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.
