Title: James Harris Fairchild Presidential Papers, 1771-1926

ID: RG 2/003

Extent: 15.0 Linear Feet

Predominant Dates: 1819-1926

James Harris Fairchild (1817-1902), teacher and theologian, served as third President of Oberlin College with which he was associated from its beginnings and for sixty-eight years thereafter. He was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts to Grandison (1792-1890) and Nancy (Harris) Fairchild (1795-1875). The family joined the westward current of migration in 1818, settling in the town of Brownhelm in the Western Reserve of Northern Ohio, nine miles from Oberlin. At the age of fourteen, Fairchild attended the newly opened high school in Elyria, and at seventeen, he entered the first freshman class at Oberlin Collegiate Institute (as Oberlin College was known until 1850). Fairchild graduated from the College Department in 1838 and entered the graduate Theological Department, completing the theological course in 1841. He was married November 29, 1841 at Minden, Louisiana to Mary Fletcher Kellogg (1817-1890), one of the first women to enroll in the College course in 1837. Six girls and two boys were born to the Fairchilds, all but one of whom attended Oberlin.

During his years in the Theological Department, Fairchild served as Tutor in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew for the College Department (1839-1842), becoming Professor of Languages in 1842. In 1847, he was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and in 1858, he was named to the chair of Systematic Theology and Moral Philosophy. During Charles Grandison Finney’s tenure as President (1851-1866), Fairchild assumed most of the administrative duties of the office. Upon Finney’s resignation in 1866, Fairchild, then chairman of the faculty, was elected President. During his twenty-three year tenure as President, the college’s assets increased to a value of one million dollars, and its faculty grew from ten to twenty-three professors. Through Fairchild’s personal example and theological bent, Oberlin’s reputation evolved away from that of the Finney-inspired reformist enclave towards the mainstream. At Oberlin, Fairchild encouraged a respect for pure reason and expressed his belief in the power of education to shape human character. Although he supported the education of women and their right to the vote, he nevertheless wrote in an 1870 article, “Woman’s Right to the Ballot,” that the ballot had been “withheld from woman because the work of government seemed incompatible with the womanly character and work,” adding, “If a woman chooses to feel dishonored by the arrangement, it is merely a matter of her own interpretation.” His anti-slavery stance is well known, particularly after he provided the refuge of his own garret to the fugitive slave, John Price, in 1858. In questions of reform, Fairchild was a moderate.

In 1870 and 1871, President Fairchild traveled in Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land. In 1884, he visited California and Hawaii. Fairchild resigned the presidency in 1889 and retired as Professor of Theology in 1898, but he continued to teach as Professor Emeritus until 1902. He served as a member of the Prudential Committee from 1847 to 1901, as a member of the Board of Trustees from 1889 to 1901, and, during the last year of his life, was prevailed upon to continue his service as an honorary member of the Board.

In addition to numerous essays, commencement addresses, and sermons, Fairchild published several books, including Moral Philosophy or the Science of Obligation (1869) and Elements of Theology, Natural and Revealed (1892). His pamphlet, “Coeducation of the Sexes,” appeared in the annual report of the United States Commissioner of 1867. Fairchild’s Oberlin, the Colony and the College (1883) and his inaugural address published in 1866, “Educational Arrangements and College Life at Oberlin,” remain major sources for the study of early Oberlin history.

Fairchild’s last years in Oberlin were occupied with writing, teaching, and lending counsel to the college with which he had become wholly identified over more than six decades; yet, he was not an unbroken man. Grief was a constant companion for Fairchild, who had endured the untimely deaths of six of his eight children: Emma Frances (d. 1859), Alice Cowles (d.1876), Grace Augusta (d. 1893), George Hornell (d. 1894), Mary Fletcher (d. 1897), and Catherine Cooley (d.1902). Just one month after losing daughter Catherine, Fairchild himself died in Oberlin on March 19, 1902, at the age of 84.

