Horace Fairbanks

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Horace Fairbanks
Horace Fairbanks

In office
1876 – 1878
Lieutenant(s) Redfield Proctor
Preceded by Asahel Peck
Succeeded by Redfield Proctor

Born 21 March 1820
Barnet, Vermont
Died 17 March 1888
New York
Political party Republican
Spouse Mary E. Taylor
Profession industrialist / politician

Horace Fairbanks (21 March 1820-17 March 1888) was Governor of Vermont from 1876 to 1878.

He 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 became confidential clerk of E. & T. Fairbanks & Co. at age twenty, eventually becoming partner and then president. He promoteed the construction of a railway line from Portland to Ogdensburg via the White Mountain Notch, and became president of the Vermont division of the railroad, as well as president of the First National Bank of St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

He married Mary E. Taylor on 9 August 1840. They had three children.

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

He was elected Governor in 1876, serving a two year term.

Fairbanks died in New York.


[edit] References

  • Fairbanks, Lorenzo Sayles, Genealogy of the Fairbanks Family in America 1633-1897, Boston, 1897.
  • Portrait and biography