Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/47

 FAIRBANKS

FAIRBANKS

corporation. Dartmouth gave him the degree of A.M. in 1856 and that of Ph.D. in 1880. He was married in 1862 to Annie, daughter of Daniel James Noyes, professor of intellectual philosophy and political economy in Dartmouth college. She died in 1872 and in 1874 he was married to Ruthy Page of Newport, Vt. His son, the Rev. Arthur Fairbanks, became a professor in Yale divinity scliool. and another son, Robert N., be- came connected with the New York office of the Fairbanks works.

FAIRBANKS, Horace, governor of Vermont, was born in Barnet. Vt., JIarch 21, 1820; son of Gov. Erastus and Lois (Grossman) Fairbanks. He was educated at the academies at Peacliam and Lyndon, Vt., Meriden, N.H., and Andover, Mass. He was admitted as a clerk in the busi- ness of his father and micle in 1838 and as a part- ner in 1843. He became the financial manager of the business and saw it grow from an annual product of §.iO,000 to §3,000,000, and from em- ploying forty workmen to six hundred. He was the projector and chief promoter of the Port- land & Ogdensburg railroad. He was the chief founder of the St. Johnsbury athenaeum in 1868- 71, with its library of 1.5,000 volumes and its art gallery which he furnished with valuable works of art, including Bierstadfs "Yosemite." He was a delegate to the Republican national con- ventions of 1864 and 1872, was a presidential elector in 1868, and was elected a state senator in 1869, but was prevented by illness from taking his seat. He was governor of the state, 1876-78, and his administration was characterized by efforts in the direction of prison reform that resulted in mucih good. His reprieve of a con- demned criminal the day before that set for his execution was severely criticised and the supreme court aimuUed the reprieve. He was a member of the Century association. New York city, and the St. Botolph club of Boston; was president of E. & T. Fairbanks &. Co. from its incorpora- tion, Nov. 24, 1874 ; was president of the Portland & Ogdensburg and of the St. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain railroads; a corporate member of the A.B.C.F.M. ; and a trustee of the St. Jolinsbury academy and of the University of Vermont. He was married, Aug. 9, 1849, to Mary E., daughter of James and Persis (Hemp- hill) Taylor of Derry, N.H. He died in New York city, Marcli 17. ISSS.

FAIRBANKS, Thaddeus, inventor, was born in Brimfield. Mass.. Jan. 17. 1796, son of Jo.seph and Plioebe (Paddock) Fairbanks; and grandson of Deacon Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Dearth) Fair- banks, who removed to Brimfield from Sherburne (Medway), Mass., in 1783. His first ancestors in America, Jonathan and Grace Ffayerbanke, came from Sowerby, Yorkshire, England, and settled

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in Dedham, Mass., in 1633. Tlieir son George accompanied them and in 16,57 removed to the south part of Sherburne (Medway), Mass., where he became a selectman. He married Mary Adams and their fourth child, Eliesur, was also a selectman. Eliesur's youngest son. Captain Eleasur, married Mar- tha Bullard and their eleventh cliild, Eben- ezer, a lieutenant of the minute-men at Lexington, married Elizabetli Dearth and removed to Brimfield in 1783. He was the grandfather of Thad- deus. Thaddeus at- tended the common school and had few books for self instruction. In 1815 he removed to Vermont where his father purchased the falls on .Sleejier's river and together they built a dam and operated a grist- and sawmill, and also manufactured wagons. In 1823 he started a small iron foundry and in 1824 was joined by his brother Erastus, forming the firm of E. & T. Fairbanks. He patented a stove, a cast-iron plow, an improved hemp dresser, a steam heater, a feed water heater and an improved refrigerator. He was manager of the St. Johnsbury hemp company and the slow and laborious process of weighing the hemp brought to the mill led him to invent the Fair- banks platform scnle. patented June 18, 1831, which came into universal use and before his deatli was manufactured under more than seven hundred modifications. The scale here figured. a copy of the orig inal patent-office drawing, shows how the platform is supported at four points, from which, equallj', the stress is con- veyed to the steelyard beam. Before this time the only scales used were the even-balance and the Roman steelyards, in use and not improved since the days of the Csesars. He invented in 1846 and improved in 1849 the principle of refrig- erators, in which the ice was placed above, and the cooled air. after depositing its moisture on the ice, flowed down to the chamber in which were kept the meats or fruits to be pre.served. Having at the time no capital to establish this

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