Horace Fairbanks

Horace Fairbanks
36th Governor of Vermont
In office October 5, 1876 – October 3, 1878
Lieutenant	Redfield Proctor
Preceded by	Asahel Peck
Succeeded by	Redfield Proctor
Personal details
Born	March 21, 1820 Barnet, Vermont
Died	March 17, 1888 (aged 67) New York
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Mary E. Taylor
Profession	industrialist / politician

Horace Fairbanks (March 21, 1820 – March 17, 1888) was an American politician and the 36th Governor of Vermont from 1876 to 1878.^[1]

Biography

Fairbanks was born in Barnet, Vermont, the third of nine children of Erastus Fairbanks (who had been a Republican Governor of Vermont) and his wife Lois Crossman. He was educated in the county schools and Phillips Andover Academy. He married Mary E. Taylor on August 9, 1840. They had three children.^[2] Fairbanks was the brother of Franklin Fairbanks.^[3]

Career

In 1840, Fairbanks became confidential clerk of E. & T. Fairbanks & Co., makers of the first platform scale, eventually becoming partner and then president.

In 1869 he was elected to one term in the Vermont State Senate.^[4] He promoted the construction of a railway line from Portland, Maine to Ogdensburg, New York via the Crawford Notch, and became president of the Vermont division of the railroad, as well as president of the First National Bank of St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

Fairbanks was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1864, 1868 and 1872, and was a presidential elector in 1872.^[5]

In 1871 Fairbanks presented to St. Johnsbury the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, which incorporates a free public library containing 8,000 volumes and an art gallery. He was a trustee of the University of Vermont and Andover Academy.

Elected Governor of Vermont in 1876, Fairbanks served a two-year term. During his administration, a Board of Agriculture was established, and provision was made for the licensing of physicians.

His brother Franklin was Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives, and their philanthropic activities in St. Johnsbury and throughout Vermont led to creation of the Fairbanks Museum and the endowment of numerous libraries and other institutions.^[6]

Fairbanks died in New York City four days before his 68th birthday. He is interred at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Saint Johnsbury, Caledonia County, Vermont.

References

1. "Horace Fairbanks". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
2. "Horace Fairbanks". National Governors Association. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
3. "Horace Fairbanks". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved 20 November 2012.
4. Saving America’s Treasures
5. William Hartley Jeffrey, Successful Vermonters: A Modern Gazetteer of Caledonia, Essex, and Orleans Counties, Vermont, 1904, page 120
6. "Horace Fairbanks". Find A Grave. Retrieved 20 November 2012.

External links

• Fairbanks, Lorenzo Sayles, Genealogy of the Fairbanks Family in America 1633–1897, Boston, 1897.
• Portrait and biography
• The Political Graveyard
• National Governors Association
• Find A Grave