Background
Fairchild was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. His father was Grandison Fairchild.
Fairchild was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. His father was Grandison Fairchild.
He graduated in 1838 and continued in the theological course for three years.
When he was a child his family moved to northeast Ohio. He served as a pastor in Ohio for 22 years. Berea was a revolutionary college that educated both black and white men and women.
Fairchild strongly supported coeducation and the education of blacks.
During Fairchild"s tenure as president, the physical plant and student body were expanded. Blacks remained about half of the student body.
After his death, this brother, George, who had been president of Kansas State, came to Berea as a professor of English and vice president Fairchild"s son Charles Grandison Fairchild became a distinguished educator and college president as well.
Other children included:
Edward Henry
Julia Marie
Arthur Babbitt
Eugene Plumb
"Fairchild, Edward Henry." The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1935).
A member of the antislavery movement, Fairchild was offered the presidency of Berea College in Berea, Kentucky.