Erastus Fairbanks

Infobox Governor
name= Erastus Fairbanks


caption= Erastus Fairbanks
order=21^st
office= Governor of Vermont
term_start= 1852
term_end= 1853
lieutenant= William C. Kittredge
predecessor= Charles K. Williams
successor=John S. Robinson
birth_date= birth date|1792|10|28|mf=y
birth_place= Brimfield, Massachusetts
death_date= death date and age|1864|11|20|1792|10|28|mf=y
death_place=
spouse=
profession= manufacturer / politician
party= Whig
footnotes=
order2=26^th
office2= Governor of Vermont
term_start2= 1860
term_end2= 1861
lieutenant2= Levi Underwood
predecessor2= Hiland Hall
successor2=Frederick Holbrook

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 ploughs. Subsequently the scales (see Fairbanks Scales) invented by Thaddeus were manufactured extensively. Erastus was a member of the state legislature in 1836-1838, and governor of Vermont in 1852-1853 and 1860-1861, during his second term rendering valuable aid in the equipment and despatch 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

*1911
* [http://www.rootsweb.com/~vermont/BioErastusFAIRBANKS.html page with portrait and biography]
* [http://www.fairbanksmuseum.org/index.cfm Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, Vermont]
*Fairbanks, Lorenzo Sayles, "Genealogy of the Fairbanks Family in America 1633-1897", Boston, 1897.