The Andersons at Bawlf, Alberta, Canada (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 Week 32 theme: "Wide Open Spaces")

My maternal great great grandfather Israel Anderson (1829-1910) spent a lifetime searching for wide open spaces. Born in 1829  and raised in Laxarby, Västra Götaland, Sweden, 3 miles from the nearest town, he moved to Norway as a young man to work on a farm there. He married farmer's daughter Johanna Gundersdatter Opsahl and moved to America in 1856 with wife and their first child, my great grandfather Anders (Andrew) Anderson. 

Israel and Johanna went on to have the following children: Andrew b 1855, Sophia b. abt. 1856, Ida b. 1858, Gunelius b. 1862, Olava b. 1864, Annetta b. 1868, John b. 1868, Betsy b. abt. 1870 and Carl Gustaf b. 1873. Johanna died in 1900.  

Over the years, the call of its wide open spaces took Israel and family to several newly developing areas on the American frontier. After first settling in Decatur, WI, they moved on to Northwood County, Iowa and then to Grafton, Dakota Territories, traveling by train and covered wagon. In 1901 son Carl Gustaf moved across the border to homestead in Manitoba. In 1902 son Gunelius moved his family to Canada as well, settling in what became the Bawlf area of what was then the North-West Territories.  In 1903 Israel himself emigrated for a third and final time to join Gunelius in the Bawlf area. He was a widower in his mid-70s.

Alberta was not even yet a province when Israel arrived. In 1903 the land was still part of the North-West Territories, and, of course, before that had been part of the truly wide open spaces occupied by the western First Nations peoples. At noon on 1 September 1905 Alberta became a Province of Canada. Israel had been there for a couple of years by this time.

Google Earth view of Bawlf area - showing the present-day checkerboard of fields that were wide open spaces when the Andersons arrived

The Village of Bawlf was established in the vast Canadian prairies in 1905, the same year that Alberta became a province. Named for Nicholas Bawlf, president of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange, the town came into being alongside the new railroad. Farming and shipping grain were its raison d'être.

Son Gunelius "G.I."  had moved there the preceding year with his family. The following is from a letter dated 17 May 1977 from Ernie and Esther Anderson to R.W. "Bob" Anderson, based on their recollections of  comments made by Gunelius's son Lawrence Anderson: 

"G.I. left Edinburg, N.D., where he owned a hotel, in 1902 and moved to Alberta. Andrew and John came up two years later and bought a half section beside the homestead. Lawrence was saved land, proved it up and got it at age 21. The railroad came in 1906. Israel homesteaded near his sons' farms and was required to spend a few months each year on his homestead, so he had a house on skids that he pulled over to the land in summer and then back to the sons in the winter.    Lawrence said they lived in 2 tents when they arrive in Daysland and lived in them until three weeks before Christmas when their house was finally ready for occupancy. It was bitterly cold, he remembers."

The 1906 census of Alberta shows Gunelius at section 8-45-17-W4M, his sons Emil at 10-45-17-W4M and Lawrence at 30-44-16-W4M. Another brother, John Anderson, had homesteaded at Bawlf just east of his father at NE36-44-17 W4M.

Homestead application of Israel Anderson

Sadly, on 7 March 1910, at age 80, Israel died before proving up his homestead application. 

1910 Post Card from Gunelius Anderson advising sister Sophia of Israel's death

Decades ago my uncle Bob Anderson and his son visited the rural Lutheran cemetery near Bawlf  where Israel is buried. A few years after this, while attending a kids' hockey tournament at nearby Daysland, my husband and I also paid Israel's gravesite a visit.

Two of His Male Anderson descendants visit Israel's burial location 

In 1998, in response to my letter to the Village of Bawlf, local resident and historical record-keeper Lil Bohmer sent me a considerable amount of information based on local knowledge of the family. Lil was a member of the same Bawlf Lutheran Church as the Andersons and was the record-keeper for the cemetery. She provided the burial locations for Israel as well as for Gunelius, his wife Sophia, their daughter Gina Reesor (1891-1928), son Emil (1884-1950) and son Alfred (1886-1954).

