A Fairbanks Family: Brief Lives Marked by Loss
- Patricia Fanning
- Apr 11
- 1 min read
Abijah Fairbanks (1820-1846)
Lois N. Shepard Fairbanks (1819-1847)
John B. Fairbanks (1843-1844)
Abijah F. Fairbanks (1846-1846)
Abijah Fairbanks was born in 1820, the second son of Willard Fairbanks and Azubah Fuller Fairbanks. At the age of 21, he married Lois N. Shepard on October 3, 1841. Lois had been born in Maine but was living in Dedham at the time of their marriage.
Abijah was a currier, one who works on the leather produced at the local tannery. On December 13, 1843, the couple welcomed a son, John B. Fairbanks. The child died three months later on March 12, 1844.
Abijah Fairbanks died on March 1, 1846 at the age of 26. The cause was the all-too-common disease of consumption (tuberculosis). In April of 1846, Lois Fairbanks gave birth to a second son, named Abijah for his father. Six months later, on October 15, 1846, that child too died.
A little over a year later, on December 24, 1847, Lois Fairbanks, a dressmaker by trade, died of fever. She was 28. The gravestones of the young family, Abijah, Lois, and their two small children, stand side by side in Old Parish Cemetery. Each bears the depiction of a weeping willow.
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