Impressed with the possibilities of the area while gathering wild hay there in early 1859, James Naylor Jones, Isaac Young Vance, Warren P. Brady and Jehu Cox wrote to Brigham Young asking for permission to create a settlement. The pragmatic church president responded, "If there is water for thirty families, you have my permission." At an organizing meeting held on October 1, 1859 in Mt. Pleasant, James N. Jones was chosen to lead a band of about twenty families interested in the new colonizing opportunity. The town site was surveyed and by the end of 1860 a large log meeting house had been completed to house church, school, and social functions. Rows of poplars were planted, streets were graded, and fences were constructed as Fairview took on the appearance of the ubiquitous "Mormon Village." In 1864 the town obtained a post office and forsook its original name of North Bend in favor of the more descriptive name Fairview, because it "commands an excellent view of the great granary extending south even beyond Manti, thirty miles distant."