Lil went on to say: 

I found in the Daysland History book the enclosed information about Kenneth and Aleda Anderson. Also in the book were copies of maps showing land owners in the early 1900s. Another son of Gunelius and Sophia farmed north of Ohaton. He was known as Ike but a gentleman who knew him said he thought his given name was Israel - after his grandfather. The other son Lawrence, who farmed with Alfred later lived in Daysland. I found several people who remembered Gunelius and family but no one is left who would remember Israel. The house that the Andersons built on their farm was considered a beautiful place. Their neighbours and church friends were all there for Open House when it was completed. A few years ago that house was moved into Daysland to be a neat looking place yet. It was a 2 story. The fact that it had a kitchen nook and a dining room had impressed everyone. 

Israel's grandsons Clarence and Ingwald (sons of Andrew) homesteaded in the Lancer area of Saskatchewan, Canada a few years later. The wide open spaces of the Canadian prairies did not suit everyone. Some of the sons or their descendants ended up moving back south of the 49th parallel. The current crop of Andersons inhabiting Canada's wide open spaces primarily descend through the Israel/Andrew/Ingwald line. 

3 of Israel's sons backed by their sons about 1915: lower left my great grandfather Andrew Anderson in front of his son Clarence, lower centre Gunelius in front of his son Emil and lower right John in front of his son Victor. The picture was taken after Victor returned from fighting in World War I

Grace Fairbanks (1663-1689) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 7) Theme: "Favourite Discovery"

Exploring family history for the past 23 years has led to many favourite discoveries. For at least a brief moment, each new discovery is my favourite! Recalling those early days of researching my family tree reminds me of the urgent sense of curiosity I had about the name "Grace Fairbank" hand-printed by my Uncle Bob as part of the family tree he had made for the family.

R.W. Anderson 1970s compiled Bullen Family Tree

Although 1997 was early days for the internet, simple searches could yield nuggets of genealogical information. My first searches were for John Bullen and Mary Morse in early New England, but that soon led me to see what I could learn about their children. I was particularly intrigued by the women who seemed to just marry into the family by dropping from the skies with no ancestral backgrounds of their own. Grace was wife to John and Mary (Morse) Bullen's son Ephraim Bullen (1653-1694) and mother to my ancestor John Bullen (1687-1757). She is my 7X great grandmother. 

There were some tantalizing online hints that perhaps our Grace was Grace Fairbanks, part of the family associated with the Fairbanks House. There was a fascinating description of some of the supposed exploits of Jonas Fairbanks who might be Grace's father.

Fairbanks House, Dedham MA
Photographed in 1999

This was before the days where sites like Familysearch and Ancestry provided digitized original source records. There were message boards and one early site called Genserv. As I recall, by providing them with your family tree file for use on the site, you were allowed a specified number of searches each hour or day. Often this was not enough and the results that came back were only as good as the uploaded family trees provided by other users. Frustratingly, many searches came back showing that Jonas Fairbanks and his wife Lydia Prescott did have a daughter named Grace Fairbanks who was born 15 September 1663 in Lancaster, Massachusetts. But there was no information on any marriage or children, where she lived out her life or when she died. My frustration seemed to go on for months, although I'm sure it was probably only a matter of days before enough documentation was found to convince me that our Grace was indeed Grace Fairbanks, daughter of Jonas Fairbanks and granddaughter of immigrants Jonathan and Grace (Smith) Fairbanks who had erected Fairbanks House. 

Grace was just 12 when her father and brother were killed during King Philip's War. Being in the middle of a pack of eight children in the now fatherless family no doubt meant she was called upon to help with her younger siblings. Fortunately, widowed mother Lydia's remarriage within a couple of years provided more security for the family.

