The area was territory of the Canibas tribe of Abenaki Indians residing at Taconnet village, once located downriver at the confluence of the Sebasticook and Kennebec rivers in what is today Winslow.

In 1692 during King William's War, the village was burned, so the Canibas tribe abandoned the area.

The French and Indian Wars finally ended in 1763, leaving the region open for English colonization.

[3] Benedict Arnold and his troops rested and re-provisioned here in 1775 during their march up the Kennebec River to the Battle of Quebec.

Following the Revolutionary War, Fairfield Plantation developed as a trade and agricultural town, with farms producing hay, grain and potatoes.

[3] Falls on the Kennebec drop 34 feet (10 m) at Fairfield, providing water power for industry.

[4] The main line of the Maine Central Railroad passes through Fairfield on the way from Portland to Waterville to Bangor, and the Skowhegan branch of the Maine Central Railroad (originally the Somerset and Kennebec Railroad) ran along the Kennebec River from Waterville to Skowhegan, with stations in Shawmut and Hinckley (today, this line terminates at the SAPPI paper mill just north of Hinckley).

The Somerset Railroad (Maine) traversed western Fairfield on a route that once ran north from Oakland to Norridgewock, Madison, Bingham, and Moosehead Lake.

The hotel was topped with a statue of Mercury, the Roman god of speed, and remained in operation from 1900 until 1937.

[6] Today, Fairfield makes wood and paper products, and is largely a bedroom community for Waterville.

The town has three post offices because it contains four different unincorporated townships under municipal jurisdiction of the town of Fairfield: The third post office serves the incorporated urban Fairfield (CDP), an early name for which was Kendall's Mills.

The non-urban, unincorporated areas—Shawmut, Fairfield Center and Hinckley—were not assessed taxes for urban services they did not receive.

26.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

Like many Maine towns, Fairfield has a "meeting, council, and manager" form of government.