Author: Valerie S. Komor, Roland M. Baumann

Forms of Material (links to similar genres)

Languages of Materials

Administrative Information

Acquired: 06/21/1968. Accession No: 48, 74, 84, 1977/2, 1999/007, 2001/94

Restrictions: Unrestricted. Fragile materials in Series II must be accessed on microfilm; see microfilm note.

Acquisition Note: The bulk of the Fairchild Papers, the calendared and uncalendared correspondence, was received by the Oberlin College Library under deed of gift from Mrs. Lucy Kenaston in 1904 and transferred to the College Archives in 1968. Also included in this gift were the diaries and portrait album. The Fairchild-Kellogg letters were given to the library by Donald Love in 1967. Fairchild’s meteorological records arrived in 1969, with other records, and his annual reports arrived in 1977 from the Oberlin College Secretary’s Office. The three volumes of transcripts of the Fairchild-Kellogg letters were given to the Oberlin College Library in 1961 by James Thome Fairchild and Dorothy Kellogg Fairchild Graham; they were transferred to the Archives from the Library’s Special Collections in 2001.

Related Materials: For letters by Fairchild to W.C. Cochran and references to Fairchild’s preaching, consult the papers of W.C. Cochran (30/8). The Oberlin College Archives holds the papers of Lucy Fletcher Kellogg (1793-1891), the mother of Mary Fletcher Kellogg. Berea College holds the papers of E.H. Fairchild (1815-1889), Fairchild’s brother and first Berea College President. See RG 21 for a ninety-nine year lease of Oberlin College land granted to James Henry Fairchild, 9 September 1852. RG 30/165 contains a map of Ban de la Roche, the parish of Jean Frederic Oberlin, which was drawn by Oberlin. This was presented to James H. Fairchild in 1871 by Oberlin’s grandson Dr. Witz.

Finding Aid Revisions: Processed by Valerie S. Komor, 27 August 1991. Revised 5 April 1995; 7 November 2001 by Melissa Gottwald; 2004-05 by Roland M. Baumann, Alice Culbert (OC 1958), and Tammy L. Martin; August 2012 by Anne Cuyler Salsich.

Collection Material Type: Official Records

Other Note:

Microfilm Note:

Two-thirds of the James H. Fairchild Papers have been microfilmed. The microfilm consists almost entirely of the calendared correspondence (1852-1903). Also on microfilm is uncalendared correspondence (1835-1870), which includes the Fairchild-Kellogg courtship letters (1838-1841) and Fairchild’s letters (1870-1871) describing his travels. Fairchild’s diaries (1870-1871, 1884) have been microfilmed as well. An unpublished guide to the microfilm is available in the archives.

Scope and Contents:

The papers (1771, 1819-1926) of James Harris Fairchild do not provide users a complete record of the Fairchild presidency, 1866-1889, or of the personal life of their creator. The body of documentation is instead a mix of personal and professional papers, the bulk of which consists of incoming correspondence (1852-1903). All but two boxes of this correspondence has been described at the item level in a six-volume calendar, plus an index, prepared by Susan F. Zearing in 1955-1956. The correspondence treats those subjects that Oberlin College officially represented, including support of coeducation, missions, black education, and opposition to secret societies and to the use by individuals of alcohol and tobacco. Many of Fairchild’s schoolmates and former pupils sought his counsel, and they communicated with him regarding the “Oberlin Enterprise.” Correspondents include Congregationalists William E. Barton, Sherlock Bristol, Frank Hugh Foster, Abel Hastings Ross, Judson Smith, Josiah Strong, and John M. Williams, and educators William S. Scarborough and Henry A. Schauffler. The family correspondence is extensive, although only a few letters exist of James H. Fairchild. Of interest among the uncalendared letters (1819-1900) is the correspondence between James Harris Fairchild and Mary Fletcher Kellogg during their courtship (1838-1841). The family reproduced the originals in a three-volume set in 1939.

