Erastus Fairbanks

Erastus Fairbanks
Erastus Fairbanks
21st Governor of Vermont
In office 1852–1853
Lieutenant	William C. Kittredge
Preceded by	Charles K. Williams
Succeeded by	John S. Robinson
26th Governor of Vermont
In office 1860–1861
Lieutenant	Levi Underwood
Preceded by	Hiland Hall
Succeeded by	Frederick Holbrook
Personal details
Born	October 28, 1792(1792-10-28) Brimfield, Massachusetts
Died	November 20, 1864(1864-11-20) (aged 72)
Political party	Whig
Profession	manufacturer / politician

Erastus Fairbanks (October 28, 1792 in Brimfield, Massachusetts  – November 20, 1864) was an American manufacturer and Whig politician.

He studied law but abandoned it for mercantile pursuits, finally settling in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where in 1824 he formed a partnership with his brother Thaddeus for the manufacture of scales, stoves and plows. Subsequently the scales (see Fairbanks Scales) invented by Thaddeus were manufactured extensively. Erastus was a member of the state legislature in 1836–1838, and the 21st and 26th Governor of Vermont in 1852–1853 and 1860–1861, during his second term rendering valuable aid in the equipment and dispatch of troops in the early days of the American Civil War.

With his brothers Thaddeus and Joseph P., he founded St. Johnsbury Academy.

He was the father of Horace Fairbanks.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• page with portrait and biography
• Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, Vermont
• Fairbanks, Lorenzo Sayles, Genealogy of the Fairbanks Family in America 1633–1897, Boston, 1897.

External links

• Inventory of the Erastus Fairbanks Papers, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library