Old Fairbanks Homestead, 1636

The above picture shows the front side of an extremely rare coin passed along to me by either my great-grandparents or my grandparents, minted for the 1936 Tercentenary Celebration of the town of Dedham. On it's face, it shows the Old Fairbanks House as it looked at 300 years old. I have no idea how many of these coins were minted. As with most things in my family, this coin will be passed along to future generations of Fairbanks descendants.

The original portions of the Fairbanks Homestead were built in 1636, for Jonathan Fairbanks & family. Some people call it the Fairbanks House. The Fairbanks family in my bloodline refers to it as the Old Fairbanks Homestead. To give you an idea of how long our family actually lived in the house, before turning it over for preservation by the Fairbanks Family of America, the house was visited by relative Vice President Charles Fairbanks, who served in the Teddy Roosevelt administration.

In addition to the mapmaker for Hotel Maps USA, yours truly, a 12th generation American,, the bloodline also includes President John Adams and President John Quincy Adams. My bloodline follows generation after generation of Fairbanks men, all the way to my deceased grandfather, Harold Dean Fairbanks of Hopkinton, MA. Over the course of thirty years, my mother has researched the genealogy, and has written a book, "Our Fairbanks Family".

1. Jonathan Fayerbanke (how Fairbanks was spelled in those times)- Married Grace in Sowerby, Halifax, Yorkshire. Jonathan and family sailed to America on the Griffin in 1633.
2. George Fairbanks I (Captain George Fairbanks- King Phillips War) - born Nov 28, 1619. Second oldest of six children, was 13 when the Griffin sailed from England. Married Mary Adams Harris or Mary H. Adams, Oct 26, 1646 of Dedham, MA. He died by drowning, Jan 10, 1682. She died in Mendon Aug 11, 1711. Coincidentally, his son, Dr Jonathan Fairbanks, drowned in the same river while making a house call in 1719.
3. George Fairbanks II - Married Rachel Adams (daughter of Peter and Rachel Adams). She died. He remarried Susanna. She died. He remarried Sarah, our ancestor.
4. George Fairbanks III - Married Sarah Harding.
5. George Fairbanks IV - Married Jerusha Twitchel.
6. Adam Fairbanks (soldier in American Revolution) - Married Sally Walker. She died. Married Marina Fuller. She died. Married Mary Haven Frail, our ancestor, daughter of Joseph Frail and Sarah Haven.
7. Pliney Fairbanks - Married Cloe Taft, daughter of Asa and Lydia Taft.
8. Asa Norcross Fairbanks - Married Clarissa Frail, daughter of Isaac and Sarah Fairbanks Frail.
9. Deane Clarence Fairbanks - Married Nellie Elizabeth Kilburn (my great grandmother who was alive until I was a teenager).
10. Harold Dean Fairbanks Sr. - Inventor, factory owner, industrialist. My grandfather. Married my grandmother, name withheld for security reasons (some security systems use mothers maiden name). (Grandmother was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire which is coincidentally about 10 miles from where Jonathan and Grace married).

Although the bloodline is not as direct and easy to trace as my own, it appears President George Bush, and President George W. Bush can also trace their heritage to Jonathan Fairbanks.

My line of the family descended from Jonathan's son, Capt. George Fairbanks, Ancient Honorable Artillery. For the most part, our lineage stuck around and settled the frontier west and southwest of Dedham: Medway, Medfield, Sherborn, Millis, and Hopkinton.

American Indians who lived in the area were the Wampanoag to the east and south, Nipmuc to the west around Hopkinton, Upton, and Hopedale, Naragansett to the south, Nashua and Abenake to the north, and Pequot to the southwest toward Hartford. Decades before the 1620 settlement of Plymouth, the Massachusetts tribes had lost most of its' people due to sickness from contact with earlier pioneers, traders, and fishermen. Many of the people of the ancient tribes along the coast from Virginia to Maine had already died from contact with Europeans before the Pequot War and the King Phillip War. Many families were sent to colonize America as part of the "Great Migration", from 1630 to 1636. In 1634, Jonathan Fairbanks and family sailed to America from England, on the Griffon, landing at the area in Boston which is aptly named Griffon Wharf.

Did I say 12th generation American? My grandfather, mother, and I, all have high cheekbones and strong nose that is distinctly Indian. One Fairbanks man had three English wives who died. Eventually, he married an Indian woman from the Leominster area. I can trace my geneaology to him, and I know which of the sons is my ancestor, but I am not sure which of his four wives was the mother. That would explain a lot! It would also make me much, much, more than a 13th generation American !

EVERYONE SHOULD BE PROUD OF THEIR HERITAGE.