Allen Leonard Fairbanks

As printed in 1910

ALLEN LEONARD FAIRBANKS.

No history of Jones county would be complete without extended mention of Allen Leonard Fairbanks, who although he has already passed the Psalmist's allotted span of three score years and ten is still an active and helpful factor in the world's work. He comes from a most illustrious family and one which has long been identified with American interests. All representatives of the name in America trace their ancestry back to Jonathan Fairbanks, the founder of the family in this country, who came to Boston, Massachusetts, from Yorkshire, England, in 1633. Since that time various members of the family have figured prominently before the public eye. Mr. Fairbanks, of this review, is a relative of former Vice-President Fairbanks, of the United States, and also claims relationship with Erastus Fairbanks, the well known manufacturer and politician, who patented the famous Fairbanks scales and was also governor of the state of Vermont for two terms.

Born in Hyde Park, Vermont, on the 25th of February, 1832, Allen Leonard Fairbanks is a son of Adam and Cynthia (Wilber) Fairbanks, natives of Massachusetts and of England respectively. The mother came to America in childhood and was married in Vermont, where she passed away when the son was twelve years of age. The father, a farmer by occupation, was again married and spent the latter part of his life with our subject, his death occurring in 1882 when he had reached the venerable age of eighty-three years. He was the father of seven children, of whom Allen Leonard was the sixth in order of birth. The others were: Victor monroe, of LeRoy, Minnesota, who has attained the age of ninety-two years; Caroline Lane and Volney W., who are both deceased; Carlow, who was killed during the Civil war, having enlisted as a soldier from Vermont; Lorinda Chesley, deceased; and Cynthia Janette.

No event of especial importance came to vary the routine of daily life for Allen Leonard Fairbanks during the period of his boyhood and youth, which were spent on his father's farm in Vermont. At the usual age he was sent as a pupil to the common schools, which he attended until sixteen years of age. He remained under the parental roof until twenty-one years old, and in the meantime was variously engaged about the home farm, 'assisting in the work of the fields and picking stone and brush from the rough land. When he attained his majority, however, he entered the business world on his own account, going to Manchester, New Hampshire, where he remained for about two years, being there employed in the cotton mills and also in the machine shops of the locomotive works.

As printed in History of Jones County, Iowa, past and present (1910). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.