Bullen Saward Bullard House
Sherborn Massachusetts
Photo taken 1999
(probably the home built by Ephaim and Grace Bullen)

At 16 Grace married Ephraim Bullen. They built their home on a beautiful hill overlooking rolling meadows and woods on Brush Hill Road at Sherborn, MA. At 17 she gave birth to daughter Mary. Sons Ephraim and John Bullen (my 6X great grandfather) followed over the next few years. Life seemed to be going well for the young family until the birth of her fourth child, a daughter (also named Grace), on 7 August 1689. Complications of childbirth are no doubt the cause of her death just a few days later at only 25 years of age. Baby Grace survived her mother by just 10 days.

At one time it had been reported that her gravestone was preserved in a stone wall in Sherborn, MA and read:  "Here lies Ye Body/ of Grace/ Bullen - Who/ Died August 11th/ 1689 in Ye 26th Year of Her/ Age." When we visited Sherborn in 1999, the local historian said she had been unable to locate this stone, but that it was probably located at the Brush Hill Road property.

The satisfaction of making this early discovery of Grace's family can largely be blamed for my ongoing obsession with family history.

Samuel Bullen (c.1622-1692) (52 Ancestors Week 31) Theme: "Easy"

Easy? Yes, it was all far too easy. You never really think before hitting "enter" that one innocent internet search could lead to a life-changing obsession with family history. But that's how it happened.

My uncle Robert W. Anderson had researched and put together a family history of my mother's side of the family back in the 1970's. Every so often I would take a look at it and wonder what names preceded the earliest ancestors that he had found, namely my 8X great grandparents Samuel Bullen and his wife Mary Morse who were in New England in the 1600's. Once while browsing through the stacks in the Calgary Public Library in the mid 1980's I had come upon a book entitled "New England Marriages Prior to 1700" and even found the entry for their marriage on the 10th of August 1641 at Dedham/Medfield.

Sawin - Bullen - Bullard Home, Sherborn, MA
Probably built by Samuel Bullen or son Ephraim, late 1600's
Photo taken 1999

No further developments occurred until June of 1997 when I performed that seemingly innocuous internet search for "Samuel Bullen" "Mary Morse" probably on either AltaVista or Yahoo (yes, my younger friends, there were search engines before Google). The results came tumbling onto my screen faster than I was able to open and read them. So much information! So easy.

New England ancestors are perhaps the easiest of all to research. Records in Plymouth Colony were kept quite meticulously in the early days. It is far easier to find records pertaining to my New England ancestors in the 1600's than it is to find those pertaining to later ancestors in the 1800's in places like Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota or Pennsylvania. And, even though my Scandinavian ancestors came from societies with excellent records, the language and handwriting styles have made those significantly less easy to research.

What I was easily able to learn about Samuel Bullen:

• Born in England and came to Watertown near Boston in 1636
• In Dedham, MA by 1639 where he was one of the signers of the Dedham Compact and took the freeman's oath in 1641
• Married Mary Morse, daughter of Samuel Morse and Elizabeth Jasper 10 August 1641

Marriage record for Samuel and Mary, 1641

• Samuel and Mary had a family of 10 children born between 1642 and 1664 including my 7X great grandfather Ephraim Bullen (1653-1694)
• Owned a house in Dedham by 1646
• One of the 13 original settlers of Medfield, MA when it was established in 1651

Medfield, Massachusetts

• Named as one of those in charge of laying out the line between Dedham and Medfield, laying out highways and house-lots
• His Medfield lot was 10 acres abutting on the waste lands to the south-east, north-east and north-west and to a brook (probably Nantasket Brook) on the south-west
• A portion of the valuation of the town of Medfield for 1652 found on page 55 of Tilden's book lists the following for Samuel Bullin (his name and possessions all spelled as in the original):
• 7 persons . . . . . 70   0   0
• House . . . . . . . .20   0   0
• Brok land . . . . . 36   0   0
• 5 ac unbrok  . . . 7    10  0
• 2 oxen . . . . . . . .14   0   0
• 2 cowes . . . . . . .12   0   0
• 1 3 yearling . . . . . .5   0  0
• 2 2 yearling   . . . . .7   0  0
• 2 yerling . . . . . . . . 2   0  0
• 2 swine . . . . . . . . .2   0   0
•                           175   10  0
• Tilden says that by 1657 the Medfield meeting-house was complete and "Brother Bullen had 2s. 6d. for bringing it up, also 5s. 8d. for drawing timber and seats."

