The Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Representative Men of Chicago, Milwaukee and the World's Columbian Exposition

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BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
with   her   charming
Florence Sanger,  Plarriet Sanger, George M. and     and   Christian   virtues,   and
Walter  Sanger, the  last  two being twins.    Mrs.     daughters takes an  earnest interest in   religious
Pullman   is   a   Avoman   of   rare   accomplishments     and benevolent Avork.
N.   K.   FAIRBANK,
CHICAGO,   ILL.
NATHANIEL K. FAIRBANK is perhaps as fair an example of the self-made man as is to be found in the city of Chicago. He was born in 1829, at Sodus, Wayne county. New York. He Avas educated in the public schools of his native town and by private study at home Avith a tutor. Being prepared for college at too early an age to enter, he Avas apprenticed to a bricklayer at the age of fifteen; he com¬ pleted his apprenticeship at Rochester, New York. Shortly after this he accepted a posi¬ tion as book-keeper in a flouring-mlll, and at the end of six months became a partner in the business. Attracted by the advantages and in¬ ducements offered to energetic young men in the rapidly groAving West, he resolved to go thither, and in 1855 removed to Chicago and established himself in the grain commission business, and he became the Avestern agent of David Doavs and Company, of New York, and.remained such some ten years. During this time he had become financially interested in the lard and oil refinery of Smedley, Peck and Company. The business Avas prosperous, but after some four years suf¬ fered the loss of its valuable plant by fire, entail¬ ing a loss of fifty thousand dollars. This, how¬ ever, Avas but a temporary check. And the fol- loAving year (1870) the firm built the present refinery, situated at the corner of Eighteenth and BlackAvell streets, at a cost of more than eighty thousand dollars. Some tAvo years later Mr. Smedley sold his interest, and, afterward, Mr. Peck AvIthdrcAV from the business, their places being filled by Messrs. W. H. Burnet and Joseph Sears, the firm-name changing to N. K. Fairbank and Company, Avhich soon became known all over the world.
Mr. Fairbank is a man of broad sympathies and generous public-spiritedness, and intensely practical in his ideas. For several years pre¬ vious to   the   fire   Mr.   Fairbank  was   an   active
member of the Relief and Aid Society, and after the fire he, as Avell as his fellow-members of the board, devoted his entire time for tAvo years or more to the faithful distribution of the world's great charity. The present home of the Chi¬ cago Club, on Monroe street, Avas built through his enterprise in 1874, Avhen the Club was finan¬ cially and numerically weak, as compared Avith its condition to-day. Of the one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars Avhich the Club¬ house cost, eighty thousand dollars Avere sub¬ scribed by the members before the building Avas completed, and the balance of fifty thousand dollars was paid by Mr. Fairbank. As a mark of their appreciation of his generosity and execu¬ tive ability, as well as an expression of their regard for him personally, the members elected him president of the Club upon taking posses¬ sion of the new house in 1876, and he con¬ tinued in that office by re-election for thirteen years. Another monument to the enterprise and public spirit of Mr. Fairbank is the Cen¬ tral Music Hall. Chicago's need of such a structure Avas first suggested by the late Mr. Geo. B. Carpenter, whose zeal and enthusiasm excited public interest. But money Avas needed. ¦ The object appealed to the practical judgment of Mr. Fairbank, and, although. Chicago was but just recovering from the effects of the great fire of 1871, he placed the matter before the capital¬ ists of the city, and such Avas the influence of his endorsements that all the stock Avas quickly sub¬ scribed for, and the building now known as Cen¬ tral Music Hall Avas erected. But his helps are not alone for the higher or Avell-to-do classes—the poor, the needy, the friendless, have ahvays found in him a generous friend. The Newsboys' Home which, some years ago, was heavily mortgaged, he helped to release from its burden of indebted¬ ness by getting subscriptions, and by interesting those in favored circumstances in its noble Avork,