Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1862-02-06
THE MEN OF VERMONT.
10. RRAsTUs FAIRBANKS.

ernor Of Vermont, was born at Brimfeld |
in the County of Hampden, and State of |
Massachusetts, on the 18th day of October
1892. He still lives, the earliest, but one,
of our surviving Governors, and, with the
exception of the present incumbent. the
last Chief Magistrate of Vermont.
Since he came to Vermont, ne has
mostly, if not entirely, resided at st.
Johnsbury, in the County of Caledonia,
and has been extensively engaged in the
manufacturing business. He is the senior
partner and principal business manager,
of the widely known firm OF f. AND
T. FAIRBANKS AND COMPANY" Their
mandatory is situated on the stream,
known as Sleepers River, in st. Johnsbu-
ry, and has been principally devoted to the
manufacture of cast iron plows and patent
balances. ' Fairbanks Scales are known
and extensively used throughout the
United States and in most OF the European
States, possessing the entire confidence
OF the public" These Scales are extern
sively manufactured by them, at their es-
establishment in st. Johnsbury, being vari-
ously modified and adapted to all the vari-
GUS operations required to be transacted
by weight, from the small counter scale
used by country retail traders and mer-
chants, to the ponderous Rail Road Scales
from fifty to one hundred feet, and even
longer, for weighing heavily loaded trains
of cars. The Fairbanks improvement, so
called, has been patented in the United
States and England, and was for long
time used to the exclusion of all other
scales, and is now in extensive use. This
business has been a source of great profit
to Governor Fairbanks, and in it, he is
understood to have amassed large private
, fortune.
1t was, chiefly, through the instrument
tality of Erastus Fairbanks that the Con-
: necticut and Passumpsic Rivers Rail Road
Company was enabled successfully to con-
, struct their Railroad from White River
Junction, on the Connecticut River to St.
g Johnsbury. Of this Corporation he was
: the first President. While under his
f supervision, the affairs of the Company
, were better and more successfully managed
than those of any other similar Company
in Vermont On the first day of Decem-
, Der 1856, Oh account of the embarrass-
ment of its finances, the management of
= this Road again passed pto' the hands of
Gnunmao, Fairbanks as one OF the Trus-
tees of the Mortgages on the road. Sc
: ably and economically did he manage it:
9 affairs, that it recovered from it's embar
e rassment, and on the 18th day of October
" 1857, it again came under the control o
the Directors OF the Company.
: Gov. Fairbanks represented the town O
- St. Johnsbury in the General Assembl
1t of Vermont in 1886, 1887, 1888, AM
$ 1889. .v+.
~ In 184S, he was appointed, by Gov
II Coolidge, in connection with Hon. Charlie
l. X. Williams and Hon. Lucius B. Peck,
l. Commissioner g to digest and prepare
.. general law regulating and governing a
o. Railroad Companies in this State" A
a. the result of their labors they prepare
n and presented General Railroad Lay
"a and General Law in reference to Manu-
a featuring Companies--both of which,
e, their main features we're adopted, and sti
% remain laws of the State. 81 .
Nv In 1852. he was elected Governor
re Vermont, by the Legislature, He Wa
en- again, the candidate of the Wing Part
for reelection, to that office, in 1858, ar
although he received greater number
to votes than any other candidate, he w
led defeated in the Legislature, by coaliti'
the of all the opponents Of the Wing party.
'nE During his administration, was pass
car g An act to prevent traffic in Intoxicatir
&C. Liquors for the purpose of drinking
was better known, as The Maine Liquor Ii
ia of Vermont This law, for the first tir
in this State, authorized, the seizure a
and destruction of Intoxicating Liquor, if fou
ian under circumstances, warfanting the
the lief that it was intended for sale. III