The Name and Family of Fairchild

REVISED EDITION OF THE NAME AND FAMILY OF FAIRCHILD tA «/-- .COMPILED BY TM.'FAIRCHILD, LL.B. OP ' IOWA CITY, IOWA ASSISTED BY SARAH ELLEN (FAIRCHILD) FILTER, WIPE OP FIRST LIEUTENANT CHESTER FILTER OP THE ARMY OP THE U. S. A. DUBUQUE, IOWA mz I * r • • * • • » < • • PUBLISHED BY THE MERCER PRINTING COMPANY IOWA CITY, IOWA 1944 201894 INDEX PART ONE Page Chapter I—The Name of Fairchild Was Derived From the Scotch Name of Fairbairn 5 Chapter II—Miscellaneous Information Regarding Mem bers of the Fairchild Family 10 Chapter III—The Heads of Families in the United States by the Name of Fairchild as Recorded by the First Census of the United States in 1790 50 Chapter IV—'Copy of the Fairchild Manuscript of the Media Research Bureau of Washington .... 54 Chapter V—Copy of the Orcutt Genealogy of the Ameri can Fairchilds for the First Four Generations After the Founding of Stratford and Settlement There in 1639 . 57 Chapter VI—The Second Generation of the American Fairchilds After Founding Stratford, Connecticut . 67 Chapter VII—The Third Generation of the American Fairchilds 71 Chapter VIII—The Fourth Generation of the American Fairchilds • 79 Chapter IX—The Extended Line of Samuel Fairchild, 3rd, and Mary (Curtiss) Fairchild, and the Fairchild Garden in Connecticut 86 Chapter X—The Lines of Descent of David Sturges Fair- child of Clinton, Iowa, and of Eli Wheeler Fairchild of Monticello, New York 95 Chapter XI—The Descendants of Moses Fairchild and Susanna (Bosworth) Fairchild, Early Settlers in the Berkshire Hills in Western Massachusetts, Ancestors of the Tama County, Iowa, Fairchilds, and of the Sullivan, Illinois, Fairchilds 101 Chapter XII—The Descendants of Moses Fairchild and of Grandison Fairchild and Nancy (Harris) Fairchild, Ancestors of the Oberlin College, Berea College and Kansas Agricultural College Groups, Including David Grandison Fairchild, the Botanist, Who Married Marian Bell, Daughter of Alexander Graham Bell, also Includ ing Other Distinguished Americans 115 Chapter XIII—The Descendants of Zechariah Fairchild, Abiel Fairchild, Caleb Fairchild, Who Settled in the Berkshire Valley and Morris County, New Jersey . 138 Chapter XIV—The Line of Descent of Lucius Fairchild, Ninth Governor of Wisconsin 145 INDEX PART TWO Pago Chapter XV—The Fairchild Family of Ontario. The Loyalists and Miscellaneous Information Regarding the Canadian Branch of the Family of Fairchild . 147 Chapter XVI—The Descendants of Benjamin Fairchild, Sr., Ancestor of Many of the Canadian Fairchilds, In cluding Isaac Fairchild the First Settler and Indian Trader; Peter Fairchild the Founder and First Pastor of the Old Boston Baptist Church, Probably the First Church Ever Built by White Men in Ontario, and In cluding Benjamin Fairchild, Jr., Captive of Mohawks and Indian Interpreter for the Canadian Government . 158 Chapter XVII—The Descendants of Isaac Fairchild, First Settler and Indian Trader, Including the Obituary of His Second Son, Timothy Marsh Fairchild, 1799-1884 . 175 Chapter XVIII—The Descendants of Timothy Marsh Fairchild, Second Son of Isaac Fairchild and Lucy (Kilbourne) Fairchild, the Pioneers 185 Chapter XIX—The Descendants of Francis Gore Fair- child, the Last Child of the Pioneers, Isaac Fairchild and Lucy (Kilbourne) Fairchild, and Biographical Sketches of Some of Their Descendants 220 Chapter XX—The Fairchild Family in Ontario and Its Connection with the Westbrook Family and the Springer Family and Much Other Miscellaneous Material by H. Orlo Miller, Secretary of the Middlesex County His torical Society 226 Chapter XXI—Excerpts from the Public Records and Archives of the Department of Public Records of Tor- . onto and Ottawa, Canada, with Reference to the Mem bers of the Fairchild Family in Canada .... 253 Chapter XXII—Excerpts from L. H. Tasker's History of the Long Point Settlement on Lake Erie by Loyalists, and from E. A. Owen's Pioneer Sketches of the Long Point Settlement, with Reference to the Fairchild Family 259 Chapter XXIII—Some Historical Notes and Quotations . 264 Chapter XXIV—Some Quotations from an Anniversary Number of the Brantfo.rd Expositor of Historical Interest 274 THE NAME AND FAMILY OF FAIRCHILD PART ONE CHAPTER I The name of Fairchild was derived from the Scotch name of Fairbairn. The name of the first wife of Thomas Fairchild, one of the founders of Stratford, Connecticut, Ivas teen referred to by writers as Emma, Sarah, and as Faith. Evidently it ivas Emma Seabrook. In Dr. James Sullivan's History of New York State is a bio graphical sketch of Eli Wheeler Fairchild from which the follow ing excerpts are taken with regard to the name of Fairchild: '' The name of Fairchild is of ancient origin believed to have ori ginated in Scotland as 'Fairbairn' and to have received its present form in England where child means 'bairn'. The family has been identified with the development of the New England states and the newer sections of the country, including among its notable members, a Governor of