Stirling Fessenden

Stirling Fessenden
Chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council
In office
12 October 1923 – 5 March 1929
Preceded by H.G. Simms
Succeeded by Harry Edward Arnhold
Personal details
Born September 29, 1875
Fairfield, Maine, USA
Died September 20, 1943 (aged 67)
Shanghai
Profession lawyer

Stirling Fessenden (1875–1943) - an American lawyer, the chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council from 1923 to 1929.

Early Life

Stirling Fessenden was born September 29, 1875 in Fairfield, Maine, United States. He was the son of Nicholas and Laura (nee Stirling) Fessenden. In 1896, he graduated from Bowdoin College with a B.A..[1]

Legal Practice in Shanghai

Fessenden came to Shanghai in 1903. In 1905, he commenced practicing law in partnership with Mr Thomas R. Jernigan. In 1907, he was admitted to practice in the newly established United States Court for China. He and Jernigan, were, initially, the only American lawyers to pass the strict bar exam introduced by the new judge, Lebbeus Wilfley. Later he formed a partnership with Major Chauncy Holcomb in the firm of Fessenden & Holcomb.

He served as Chairman of the Far Eastern Bar Association in Shanghai for many years.

Shanghai Municipal Council

A caricature of Fessenden as the "Lord Mayor of Shanghai"

In 1920, Fessenden was elected a member of Shanghai Municipal Council Board of Trustees and in October 1923 he became chairman of the Municipal Council.

Following the outspring on violence in Shanghai from 1925, he re-organized the Shanghai Volunteer Corps.

In 1929, Fessenden resigned from his post as Chairman of the Municipal Council and took up the post of Secretary-General of Municipal Council.

After the Japanese invasion of China, the Shanghai International Settlement was encircled by Japanese troops. The Japanese occupation authorities claimed that he conspired with the Americans against Japan.

On June 30, 1939, Fessenden retired from his position with the council due to eye disease.

Other businesses

He created the American Mercantile Company, mostly dealing with Shanghai real-estate in 1925 along with Harry Virden Bernard.

Internment and Death

In 1941, when Japan occupied the Shanghai International Settlement at the start of the Pacific War, the Japanese forced Fessenden to be interned with Russian refugees. After he was completely blind, Chinese servants took care of him.[2]

Fessenden was offered a passage out of Shanghai in September 1943 on the MS Gripsholm. However, knowing that he had little time to live, he declined. He died of a heart ailment on September 20, 1943 in Shanghai.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Unless otherwise noted, biographical information from Fessenden's entry in Men of Shanghai and North China.
  2. ↑ John B Powell, "My Twenty-Five Years in China", p327
  3. ↑ Time, January 24, 1944 and John B Powell, "My Twenty-Five Years in China", p327

Further reading