Captain Fairbanks Church came to Ohio around 1820 from Connecticut. He and Captain Augustus Jones established shipyards at Lorain and Huron and began building innovative vessels that were better at sailing and could carry large tonage. Captain Church had a prolific shipbuilding career in Huron. He built steamers, including the DeWitt Clinton and Great Western, and the 2-mast brig, Henry Clay. Captain Church died in 1843 at the age of 52.
The Great Western: http://drc.library.bgsu.edu/
I know this is a very old post; however, if you are still active in historical research & have any information regarding Fairbanks Church you are willing to share, I would appreciate it. Fairbanks Church was my 3rd great grandfather. As his daughters were very young when he died, there is little information about him within the family. I am currently writing a family history & would love to find out as much as I can about him.
ReplyDeleteBest regards,
Sandy Garner
Just to clarify a statement made by the historic homes researcher: Capt. Church and Capt. Jones probably weren't directly affiliated in their shipyard businesses (despite some later historians making that assertion). Incidentally, although Capt. Jones built his first ship near present-day Lorain Ohio; but his true shipyard was actually in Sandusky City (as verified in the early newspaper items, there). It was Jones' sons who shortly later established the Jones shipyard in present-day Lorain City.
ReplyDeleteSandy: there is a grave listed for Capt. Fairbanks Church, on the findagrave website, but it says there is currently no existing headstone for him. but you might try to contact the person who created that listing, to find out what their source was. It looks like their user-name is Anonymous F-A-G ( which means findagrave). They also have some new revelations about the Cedar Point amusement park, on their profile there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reply. I have been able to find quite a lot of useful information about him, still searching!
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