Another Biography of Benjamin L. Fairchild of Pelham Heights

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I have written previously on the Historic Pelham Blog about the life of Benjamin L. Fairchild of Pelham Heights who served as a member of Congress and was responsible for the early development of much of Pelham Heights. See Friday, April 22, 2005: Benjamin L. Fairchild of Pelham Heights -- A Notable Pelham Personage. Today's Historic Pelham Blog provides additional biographical information about Benjamin L. Fairchild. Below is the text of Fairchild's biography contained in the Official Congressional Directory of the Fifty-Fourth Congress [Second Session] published in 1897.


"SIXTEENTH DISTRICT.
(Population, 220,857.)
COUNTY. -- Westchester, together with the Twenty-fourth assembly district of the city of New York.
BEN L. FAIRCHILD, of Pelham Heights, Westchester County, was born at Sweden, N. Y., January 5, 1863; removed to Washington, D. C., with his parents at the close of the war of the rebellion, his father having lost his health from wounds and disabilities received in military service, and settled in that city; was educated in the public schools of Washington, and at the age of 13 years entered the draftsman division of the Interior Department, and two years later the Bureau of Engraving and Printing of the Treasury Department; studied law at the Columbian Law School, from which he graduated with the degree of LL. M. in 1885; resigned his position in the Treasury Department, and after passing the bar examination and being admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia went to New York City, where, after taking the prescribed course of one year, he passed the bar examinations and was admitted to the bar of that city; has since continued the practice of law with success; became a member of the firm of Ewing, Southard & Fairchild, the other members of the firm being Gen. Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, and Hon. Milton J. Southard; the present name of the firm is Southard & Fairchild; has large real-estate investments in Westchester County, adjoining New York City; has held no public office prior to his election to Congress, but was the candidate of his party for delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1893; was elected to the Fifty-fourth Contress as a Republican, receiving 24,853 votes, against 19,294 votes for William Ryan, Democrat, 362 votes for Foote, Populist, and 624 votes for Lyon, Prohibitionist."

Source: Fifty-Fourth Congress [Second Session] Official Congressional Directory, For the Use of the United States Congress, Prepared Under the Direction of The Joint Committee on Printing by Pitman Pusifier Clerk of Printing Records, Second Edition, Corrected to January 27, 1897, p. 92 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office 1897).

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