Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Photograph |
Collection |
Oil Museum of Canada Collection |
Catalog Number |
OMC PE.001.005.001 |
Other Number |
PE.001.005.001.p |
Description |
Sepia photocopy of a portrait photograph of John Henry Fairbank. It is a side view and he is balding with a full beard and moustache. He is wearing a dark suit. |
Provenance |
John Henry Fairbank was born in Rouse's Point, New York in 1831. His father died when he was only eleven years old, and he was an only child. At the age of 21, John left for Niagara Falls, where he met Edna Chrysler. He and Edna were married in 1855. Around this time, John was working for the Great Western Railway Company as a surveyor. In 1858 he was hired by Julia Macklem to survey land which she had purchased in the oil patch of Lambton County. It was on this surveying trip that John's love for the oil business was born. He put $10.00 down on a plot of land in Lambton County. He built a shack in Oil Springs where he began to dig for oil. At this time, all wells were powered individually, which was rather expensive, inefficient, and difficult to maintain. Fairbank introduced the idea of the jerker-line system for powering his fields. He devised a way whereby he could hitch up several of his wells to one power source. By attaching wells this way, he could run eighty or ninety wells from one boiler and two engines. Fairbank purchased land in Petrolia in late 1865. Fairbank partnered with Benjamin Van Tuyl in 1865, and opened a grocery and liquor store, which later expanded into hardware and oil well supplies. Fairbank also bought and sold real estate and traded in lumber. In 1869 he joined with Leonard Vaughn to set up Petrolia's first bank, hauling a building from Oil Springs to Petrolia, which later became known as the Little Red Bank. Thirteen years later Fairbank, Jacob Englehart, and others joined together to create the Crown Savings and Loan Company. In 1866 Fairbank organized a group of oil producers to build an eight-kilometer spur line railway from the Great Western depot at Wyoming. This helped the local economy enormously. In 1868 major oil producers, including Fairbank, created the Crude Oil Association. John entered local politics and was elected three times to council. He served as reeve from 1868 to 1870 and was elected as the Federal Liberal Member of Parliament in 1882. In 1873 John formed the Home Oil Company in an attempt to increase producer's leverage. A refinery was erected in Petrolia, which survived eight years, with Fairbank as its president. James Miller Williams was also a shareholder in this company. In the 1870's he was appointed as Fire Chief, a position he held until he retired in 1889. This amazing entrepreneur also had an interest in the railway business, and with John W. Sifton, became involved in financing the Canadian Pacific rail line from west of Lakehead. Apparently, he even travelled to Northwestern Ontario to oversee part of the construction. Fairbank's health began to fail in 1912 and he passed away in February of 1914. |
Print Size |
20.8cm x 29.5cm |
Search Terms |
Entrepreneur Fairbank Oil Properties Invention Investor Jerker-line Oil Oil & Gas Production Oil Exploration Oil History Oil Industry Oil Producer Oil Springs Surveyor VanTuyl & Fairbank Hardware |
People |
Fairbank, John Henry |