Fair Oaks Historical Society

Virtual Walking Tour

Return to the drainage ditch and proceed west to the next red "X" at the foot of the Vail stones.

Sarah Morrell Vail, was the first burial in the Fair Oaks Cemetery in 1903. Sarah and her husband, Hiram Vail (buried just south of her) came to Fair Oaks from Pilger, Nebraska.

The following is an exerpt from the article written by Grant Wallace Jr.’s a neighbor of the Vails as published in the Memories book: “Mr. Wallace passed away at Hopkins in 1896. His wife and daughters, Ella and Olive, joined my father’s family at Fair Oaks on July 10, 1898. We lived together until about 1903 when my father found it necessary to move to the city on account of the pressure at work. He then sold the place to my mother’s parents, Hiram and Sarah Vail, who had come out from Pilger, Nebraska with their daughter, Emily. Mr. Vail was an experienced farmer, and carried on the place very efficiently. My time as a boy was spent between our home in San Francisco and Tanglewood, for I never could get Fair Oaks out of my blood. “

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