• In 1659 he received a lot of 126 acres in Medfield
• When his buildings were burned by the Indians during King Philip's War, he took his family to Sherborn to live near Mary's brother Daniel Morse.
• While at Sherborn, he was a tenant on Captain Hull's farm and had land assigned to him west of the common and it is thought that he may have built the Brush Hill Road house shown above at that time (son Ephraim had built a house nearby).

A volunteer at the local historical society thought that this house might have
 been the one where Samuel and his family lived when they came to Sherborn
Photo taken 1999

• Upon his return to Medfield, he rebuilt his home and was one of the Selectmen there in 1682
• Chosen Deacon prior to 1689
• Died 16 January 1692 at Medfield and was buried there at Vine Lake Cemetery
• Widow Mary died less than a month later on Valentine's Day.

Vine Lake Cemetery in Medfield, MA
Photo taken 1999

Original stone reads: "Samuel Bullen husband to Mary Bullen
dyed aged 70 Jan 16 1691/2"
Photo courtesy Bill Boyington, Findagrave.com

Memorial marker erected by descendants a century after his death:
"In memory of Dean. Samuel Bullen who died Janry. 16th 1692. Aged 70 years.
He was the First European who Setled in this Town with a family."
(Almost illegible when this photo was taken in 1999)

Not so Easy

There's always a "but", isn't there? Before he is recorded in Watertown in 1636, Samuel remains a mystery. No record can be found for his arrival in America on any particular ship. No record can be found that definitively connects him to parents or a place of birth in England. There has been much speculation over the years on message boards scattered on the internet, but none of it has been proven. Some theories and tantalizing hints:

• A Samuel Bullen, christened in 1618 is listed in IGI records for Carleton-rode, Norfolk, England, son of John Bullen
• Given the common naming practices of the time (where the grandparents' first names were generally adopted for the first children), the fact that Samuel and Mary named the first four of their children Samuel, Mary, Elizabeth and John might indicate that Samuel's father was probably named either Samuel or John (since Mary's father was also called Samuel, the first-born son might have been named for him rather than for either his father or paternal grandfather). Possibly Samuel's mother's name was Mary if the first-born daughter was named for Samuel's mother rather than for his wife; the second daughter was named Elizabeth which was Mary's mother's name. Probably we are looking for Samuel's parents to be named Mary and either Samuel or John Bullen.
• In an email to me dated 24 December 1999, Nic Burns favoured the prospect that Samuel Bullen was from Hoxne, Suffolk which borders Stradbroke, Suffolk. Nic had found a book entitled "Able Men of Suffolk, 1638" in which he found a Samuel Bullen listed along with John Bullen and John Bollen in Hoxne, along with the families of many of the Dedham, Massachusetts settlers. Nic believes that Samuel may have known Mary Morse's Suffolk family in England before emigrating. Nic also had located an index of Suffolk wills that indicated a record for a "Bolen, John, the elder, tailor, Stradbroke, 1661 R68/218, W91/39." (I like Nic's theory since my husband was born in Suffolk and we have a clock that was built in Stradbroke in the late 1700's. We also spent some time in the pub there between a family wedding and reception in the vicinity in 1994.)
• A family tree located at familysearch.org in April of 2013 has Samuel's parents listed as Samuel Bullen b. 1590 and Mary Jeremy or Jermy or Jermyn born 1593. Possible location for this family is given as Redgrave, Suffolk, which would certainly tie in with the Morse family (see my blog post on Mary Morse's grandfather Thomas Morse). Unfortunately no source information was given for this.
• The origin of the name Bullen (variations abound including Boleyn, Bullin, Bullion, Bullan, Bolen, Bolland) is French with the original English holder of that surname coming from Boulogne in France. 
• One bit of family lore that creeps into every discussion of Samuel's origins is his possible family connection to Anne Boleyn (sometimes spelled Bullen), the unfortunate second wife of King Henry VIII. Since most of Anne's close family were executed at about the same time as she was beheaded, it is unlikely that any connection is a particularly close one. Possibly some Boleyn/Bullen cousin of Anne's family was an ancestor of Samuel's. (It is worth remembering that, although the story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn seems historically remote, it occurred in the 1530's, less than a century before Samuel's birth.) No likely connection has ever been found.