The papers are divided into the following record series: I. Correspondence (Calendared); II. Correspondence (Uncalendared); III. Courtship Correspondence (typescript); IV. Miscellaneous Institutional Records Kept; V. Miscellaneous Non-Institutional Records Kept; VI. Teaching Files; VII. Travel Diaries; VIII. Writings by Fairchild; IX. Sermons; X. Miscellaneous Printed Writings by Fairchild; XI. Writings about Fairchild; XII. Photographs; and, XIII. Miscellaneous Fairchild Correspondence.

Series VIII. Miscellaneous Family Papers was added when additional Fairchild family materials were received from the Oberlin College Library in 2001. Within series, files are typically arranged alphabetically by type of material or chronologically. In the attached Inventory, volume is only indicated for more than one folder of material.

Included with Fairchild's professional and institutional records are several notebooks containing Fairchild's lecture notes for his courses in Moral Philosophy (1862), Theology (1881), and Natural Theology (1881), as well as a series of “Lakeside Lectures” on Scripture (1879, 1880) and lectures on evolution (1876), international law [1878], and painting (1878). The Annual Reports of President Fairchild (1867-1880) to the Board of Trustees, while incomplete, provide information about student health and discipline, curriculum changes, and conditions at the seminary with regard to its low enrollments and faculty shortage. The gap for the years 1881-1889 is filled by a bound volume of reports (1876-1893) in the Oberlin College Archives.

Fairchild’s scholarship is represented in these papers mainly by manuscript and typescript drafts of addresses, articles, and sermons, by printed pamphlets, and by newspaper articles, in the original and in photocopy. None of his books are contained in the collection, although Series VII does contain the manuscript draft of Oberlin, the Colony and the College (1883). Reminiscences about Fairchild, written mainly by former students, are housed with Fairchild’s own writings.

Fairchild’s activities outside of teaching and theological scholarship are evident here in his travel diaries (1870-1871) and in his precise meteorological observations made in Oberlin over a period of nine years (1849-1858). With the exception of the diaries (in Series III), these records are housed together with materials of a miscellaneous character in Series VI. Miscellaneous materials include circulars from various Congregational Church organizations, clippings, an emergency passport issued in 1909 to Mary Flagler Cowles (b. 1862, Lit. 1891), files relating to the Oberlin Agricultural and Horticultural Society (1838-1849), the Oberlin Evangelist Association (1845-1862), and the temperance movement in Oberlin (1881). Miscellaneous papers of a personal nature (1835-1900) are filed in Series II.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series I. Correspondence, 1852-1903, n.d. (Calendared) (7.2 l.f.)

The correspondence (largely incoming) of James Harris Fairchild is housed in Boxes 1-19 of this collection and calendared in six volumes (including index) prepared in 1955-1956 by Susan F. Zearing. In Boxes 1-18, correspondence is chronologically arranged; in Box 19, correspondence is alphabetically arranged by correspondent.

Series II. Correspondence, 1819-1900, n.d. (Uncalendared) (1.0 l.f.)

Includes a series of letters from James Fairchild to Mary Kellogg (1838-1841) and a series from Mary Kellogg to James Fairchild (1838-1841) written during their engagement. Fairchild’s letters describe his activities as a student in Oberlin’s Theological Department. These letters, together with a group of letters received by James H. Fairchild (1838-1864), are too fragile to handle and must be viewed either on microfilm, or patrons must use the bound volumes found in Series 8. In this three-volume set, some letters are not dated, others appear in abbreviated form (being edited down), and apparently two original letters were not included. Four letters appearing in the typescript form no longer exist in original form. Among the personal papers filed here is the will (1898) of James H. Fairchild. Files are arranged alphabetically by writer and chronologically thereunder.

Series III. Courtship Correspondence of James H. Fairchild and Mary Fletcher Kellogg (typescript), 1838-1841 [acc. 2001/94] (0.4 l.f.)

This series contains Fairchild Family materials including Mary Kellogg Fairchild’s autograph album (1835-1838) and a photograph album presented to Nancy Harris Fairchild on her golden wedding anniversary in November 1863. Also filed here is “Where Liberty Dwells: the letters of James Harris Fairchild and Mary Fletcher Kellogg from the Western Reserve [1838-41]” a three volume work edited by their son, James Thome Fairchild, and granddaughter Dorothy Kellogg Fairchild Graham (1939). See also above, series description for Series 2.

