Samuel B. Fairbank

Samuel Bacon Fairbank (December 14, 1822 – May 31, 1898) D.D. was an American evangelist, writer, translator, and amateur naturalist who worked in India with the American Marathi Mission in western India, mainly in Wadala Bahiroba, near Ahmednagar. Fairbank was responsible for some of the earliest translations of hymns into Marathi. He also worked on a number of initiatives to improve agriculture. His children and several relatives continued to work as missionaries in India. Trochalopteron fairbanki, a bird, Fairbankia and Achatina fairbanki, molluscs are named after him.

Samuel was born in Stamford, Connecticut, the eldest son of John Barnard Fairbank, principal of a school. The family later moved to Massachusetts where they manufactured straw hats. Fairbank studied at Illinois earning an A.B. in 1842 and an A.M. in 1845 followed by studies at the Andover Theological Seminary. He was ordained D.D. in 1845. Shortly after marrying Abbey Allen (died 1852), the couple moved to India to join the American Marathi Mission in western India. His work was mainly at Ahmednagar (1846 to 1850 and again from 1871 to 1879), Bombay (1850 to 1857), Wadala (1857 to 1871) and from 1889 at Kodaikanai in South India. He visited the United States on three furloughs.

Fairbank spent much of his time on evangelism through working with the local people. He taught agriculture and attempted to introduce more efficient practices and implements. He was also into music, translating hymns and transcribing them to make it suitable for local use, composing songs and teaching communities. In his spare time, he also took an interest in natural history, making collections of molluscs, birds and plants. He also made studies of some molluscs in life. He wrote notes in the Gazetteer on natural history and his publications on the topic included a "Key to the Natural Orders of Plants in the Bombay Presidency", "Popular list of birds of the Bombay Presidency with Notes", "A list of the Birds of the Palani Hills, with Notes", "List of the Reptiles of the Bombay Presidency, with Notes" and "list of the Deccan fishes, with notes". He collaborated with other naturalists including William Thomas Blanford who named a genus of a mollusc Fairbankia after him although it is now a synonym of Iravadia. Achatina fairbanki was named after him by William Henry Benson. He also corresponded with Allan Octavian Hume. Blanford also named Trochalopteron fairbanki after a specimen collected by Fairbank from Kodaikanal.

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