Wisconsin. "The American progenitor was Thomas Fairchild, who probably arrived in Stratford, Connecticut, about 1638, with his brother-in- law, Thomas Sherwood. A prominent citizen, Thomas Fairchild was elected deputy of the General Court in 1654 and in 1664: was four times nominated for Assistant Governor, and served on various com mittees. He was a merchant and owned a home on what is now Elm Street, Bridgeport. He married (first) Emma Seabrook, daughter of Robert Seabrook in England." (Note: In William Howard Wilcoxson's Historj' of Stratford, Connecticut, the lot on which Thomas Fairchild established his home is shown on a plat as Number 16.) In a genealogical sketch of the Springer family in America written about 1903, is the following reference to the Fairchild family and Ruth Fairchild, sister of the writer's great grand father : "Daniel Springer, born Sept. 1763, in Albany County, N. Y., died June 15, 1826, married Ruth Fairchild, a woman of fine intelligence, great energy and courage. The Fairchilds were early settlers in America. Fail-child is an Old Barnstaple (England) name and is still represented in that neighborhood. The Mayors of this old English town in 1678, 1718 and 1725 bore that name." 6 THE NAME AND FAMILY OP FAIRCHILD A. W. Dellques, in his work entitled "These Names of Ours'' writes with reference to the name of Fairchild as follows: "The name Fairbairn is usually an early personal name, meaning ' The fair child' although it may sometimes be in the altered form of Fairburn (fair brook), or of Fairban (fair hill). Fairbairn is equi valent in meaning to the name of Fairchild which is the usual English form of the Scottish Fairbairn." The following paragraphs with reference to the Fairchild family are taken from the Media Research Bureau Manuscript relative to the name of Fairchild: "The name of Fairchild is believed to have been derived from the nickname 'The fair child', being used in France in the form of Beau- fitz. It is found in ancient English records in the various spelling Fayrechylde, Fayrchilde, Fairchylde, Farechilde, Fayrchild, Fair- childe, Fairechilde, Farechild, Farehilde, and Fairchild, of which the last is most generally used in America today. '' Families bearing this name were to be found at early dates in the English Counties of Oxford, Cambridge, Norwich, Somerset and London. It appears that these families were, for the most part, of the landed gentry and yeomanry of the British Isles. "Among the earliest records of the name in England are those of Margaret Fairchilde of the latter twelfth century: Robert Fairchilde,, of the time of King Henry the Third, about 1250: Adam Fayrchild, of Oxfordshire in 1273: Ralph Fayrchild, of Cambridgeshire, about the same time: John Fairchild, of Somersetshire, about the beginning of the reign of King Edward, the Third, in 1327: and John Fair- child, bailiff of Norwich in 1354. "It is generally believed that most, if not all, of the American Fairchilds trace their descent from Thomas Fairchild, who came from England to America about the year 1639 and settled in Stratford, Connecticut. By his first wife, Sarah Seabrook, he had issue of Samuel, Faith or Sarah (perhaps both), John, (died young), Thomas, Dinah, Zachariah and Emma.'' The history of Stratford, Connecticut, 1639-1939, by William Howard Wilcoxson, contains many references to the Fairchild family and recites how a little band of Englishmen, together with their minister, the Reverend Adam Blakeman, settled in the primitive wilderness and laid out and founded Stratford in 1639. He writes that this spot had probably first been visited or seen by white men about two years before but the first settle ment was in the spring of 1639 when this little band of pioneers settled there and laid out their home lots and soon after erected a palisade as a protection aganst attacks by Indians, and built their first meeting house. THE NAME AND FAMILY OP FAIRCHILD 7 This history by Mr. Wilcoxson contains short biographical •sketches of many of those early settlers and founders of Strat ford, among which is the name of his own American ancestor, William Wilcoxson, who came to America in 1635, and after wards settled in Stratford. As time went on many of the de scendants of those early settlers intermarried and thus the lines of descent of many old families in America today trace back to common ancestors. On page 63 of his history Mr. Wilcoxson writes as follows: " If we could, perchance, transport ourselves into the past and there for a brief hour, breathe over again the atmosphere of that first decade of town life; catch some occasional glimpses of the Blakemans, Beardsleys, Booths, Curtiss, Fairchilds, Hawleys, Hurds, Nichols, Judsons, Wilcoxsons and other adventurers who chose this spot of earth for a home, as they go about their daily tasks, providing the new common fields for the pasturing of the cattle, or the planting of the corn, etc." Many other names are mentioned by Mr.

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