loyalhanna township, Westmoreland County, opposite the town of Saltsburg, a picturesque natural park of forty acres, located on a beautiful wooded plateau a hundred and fifty feet above the water on the palisades, overlooking the town of Saltsburg and the headwaters of the "Kiski," directly above the junction of the Conemaugh and the Loyalhanna, which form the Kiskiminetas river. Suitable buildings were erected and equipped, and the project was launched. The school grew steadily, in size as well as importance, though there was never any idea of making it a very large institution, one of the prime objects of the principals was to maintain home-like surroundings and to insure the personal relations between teachers and pupils hardly possible where the attendance is unrestricted. In 1911-1912 there were 180 students, mainly from Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, the graduating class numbered twenty, and there were three doing post-graduate work-one of the supreme tests of excellence in a school. At that time there were three principals, Mr. W. H. MacColl, A. B., having become associated with the founders of the school. Mr. Wilson was the instructor in Greek, Mr. Fair in mathematics and English, Mr. MacColl in mathematics, and the faculty besides consisted of nine members. Besides the preliminary work, four courses were offered, Classical, Latin Scientific, Scientific and English, the latter being intended as a preparation for business, the others for entrance to colleges, universities, and scientific or technical schools.
No expense was spared to make the buildings and equipment as nearly complete and perfect as possible. The original school building, and old hotel, standing one hundred feet from the river and centrally located, contained a beautiful dining room, kitchen, reading room, boys' reception room, the school offices and fifty bedrooms. A three-story brick building, one hundred feet south, built about 1890, contained the school chapel and assembly room, the chemical and physical laboratory, recitation rooms, and a third-floor dormitory for twenty boys. The new gymnasium, completed about 1910, was of buff brick and added materially to the beauty of the campus. All the buildings were steam heated and lighted by electricity from a central power house; there was hot and cold water on every floor, and modern plumbing throughout.
Mr. Fair's devotion to his school work, though that was his main interest in life, did not precluded his activity in other fields. He was one of the directors of the First National Bank of Saltsburg, a relation he sustained for a number of years. He was connected with the Flint Glass Bottle Company, of which he was a director. He took an active part in politics, as a member of the Republican party, and held public office when he felt he could best serve his fellow citizens by accepting the responsibility. His long experience as an educator made him particularly desirable as a member of the school board of the township in which he lived, on which he served for many years; and he represented his district in the State Legislature in the sessions of 1907 and 1909. He was not a candidate for re-election in 1910. He participated in some of the most important work done by that body during that time, in 1907 being a member of the Capitol Investigation Commission, of which he was vice chairman. Mr. Fair was the author of the Local Option bill introduced in the House in 1909. He was a prominent member of the Presbyterian Church of Saltsburg and of its session, and served for twenty years or more as president of the board of trustees of that congregation. [HIC 1913, 600]
General Notes: Wife - Margaretta Anna Means
She was educated in the common schools and Millersville Normal school, of which she was a graduate.