The Aug. 14, 2024, edition of The (Fairhope) Courier gave a great history of the founding of the Fairhope colony and the first days of The Fairhope Courier, marking its 130th anniversary. Congratulations!

The article correctly stated that Fairhope was founded by people who called themselves "reformers" who were members of the People's Party, an offshoot of the Farmers Alliance Associations. The article also correctly stated that they founded Fairhope as a cooperative colony and had a fair hope of its success. Forming cooperatives was a major platform of the People's Party and was not a Single Tax idea.

The secretary of the Iowa State People's Party was Ernest Berry Gaston. He had written a paper, "True Cooperative Individualism," defining the basis for a new reformer's community. His paper repeatedly states the new colony would be based on "cooperative distribution." Gaston and 10 of his populist friends formed the Fairhope Industrial Association in 1894 with a fair hope of making it work then headed for the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay. They re-incorporated as the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation 10 years later.

When they first arrived on their new town site later in 1894, the first building they built was the Colony Cooperative Mercantile called "the store." Here was a store where you could trade your eggs for a blanket and was helped by their own money they had printed. The notes were called "scientific currency," but the town's folk called them "shin plasters."

Over the next 25 years, other cooperative ventures came and went: The Farmer's Cooperative Creamery, The People's Ice Company, The People's Railroad and the Home Telephone System. Their last effort was in 1921, The People's Cooperative Store, which operated in two earlier locations in downtown before moving to their new building in 1922 at Church Street and Fairhope Avenue. This is the building that last held Fairhope Hardware.

While the building is in disrepair, you can still see on the 100-year-old original façade, that eight-foot-long word still shining proudly over Fairhope Avenue, "Cooperative." Soon, this location will be "developed" into a big white box. This remnant of an old sign is a monument to Fairhope's founding. When this last speck of the hopes and dreams of our community founders is gone, then truly their fair hope of founding a cooperative community will be over.

Donnie Barrett

Fairhope