Sources:

• Tilden, William S., "History of the Town of Medfield Massachusetts 1650-1886", Boston: Geo. H. Ellis, Publisher, 1887
• Ancestry.com, "Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988"  for Samuell Bullin (Provo, UT, USA)
• Vital Records of Medfield, Massachusetts to the Year 1850; Boston, 1903
• Todd, Charles E., "Bullen Family", privately prepared and emailed 24 August 1997
• Flynn, Diane Wilson, "Descendants of Deacon Samuel Bullen" family tree provided 4 July 1999
• Gosnold, Flora Bullen compiler, "Genealogy and Work of Rev. Joseph Bullen, Jr., Some Associated Families", 1968, copy provided by Diane Flynn
• "Genealogical Dictionary of New England Settlers Results.htm" obtained online 09/02/99
• Train, May Philips, "Samuel Bullen and Some of his Descendants", Privately printed 1941

Jonas Fairbanks (1625-1676) Wearing Great Boots Contrary to the Law (52 Ancestors Week 27) Theme: "Independence"

Having already written about two ancestors who fought for American independence (see John Bullen and Henry Vought stories), this week's suggested theme of "Independence" will be largely ignored as I strike off on my own independent path. My 8X great grandfather Jonas Fairbanks also showed an independent streak.

Jonas was the third son of immigrants Jonathan Fairbanks and his wife Grace Smith. He was born early in 1625 and baptised at Halifax, Yorkshire, England on 06 March 1625. His early years were probably comfortable ones with his father a reasonably well-off wool merchant. Most likely his parents were religious dissidents and that may well have been the cause of their move to New England when Jonas was still a boy.

Growing up in the Fairbanks House at Dedham, Massachusetts, must have been quite a happy time for Jonas and his 7 siblings. This was a new town and there would have been many other children with whom to play. No doubt the education that he had started to receive in England would have been continued in the new land and he would have received as good an education as was available in Dedham at the time. A church and a school were always established along with the settlement of all these New England towns.

Jonas's boyhood home in Dedham, Massachusetts

One of the stories that I cherish about Jonas involves his running afoul of the sumptuary laws when he was about 22 years old. Although he was making his way as both a carpenter and a farmer, he was fined a few shillings for wearing great boots before his estate amounted to more than 200 pounds. I love the image of young Jonas strutting about Dedham in his great boots! Apparently he got off without paying the fine because the law wasn't actually in effect at the time he was seen wearing the boots. (Presumably he hid them away in Fairbanks House until his estate was large enough to permit him to legally wear them again.)

By the time Jonas entered manhood and planned to start his own life with his own family, most of the lands around Dedham had been claimed and there was a push for expansion farther into the wilderness. Jonas moved to western Massachusetts as one of the original settlers of Lancaster in 1657. It has been said that he was a strong man, both in his mental and physical abilities.