Series IV. Miscellaneous Institutional Records Kept by James H. Fairchild, ca. 1833-1840, 1854-1884 (0.4 l.f.)

Includes an incomplete run of President Fairchild’s Annual Reports (1867-1884); notebooks containing Fairchild’s lectures on theology, international law, and painting (1862-1882); and various date books and account books which include lists of subscribers to Oberlin College (ca. 1867) and to the Organ Fund (n.d.). Early faculty records (ca. 1833-1840) may have been collected by Fairchild while President for the purposes of historical research. Materials are arranged alphabetically by type.

Series V. Miscellaneous Non-Institutional Records Kept by James H. Fairchild, 1771-1909, 1926, n.d. (0.8 l.f.)

Contains detailed meteorological observations (1849-1858) made in Oberlin by Fairchild and Professor of Natural History (1849-1864) George N. Allen, which include data on atmospheric pressure, temperature, moisture, and sidereal and planetary movements; several ms. sermons collected by Fairchild (1771-1865), and three ms. letters to “the people of Oberlin” relating to temperance (1881). Two folders, marked “Folder 1” and “Folder 2” include miscellaneous papers such as passports, poems, sermons, and maps. Records are arranged alphabetically by type of material.

Series VI. Teaching Files of James H. Fairchild, 1862-1882, n.d. (0.6 l.f.)

Contains lecture notebooks in 14 volumes spanning 1862-82, academic grade sheets, miscellaneous teaching files, and a manuscript draft of regulations prohibiting pilfering by students, undated.

Series VII. Travel Diaries, 1870-71, 1884 (0.2 l.f.)

Diaries are arranged chronologically. Letters of introduction (1870), written for Fairchild prior to the European tour described in three of the diaries (1870-1871), are housed in Series 2, Box 21.

Series VIII. Writings by James H. Fairchild, 1852-1910, n.d. (2.6 l.f.)

Writings by Fairchild separated into manuscript and printed materials. These writings treat matters of theology, morals, historical Oberlin, and travel. Most ms. writings are undated. Writings about Fairchild include both typescript and printed essays by J.G.W. Cowles, Judson Smith, and C.J. Ryder, as well as one modern scholarly study (1966).

Series IX. Sermons, 1869, ca. 1870, 1874-75, 1877, 1880-83, 1885-89, n.d. (0.6 l.f.)

Sermons by James H. Fairchild are arranged in three subseries. Subseries 1. Old Testament Sermons and Subseries 2. New Testament Sermons are arranged by the order of the verses in the Bible on which they are based, and are undated. Series 3 contains sermons delivered at commencements, and are arranged in date order.

Series X. Miscellaneous Printed Writings by James H. Fairchild, 1852-1897 (0.2 l.f.)

These printed writings consist of newspaper articles and pamphlets of addresses of a much shorter nature than those contained in Series VIII.

Series XI. Writings about James H. Fairchild, 1883-1910, 1966, n.d. (0.2 l.f.)

Includes typescripts of undated tributes and an essay, as well as various printed writings and clippings.

Series XII. Photographs, 1835-1838, 1863, n.d. (0.4 l.f.)

Consists of one photograph of four of Fairchild’s daughters and an album containing fifty albumen portraits of the Fairchild Family. The pictures are arranged by family, with the children in each family following their parents. Some subjects are unidentified. (This album was formerly described as the one presented to Nancy Harris Fairchild on her golden wedding anniversary in November 1863; however, Nancy Fairchild’s album was received in accession 2001/94 and is filed in Series 8.)

Series XIII. Miscellaneous Fairchild Correspondence, 1881, 1887-1889 (#2004/077) (0.4 l.f.)

This recently added series contains a lot of 45 original handwritten letters and postcards, primarily consisting of correspondence (professional and personal) received by President James H. Fairchild, 1887-89. Also included are letters sent and received by other members of the Fairchild family.

Download Box / Folder List (pdf)