The name John Henry Fairbank is synonymous with Petrolia's rise to prominence by the 1890s. Fairbank was totally committed to the life and industry of the town and never sought to extend his influence or wealth outside its boundaries. He was variously an oil magnate, banker, hardware dealer, manufacturer, village reeve and member of Parliament. At the height of his career he was the biggest single producer of oil in Canada.
Fairbank came to Canada from the United States in 1853 at the age of twenty-two. In 1861, he arrived at the Enniskillen oil fields on a survey job which he soon gave up to become part of the booming new industry. Many failures and three years of difficult work did not discourage him and, by 1865 he had gained a position of prominence in the Oil Springs business community.
With the opening of the Petrolia a field in 1866, Fairbank moved to Petrolia where he continued to develop his business interests, always in enterprises related directly to the town and the oil industry. By 1874, he had joined with Major Benjamin Van Tuyl in what was to become the biggest hardware store west of Toronto. With another associate, Leonard B. Vaughn, Fairbank established the Vaughn and Fairbank Bank, an institution which was to finance much of Petrolia's development in the critical 1870s. Fairbank was also involved in farming, manufacturing and at least seven refining ventures.
First and foremost an oilman, Faibank also served from 1882 to 1887 as a Liberal member of Parliament for the traditionally Conservative East Lambton riding. As an opposition member he took an active role in the continuing debate on the protective tariffs so desperately needed by Canada's oil industry. Fairbank lived to see the decline of Petrolia's oil industry but his loyalty to the town and its people never diminished.
