The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-06-05
c. ". FAIRBANKS
A FORMER VICE
PRESIDENT DEAD

Indianapolis. Ind, June 5.---Charles
Warren Fairbanks, former Vice Pres
1dent of the United States and former
United States Senator for Indiana,
died at his home at 1856 o'clock last
night. Death was due to interstital
nephritis, which had been chronic
ailment with him, but not regarded as
particularly serious until recently.
All members of the former vf4e Pres
1dent's family, except Major Richard
Fairbanks, who is in France, were at
his bedside.
The distinction of birth in a log
cabin, which illustrious Americans of
an earlier day commonly had, was
also that of former Vice President
Fairbanks. 1t rs probable that he was
the last of American statesmen to
have been born in one of these hum
BILE cabins.
The one where he was born on May
H. 1852, was at Unionville Center, o.
1t came dangerously near being the
funeral pyre for the future statesman.
When Mr.. Fairbanks was boy of
four, his father built a new home, and
the one-room log cabin was used as a
carpenter shop. One day while the
|
dred into the shop and carelessly
threw bunch of shavings into the
open fireplace. The cabin caught fire
and when the boy realized his danger
he was forced to scramble through q
window.
Mr. Fairbanks traced his ancestors
to the days of Oliver Cromwell, who
counted "Fayerbankes' among his
Ie1rv IL,
the first member of the family to
come to America, landed in Boston in
1886. Mr.. Fairbanks father was Lor-
lister Monroe Fairbanks, a wagon
maker of Vermont, who emigrated to
Union county, Ohio. His mother was
a sister of the late william Henry
ESmith, once general manager of The
Associated Press.
Fairbanks, at is, entered Ohio Yves
leyan College at Delaware, Ohio, shar-
ling an attic room with the son of an
other farmer, and the two cooked
their own meals. Fairbanks did car
penter work to earn his first law
books.
Soon after he was graduated, Mr..
Fairbanks was appointed agent of
The Associated Press at Pittsburgh,
|
lyear. His most important assignment
was the rally of the Democrats and
liberal Republicans in 1872. This was
one of the largest meetings of the
campaign and was addressed by Hor-
ace Greeley. Later in life he fire.
quent1y referred with keen delight to
his work as a newspaper man.
From Pittsburgh, Mr. Fairbanks
- 11{1 hi
law COURSE In 1874 he married Miss
Corneha Cole, the elimination of a
romance that began when both were
members Of the editorial staff of their
college paper. To them were born five
children, one daughter and four sons
After marriage MIR. Fairbanks moved
to Indianapolis and opened a law Of
flee. He took a deep interest in poll
! tics and assisted in local. state and
national campaigns, managed Walter
@. Gresham's campaign for the Re
publican nomination for the Presi-
dency in 1888 and later 1abored indus
triously for Benjamin Harrison's nom
ination.
In January, 1897, Mr. Fairbanks was
elected TO the United States Senate
= He tadkgh1s seat on March 3, the day
on which Mckinley became president
5 He became a close adviser of the
president in the trying times before
and during the Spanish-Americar
War.
, Mr. Fairbanks was recognized az
; one of the national leaders of the Re.
; publican party and as such was made
chairman of the committee on resolu,
tons at the Philadelphia nationa
= convention in 1900. He resigned from
the Senate March 4, 1905, having beer
elected Vice President on the Repub
n lican ticket with Theodore Roosevelt.
While he was Vice President, Mr.
5 Fairbanks, in 1908, became candi
t date for the nomination for president
He was defeated by William H. Tai
? and after his term as Vice Presiden
ended, he went back to the practice
of law.