Summary Information
Edward T. Fairchild Papers
1898-1965
- Fairchild, Edward Thomas, 1872-1965
Mss 374; PH 6738
1.2 c.f. (3 archives boxes) and 7 photographs (1 flat box)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of Edward T. Fairchild, a conservative Wisconsin state senator, 1910 gubernatorial candidate, and associate and chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Included is correspondence, a personal ledger, legislative and judicial records, and an extensive collection of speeches and writings. The correspondence focuses on his election campaigns and the personal and social aspects of Fairchild's public career, including the judge's interest in topics ranging from ethics to poetry and law. Included are minutes of the State Board of Public Affairs (1916) and a file on Chief Justice Marvin B. Rosenberry.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00374 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Edward Thomas Fairchild was born to a family in modest circumstances on a farm at Towanda, Pennsylvania on June 17, 1872. His parents moved to Dansville, Livingston County, New York, when he was five years of age. He received his early education in the public schools of Dansville and upon graduation from high school, studied law in the law office of Chas. H. Rowe. After three years of “reading law” under Rowe's tutelage, Fairchild successfully passed the bar examinations at age twenty-one.
In 1894 Fairchild moved to Milwaukee and established his law practice in partnership with Frank Lenicheck and Frank Boesel, the firm was known as Lenicheck, Fairchild & Boesel. In 1900 Fairchild was appointed assistant district attorney of Milwaukee County, a position he held for four years. In 1906 he was elected to the State Senate from the Fifth Senatorial District of Milwaukee, serving with distinction for four years. During his tenure he was an active member of the committee that framed the Workman's Compensation Act, the first of its kind in the United States. He was also the legislative leader of many bills relating to education. Charles McCarthy, the first Legislative Reference Librarian, always referred to him as the “father of the Continuation School Movement in America.”
Fairchild, a Conservative Republican, made a bid for the governorship in 1910, but he was defeated by the Progressive Republican, Francis McGovern. He returned to private practice until 1914 when he was re-elected to the State Senate, but his tenure was short-lived, for Emanuel L. Philipp, then governor of Wisconsin, appointed Fairchild circuit judge of the Second Judicial Circuit (Milwaukee County). He was elected to retain the position, circa 1916, and was twice thereafter re-elected in 1922 and 1928.
In 1930 Walter J. Kohler Sr. appointed Fairchild to the State Supreme Court to fill a vacancy created by the death of Justice Franz C. Eschweiler. He served out the term and was elected in his own right as a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1936, and re-elected in 1946. Fairchild served in the capacity of associate justice of the Supreme Court until 1954 when he became chief justice, a position he held until his official retirement on January 7, 1957. He was succeeded on the bench by his son, Thomas E. Fairchild. After his retirement he remained an active participant in the practice of law until his death on October 29, 1965.
Scope and Content Note
The Fairchild Papers relate mainly to his public life as a state senator, gubernatorial candidate, associate justice, and chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The collection includes correspondence, financial data, legislative and judicial documents, and miscellaneous materials, which span the years 1898 to 1965. The bulk of the material dates from 1910 to 1946, the period when Fairchild served as state senator and as a justice of the Supreme Court.
The collection is arranged in five categories: Correspondence, Financial, Legislative and Judicial, Miscellaneous Materials, and Speeches and Writings.
Correspondence is divided into incoming, outgoing, and miscellaneous undated letters. The major part of the correspondence deals with personal and social aspects of his public career, especially his election campaigns for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Each section of correspondence has been arranged chronologically. The one Financial document is a personal account ledger (circa 1915). The Legislative and Judicial material is arranged alphabetically by subject. Copies of bills pertaining to the work of Senator Fairchild are included as are minutes of the State Board of Public Affairs (1916). Several documents pertaining to the actions of the Supreme Court as well as miscellaneous materials relevant to the Court are present. One folder in the collection has been devoted to documents concerning former Chief Justice Marvin B. Rosenberry.
The Writings and Speeches category contains a considerable number of speeches by Fairchild. The speeches have been arranged by topic where possible. His single folder of writings includes an article for the Law Library Journal (1942).
Separated from the collection were over one thousand clippings covering the career of Fairchild. The clippings, all from Wisconsin newspapers, were collected by three news clipping services: Meyers News Service Company of Milwaukee, WPA Clipping Bureau, and the Wisconsin Clipping Bureau. The majority were taken from the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Milwaukee Journal, the Wisconsin State Journal, and The Capital Times. Three minor publications from Milwaukee, the News, the Leader, and the Herald were also represented. The clippings covered distinct periods in Fairchild's career: 150 related to his early career (1908-1910); 150 to his appointment to the Supreme Court in April 1930; and over 700 to his 1936 and 1946 campaigns for justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. All of the clippings were duplicates of articles that are available on the newspaper microfilm held by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Thomas E. Fairchild, Chicago, Illinois, September 10, 1975. Accession Number: M75-413
Processed by C. Iverson and Joanne Hohler, March 11, 1976.
Contents List
|
Mss 374
|
Series: Correspondence
|
|
|
Incoming letters
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
1
|
1898-1915
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
2
|
1916-1927
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
3
|
1930-1940
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
4
|
1942-1945
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
5 - 6
|
1946
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
7
|
1948-1963
|
|
|
Outgoing letters
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
8
|
1910-1939
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
9
|
1945
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
10-11
|
1946
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
12
|
Miscellaneous letters
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
13
|
, Undated letters
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
14
|
Series: Financial: Ledger, circa 1915
|
|
|
Series: Legislative and Judicial
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
1
|
Bills
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
2
|
Judicial campaign material
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
3
|
Minutes, State Board of Public Affairs
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
4
|
Rosenberry documents
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
5
|
Supreme Court decisions and documents
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
6
|
Miscellaneous administrative, legislative, and judicial documents
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
7
|
Series: Miscellaneous Materials
|
|
|
Series: Speeches and Writings
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
8
|
Article (Law Library Journal, 1942) and other writings
|
|
|
Speeches
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
9
|
1935-1944
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
10
|
1945-1949
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
11
|
1950-1952
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
1-2
|
On citizenship
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
3
|
On the courts and the law
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
4
|
On ethics
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
5
|
On government
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
6-7
|
On human affairs
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
8
|
On law and poetry
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
9
|
On politics
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
10
|
On the Supreme Court
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
11
|
Commemorative
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
12
|
Political
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
13
|
Testimonials by Fairchild
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
14
|
Testimonials to Fairchild
|
|
|
Box
3
Folder
15
|
To organizations
|
|
|
Series: Photographs
|
|
|
Box
1
Item
1
|
Wisconsin Circuit Judges, 1915 December
|
|
|
Box
1
Item
2
|
Fairchild's birthday, 1934 April 24
|
|
|
Box
1
Item
3
|
Fairchild, Calvin Coolidge, August C. Backus, “fishing trip,” circa 1922-1923
|
|
|
Box
1
Item
4-7
|
Supreme Court of Wisconsin, 1950-1956, 1962
|
|
|
