Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/49

 FAIRCHILD

FAIKCHILD

as chairman of the executive committee of the New York state Democracy. In 1897 he was caudiJate for comptroller of the city of New York on the Citizen's Union ticket, and was de- feateil. He served as president and as treasurer of the State charities aid association and as vice- president of the Charity organization societj' of New Y'ork city. He became a member of the University, Reform, Metropolitan, Ardsley, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Alpha Delta Phi, Harvard and Lawyers" clubs, and of the Century and Bar asso- ciations. New Y'ork city. Harvard and Columbia univei'sities conferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1888.

FAIRCHILD, Edward Henry, educator, was born at Stockbridge, Mass., Nov. 29, 181.5; son of Grandison and Nancy (Harris) Fairchild; and a brother of James Harris Fairchild, president of Oberlin college, and of George Thompson Fair- child, president of Kansas state agricultural col- lege. His parents removed to Brownhelm, Ohio, in 1818, where he was brought up on a new farm in the woods. He was sent about 1831 to the Elyria high school and became greatly interested in the anti-slaveiy movement. He was one of the first freshman class at Oberlin college, and was graduated from the college in 1838 and from the theological seminary in 1841. While at Oberlin as student he favored the admission of colored students and in 1836 he was commissioned by the American anti-slavery society to lecture on the anti-slavery question and was sent to northern Pennsylvania. In 1837 he was teacher of a large colored school in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1838 was employed by the Ohio anti-slavery society as lecturer. He was married Aug. 31, 1841, to Maria Babbit of Strongsville, Ohio. He was pastor of the First Congregational chui'ch of Cleveland in 1841 and teacher in Birmingham, Mich., Elmira, N.Y'., and Hartford, Ohio, till 18.53. He was prin- cipal of the preparatory department of Oberlin college, 18.53-69, and in April, 1869, he became president of Berea college, Madison county, Ky., founded by the Rev. John G. Fee, an earnest anti-slavery advocate, as an anti -slavery school. Howard hall was erected the same year by the Freedman's bureau at a cost of §18,000 and later other buildings, including Ladies' hall, Lincoln hall and a chapel, were added. An endowment of more than $100,000 was secured. The students included both white and colored of both sexes. President Fairchild, feeling the weight of years, selected as his successor Prof William Goodell Frost, who was elected in 1888, but declined to serve, until re-elected in 1892. President Fair- child died at Berea. Ky., Oft. 2, 1889.

FAIRCHILD, George Thompson, educator, was born at Brownhelm, Lorain county, Ohio, Oct. 6, 1838; son of Grandison and Nancy

(Harris) Fairchild, who removed to Brownhelm from Stockbridge, Mass., in 1818; and grandson of Daniel and Mary (Buttles) Fairchild, and of Wil liam Henry and Mary (Plumb) Harris. He grad- uated at Oberlin college in 1862, and in the department of theology in 1865. He was instruc- tor in the Michigan agricultural college, 1865-66; professor of English literature, 1866-79. and president of the Kansas state agricultural college, 1879-97. He was or- dained a Congrega- tional minister in 1871. At the session of the National edu- cational association at Saratoga, N.Y., in 1885, he was made a member of the ^.^, ^^.U'.yiiM National council of

education, and appointed a member of the committee on technological education, to which membership he was reelected in 1891, and again in 1898. At the meeting in Chicago in 1887 he was made president of the industrial section, and in 1888, at San Francisco, was re-elected to the same position. In 1886 the faculty of the Kansas state agricultural college presented him with » life directorship in the National educational asso- ciation. One of his brothers, James Harris Fair- child, was for twenty-one years president of Oberlin college, and another brother, Edward Henry Fairchild, was for twenty years president of Berea college, Kentucky. President Fairchild was from 1879 to 1897 ex ogirio member of the Kansas state board of education. He was twice vice-president and once president of the Ameri- can association of agricultural colleges and experunent stations. In 1893 he was a member of the advisory committee of the agricultural congress at the World's Columbian exposition. In 1898 he accepted the chair of English litera- ture in Berea college, Kentucky, with the title of vice-president. He received from Oberlin the honorary degi'ee of LL.D. in 1893. He published addresses in the Proceediiu/s of the National edu- cational association and of the Association, of agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and in agricultural reports of four states, and is the author of Rural ]Vealfh and Welfarp (1899). He died in Coluinlins, Oliio, March 16. 1901.

FAIRCHILD, Herman LeRoy, teacher and geologist, was born at Montrose, Pa., Ajiril 29, 18.50; son of Harmon Canfield and Mary Amanda (Bissell) Fairchild, grandson of Asa Fairchild of New Milford, Conn., and a descendant of