He subscribed to the Lancaster town laws and orders on the 7th day of the 2nd month of 1658/59. Shortly after arriving in Lancaster, Jonas married Lydia Prescott who had moved there with her parents John Prescott and Mary Platts. Lydia had been born in Watertown, MA on 15 August 1641 and would have been just under 17 years of age when she married Jonas on 28 May 1658. Jonas would have been 23. This was the first marriage to occur in Lancaster. The young couple would go on to have numerous children including Mary, Joshua, Grace (my 7X great grandmother, born 15 November 1663 in Dedham), Jonathan, Hazadiah, Jabez and Jonas Jr.

The westward migration of settlers had not gone unnoticed by the native population. At first friendly and welcoming, they must have become concerned when it became apparent that the newcomers were expanding their communities farther into traditional Wampanoag territory. In 1675, when three American Indians were hanged in Plymouth Colony for the murder of a Christian member of his Wampanoag tribe, Chief Metacom (more commonly known by his English name King Philip) launched assaults on more than half the towns in New England. This went on until 1678 and is generally called "King Philip's War". Considering the population at the time, it could well be considered the deadliest war during the European settlement of North America. The colonial population was decimated with about 10% of the men killed, a dozen towns destroyed, crops ruined, the economy left in tatters.

Jonas Fairbanks was a victim of the Indian massacre at Lancaster of 10 February 1676 along with his 15 year-old son Joshua. It is not known where they are buried, but many of the Fairbanks and Prescott family members are buried in the beautifully mysterious Old Burying Ground at Lancaster, Massachusetts.

Old Burying Ground at Lancaster; memorial to Jonas's father-in-law John Prescott on far left

Another Jonas Fairbanks buried at Lancaster

Sources:

• Clemens, William Montgomery, "Marriage Records Before 1699", Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1967
• Fairbanks, Jonathan Leo, "An Old Family Burial Site" accessed 21 June 2015 at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~walkersj/Jonathanfairbanks1666.html
• Fairbanks, Lorenzo Sayles, "Genealogy of the Fairbanks Family in America 1633-1897", Fairbanks Family in America, Incorporated, 1991 based on an edition printed for the author by the American Printing and Engraving Company, 1897
• Nourse, Henry, "Birth, Marriage and Death Register, Church Records and Epitaphs of Lancaster, Massachusetts 1643-1850", Lancaster 1890
• Nourse, Henry, "Early Records of Lancaster 1643-1725", Lancaster 1884 

Jonathan Fairbanks (c1595-1668) (52 Ancestors Week 25) Theme: "The Old Homestead"

There are many "old homesteads" in my family history, but none in North America older than the Fairbanks Homestead of my 9X great grandparents Jonathan Fairbanks and his wife Grace Smith. Fairbanks House in Dedham, MA (just outside Boston) is an American National Historic Landmark and listed on the National List of Historic Places.  Built in about 1637-1641, it is thought to be the oldest standing timber structure in North America. Some say it is also one of the most haunted houses in America!

Fairbanks House, Dedham, MA - East Front
Photo taken 11 May 1999

Yorkshire Family Origins

Jonathan and Grace came from near Halifax, West Riding, Yorkshire. Jonathan was born about 1595 to George Fairbanks and his wife Mary Farrar. 

Jonathan and Grace were married at Halifax on 20 May 1617 and had a family of six children all born in England, including my 8X great grandfather Jonas Fairbanks born there 6 March 1624. Jonathan was a wool merchant and appears to have been an educated middle-class man.

The family name has been spelled a variety of ways: Fayerbanke, ffairbanke, Fairbanck, Fairbanke, Fairbank and Fairbanks (and probably numerous other variations). Most often in the early days in New England it was spelled Fayerbank or Fairbank.

Life in America

Jonathan and Grace packed up their children and headed to America some time between 1633 and 1636. There are differing views on the year of their arrival and ship's name. It is said that they arrived in the Boston area of New England with a ship's timber (for the main beam in his house), English oak, furniture, china and linens, tiles and windows. It was clear that Jonathan had plans and the wherewithal to build his family a comfortable home in the new world. Why they chose to make this trip after setting up their family in Yorkshire is more difficult to comprehend. Although the move may have been motivated by the desire for freedom of religious expression, it might have been a sense of adventure and a desire to start afresh in a challenging new land.

