Map of Fairfield city, Illinois

Fairfield is a city in and the county seat of Wayne County, Illinois, United States, and the location of Frontier Community College. The population was 4,883 at the 2020 census.

Fairfield city overview:
Name:	Fairfield city
LSAD Code:	25
LSAD Description:	city (suffix)
State:	Illinois
County:	Wayne County
Elevation:	459 ft (140 m)
Total Area:	4.06 sq mi (10.52 km²)
Land Area:	4.03 sq mi (10.43 km²)
Water Area:	0.03 sq mi (0.09 km²)
Total Population:	4,883
Population Density:	1,212.26/sq mi (468.02/km²)
Area code:	618
FIPS code:	1724816
GNISfeature ID:	2394732
Website:	www.fairfield-il.com

Online Interactive Map

Fairfield online map. Source: Basemap layers from Google Map, Open Street Map (OSM), Arcgisonline, Wmflabs. Boundary Data from Database of Global Administrative Areas.

Fairfield location map. Where is Fairfield city?

Fairfield location on the U.S. Map. Where is Fairfield city. — Fairfield location on the U.S. Map.

Fairfield location on the Illinois map. Where is Fairfield city. — Location of Fairfield in Illinois.

History

Fairfield is most famous for being the hometown of the “friendly” people, and for the Shelton Brothers Gang, notorious bootleggers who fought it out with the Harrisburg, Illinois-based Birger Gang to control criminal activities in Southern Illinois. During the first half of the 20th century, gang leaders Carl, Earl and Bernie Shelton made Fairfield a household name. Based on testimony of Charlie Birger himself, the Shelton Brothers were convicted for a 1925 unsolved mail carrier robbery of $15,000 and were sentenced to 25 years. They were released a few years later. Birger dominated bootlegging in Southern Illinois until he himself was hanged in Benton for the murder of West City Mayor Joe Adams in 1928. After serving their time, the Shelton brothers built a new criminal empire. Based out of East St Louis, one of the most prosperous cities of its day, they controlled all vice from Peoria and southward.

They met their demise at the hands of the Chicago mob and an insider Charles “Blackie” Harris. A land dispute led to Blackie joining forces with the Mob to kill off members of the Shelton gang. His most notable victim was Carl Shelton, the leader. He was ambushed several miles southeast of Fairfield, shot from his Jeep. Bernie was killed at his Peoria roadhouse. Earl moved to Jacksonville, Florida and became a successful land speculator.

Fairfield Road Map

Fairfield city Satellite Map

Geography

According to the 2010 census, Fairfield has a total area of 4.054 square miles (10.50 km), of which 4.02 square miles (10.41 km) (or 99.16%) is land and 0.034 square miles (0.09 km) (or 0.84%) is water.