California Biographies
Fairbanks, Hiram Talbert

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Fairbanks, Hiram Talbert. The subject of this sketch, whose portrait appears in
this work, was born on December 29, 1827, in Manchester, Dearborn county,
Indiana. His father being a farmer, he was educated in the English branches
usually taught in the country schools of that day. In 1846, then but nineteen
years old, he emigrated to Iowa, settling in Augusta, Des Moines county, where
he made his home with the Honorable Levi Moffet. In 1847 he enlisted in the
United States army, and served in the Mexican war. Returned to Indiana in 1849,
and the following year crossed the plains to California, where he followed
mining, in company with his brothers, at what was then known as Mormon island,
on the south fork of the American river, about twenty-five miles from
Sacramento. Meeting with good success in his mining operations, he returned to
Indiana, via Panama, in 1851, and the same year went to Iowa, where he followed
merchandising, and there married Miss Lucinda, daughter of the Honorable Levi
Moffet, on July 14, 1852. In connection with his mercantile pursuits, he was
also engaged in milling, both of which he followed till 1859, when he again
crossed the plains to this State, bringing his wife and four children. They
arrived in Petaluma during the Fall of that year, where Mr. Fairbanks followed
farming, in connection with the lumber trade, until the Fall of 1861, when he
abandoned the agricultural business, from the fact that this pursuit was not his
forte. He next established himself as one of Petaluma's merchants in 1862,
successfully maintaining this branch of the trade, together with a commission
house in San Francisco, but retired from the mercantile trade in Petaluma in
1869, and with his family went East on a visit, and returned to Petaluma in the
Fall of that year. During 1870 he also retired from the commission business in
San Francisco, and in the Winter of 1870-1 he again embarked in the mercantile
trade, in company with Honorable A. P. Whitney, of Petaluma. Mr. Fairbanks was
one of the founders of the Petaluma Savings Bank, which was organized in 1870,
and since that time has been its manager and President, which position he has
continuously held to the present writing, and he is also President of the city
Board of Trustees of Petaluma, having been elected and served three terms in the
last eight years. Mr. Fairbanks has achieved his business success by always
being prompt in his engagements, and this quality, coupled with excellent
judgment and a thorough master of his business, has given him his present
position. Belle, Dolpher B. (now cashier of the Petaluma Savings Bank), Augustus
(now residing in Oregon), Frank, Nettie, Hattie, Lizzie, William, Zoe and Dacie,
are the names of his children.


Source: HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, Alley, Bowen & Co. 1880