Fairbanks House in 1999

The town of Dedham was established in the summer of 1636 with the Dedham Covenant, essentially an agreement among the 22 subscribers as to future management of the town. (This was a new land and the immigrants were cognizant of the importance of establishing a basic framework for how their society would be run.) It appears that Jonathan arrived a bit later and was accepted and subscribed his name to the Dedham Covenant at the time of the First Assembly held there on 23 March 1637. (His sons would sign later when they came of age.)  Jonathan had been granted at least 12 acres of land including some swamp land upon his arrival and records over the years show additions to his land holdings.

As there were no roads when the Fairbanks family arrived, they undoubtedly came up the Charles River with all the supplies for their new home. The original house had four rooms: a kitchen, parlour and two bed chambers on the second story. There was a massive chimney with over 40,000 bricks (said to have come from England as ballast) held together with clay from the Charles River. Low ceilings helped keep the house warm; although we think of these ceilings as too low for comfort, the average height of men in those days was about 5 ft 1 inch - 5 ft 5 inches tall and women about five inches shorter. The roof was originally thatched in the English tradition. Many additions were made over the years and the number of rooms increased to 12.

One interesting record indicates that Jonathan (at least for awhile!) had a mind of his own when it came to religion. Plymouth Colony was an extremely religious settlement and settlers were expected to follow the accepted Puritan religion. The books of the Dedham First Church contain this record (quoted from page 12 of "The Fairbanks Family in America"):

"Jonathan Fairebanke notwithstanding he had long stood off from' ye church upon some scruples about publike p'fession of faith & ye covenant yet after divers loving conferences with him; he made such a declaration of his faith & conv'sion to god & p'fession of subjection to ye ordinances of Xt in this X yt he was readily & gladly received by ye whole church: 14d 6m 1646."

One can only assume that life in the community was more harmonious for Jonathan after this public conversion.

Fairbanks House in 1999

He executed his will on 4 June 1668 and died later that year, leaving his entire movable estate (personal property) to his wife Grace. Based on some of the items listed in his will, it is likely that Jonathan was a wood turner. Small bequests were made to several children and grandchildren with the house and lands being bequeathed to his eldest son John in accordance with the usual English practice of primogeniture.

Subsequent History of the Fairbanks Homestead

The house was continuously owned and occupied by members of the Fairbanks family for most of its existence. The last of the family tenants was Rebecca Fairbanks who was living in the house when it was struck by lightning and considerably damaged. (There are two different dates given for this occurrence - 1892 or 1902.) Rebecca escaped with a severe shock but her dog had been lying under her bed and was killed. Rebecca moved into Boston as a result and for the first time the house was occupied by someone else but a few months later Rebecca once more moved back in to the old family homestead. A fund for the preservation of the house was established in 1897 and at that time, an article in the local "Transcript" newspaper said that Rebecca had been forced to sell the house out of the family two years earlier. Once the funds were provided, she was permitted to live in the house again. Today the house is owned and operated by The Fairbanks Family in America, a non-profit member-based group to which I belonged for a period of time. The charming old house is probably in very safe hands with this huge and dedicated group of descendants of Jonathan and Grace who claim this as their ancestral homestead.

Sources:

• Dedham Historical Register, Volume 2 published by the Dedham Historical Society 1891, accessed at Google Books 4 June 2015
• Fairbanks, Lorenzo Sayles, A.M. "Genealogy of the Fairbanks Family in America", Third Edition printed by Fairbanks Family in America, Incorporated 1991 based on edition printed for the author by the American Printing and Engraving Company, 1897 
• "The Fairbanks House", Fairbanks Family in America, Inc., Dedham, Massachusetts, 1976 
• Wikipedia article on Dedham, Massachusetts History