George Fabyan

George Fabyan (1867 – 1936) was a millionaire businessman who founded a private research laboratory. Fabyan's laboratory pioneered modern cryptography, though its initial findings, supporting Fabyan's belief that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays, were later disproven by the cryptographers who trained there.

Born in Boston to George and Isabella Fabyan, the second child and eldest son of five children, he left home at age 17. Eventually ending up in Chicago, he ran the Chicago office of his tycoon-father's textile business Bliss, Fabyan & Co. from 1895 on. Inheritance from Bliss, Fabyan & Co. provided the financial foundation from which he and his wife, Nelle, established their legacy.

Illinois Governor Richard Yates appointed George Fabyan to his military guard in 1901, giving him the honorary title of Colonel, by which he was generally later known.

In May 1909 Fabyan was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government for his service to same. Fabyan had spent some time in Japan before 1905, developing relations with Japanese government and business representatives. He also was appointed as a liaison to General Kuroki Tamemoto during the Russo-Japanese peace negotiations (Treaty of Portsmouth) held in Maine in 1905. Between 1907 and 1910, he served as a host for General Kuroki, Baron Komura, and Prince Fushimi during their visits to Chicago.

He and his wife developed a 300+ acre country estate in Geneva, Illinois, 40 miles west of Chicago, beginning with the purchase of 10 acres on the west bank of the Fox River. "Riverbank", as they named their estate, featured among other things, a Japanese Garden, private zoo, Roman-style swimming pool, gardens, grottoes, greenhouses, a farm and the research laboratory. They lived on their estate from 1908 to 1939 in a farmhouse remodeled by Frank Lloyd Wright, which they called the Fabyan Villa. This site also contained George's and Nelle's expansive private library and museum.

In 1914 Fabyan purchased and had moved a Dutch-style windmill built c. 1870 from its original farm site in York Center, IL to his estate. Known as the Fabyan Windmill, this 5-story grist mill was restored to working order in 2004.

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