The late ex-alderman John Fairbairn, was the second son of the late Thomas Fairbairn, and nephew of the late JohnRedpath. He was born in Earlston, near Edinburgh, in 1817, and comming with his parents to Canada, in 1826, resided for five years at Jones Falls, on the Ottawa River. 

While Mr. Fairbairn was still a boy, his family removed to Montreal, and he attended for sometime the school kept by the late Rev. Dr. Black, then pastor of old St. Gabriel Presbyterian Church, one of his schoolmates being Mr. Jesse Joseph of Sherbrooke Street. 

His first business engagement was as office boy for Mr. J.A. Mattheson, later taking a position as clerk with Mr. Johnston, of Laprairie. Upon the assignment of Mr. Johnston, Mr. Fairbairn succeeded, and, in 1840, married there, Charlotte Jane Kerfut. They were born to them, ten children; five sons and five daughters; the widow, three sons and three daughters surviving Mr. Fairbairn, who died July 8, 1903. The three sons, Thomas Fairbairn, William J.Fairbairn, and Robert P.Fairbairn, are all engaged in railway work in the west.  Charlotte Fairbairn, the third daughter, was married in 1886, to the Rev. James McCaul, then of Stanley Street Presbyterian Church, now of Toronto. Two of the younger daughters, one of whom is a member of the staff of the Peter Redpath library, and the widow occupy the old home. 

Sometime in the fifties, Mr. Fairbairn removed from Laprarie to Montreal, entering into business as a broker in partnership with the late T.M. Taylor, later opening an office as a produce broker in partnership with his son, and at the time of his death, he was one of the oldest members of the Montreal Board of Trade and the Montreal Corn Exchange Association. During the time he sat in the City Council for West Ward, he took an active part in municipal affairs, his services as a mamber of the Financial Committee being especially beneficial to the City.