Willard C. Fairchild (abt. 1834 - 1914)

Born about 1834 in Westville, Franklin, New York, United States

Died 9 Oct 1914 at about age 80 in Westville, Franklin, New York, United States

Biography

Willard was born in Westville, New York, the eldest child of Samuel and Roxanna (Cummings) Fairchild. He lived in New York in 1850, and by 1855 was a boarder in Medford, Massachusetts, where he worked as an ostler.^[1]

He was a resident of Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1859, when he married Florence Morris, also of Charlestown, daughter of William and Julia Morris.^[2]

Willard was a 28 year old teamster and resident of Somerville, Massachusetts, when he enlisted to serve in the Civil War, on August 12, 1862. He mustered the same day as a private in Company E of the 39th Mass. Infantry. He was slightly wounded in May of 1864, and wounded again during battle on August 18, 1864.^[3] He was transferred to Company H of the 3rd Regiment, Veteran Reserve Corps, on January 13, 1864. He was finally discharged on August 10, 1865.^[4]

After the war, he and his wife resided in Somerville (1870) and later Fitchburg, Massachusetts.^[5] He was a teamster and expressman. He was also a member of the G.A.R. Edwin V. Sumner Post #19 in Fitchburg.

One pension record gives his date of death as January 14, 1917.^[6] However, a different pension index shows that his widow filed for a pension from New York on November 5, 1914.^[7] The New York State Death Index shows that the latter source is correct. He died in Westville in 1914.^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ "Massachusetts State Census, 1855," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQW1-Z4F : 11 March 2018), Willard Fairchild in household of Amos Hemphill, Medford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States
2. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHXD-CMV : 10 November 2020), Mr William C Fairchild, 22 Feb 1859
3. ↑ Roe, Alfred S., The Thirty-Ninth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, 1862-1865, published 1914, p. 393
4. ↑ The American Civil War Research Database", accessed 30 Dec 2020, Willard C. Fairchild
5. ↑ "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9B3-1NG : accessed 31 December 2020), William C Fairchild, Lunenburg Town, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
6. ↑ "United States Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K64C-LZF : 20 August 2019), Willard C Fairchild, 1907-1933
7. ↑ "United States General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KDYJ-D5R : 24 November 2020), Willard C Fairchild, 1885.
8. ↑ "New York, State Death Index, 1880-1956", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGR2-VH78 : 20 October 2019), Willard Fairchild, 1914.

• "United States Census of Union Veterans and Widows of the Civil War, 1890," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8SK-PN3 : 11 March 2018), Willard C Fairchild, 1890
• Company E, 39th Mass. Infantry, in the Civil War, Historic Leaves, Somerville Historical Society, Vol. 7, p. 14: "Fairchild, Willard C., transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps some time in 1863; died in the vicinity of Worcester more than ten years ago."