Charles Stebbins Fairchild (1842-1924)

Charles S. Fairchild, Attorney-General of New York & U.S. Secretary of the Treasury

Associated Houses

1400 New Hampshire Avenue

Washington D.C.

Lorenzo

Cazenovia

He was born at Cazenovia, New York, and graduated from Harvard Law School (1865), joining his father's firm in Albany and the Democratic Party of New York. In 1874, he was appointed Assistant Attorney-General of New York and won credibility for prosecuting police and "canal ring" corruption cases. The following year, he was elected Attorney-General and served until 1877. Having helped his old friend Daniel Manning (Grover Cleveland's Secretary of the Treasury) reorganize the Treasury department, when Manning retired in 1887 due to ill health, Fairchild took his place. Fairchild's tenure was marked by tariff reform. After Cleveland was defeated in 1888, Fairchild was appointed President of the New York Security & Trust Company in Manhattan, a position he held until 1904. He was also President of the Atlanta & Charlotte Railroad and a Director of the Erie & Pittsburgh Railroad. He remained active in politics as a "Gold Democrat" and was President of the American Constitutional League, formerly known as the Men's Anti-Suffrage Association. In 1871, he married Helen Lincklaen, heiress of Lorenzo House in Cazenovia, where they died without children.

Categories

Contributed by Mark Meredith on 15/03/2020 and last updated on 18/03/2020.
Image Courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library; Charles S. Fairchild, UVA, Miller Center