"Made to Last Forever: A Family. A House. A Nation."

The Story of the Original Fairbanks Family
The Beginning of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

I know you all have been waiting for Made to Last Forever: A Family. A House. A Nation. as long as I have. The book is HERE and AVAILABLE. This blog will introduce you to the story written from years of research that has been shared with you through these blogs.

Front Cover

The Fairbanks House

The front cover was created by Lance Jonathan Fairbanks in oil. It depicts the front of The Fairbanks House as it stands today in Dedham, Massachusetts, the oldest timber frame-house in North America. Lance is a descendant of a line of the Fairbankses known to some as the Fairbanks Dynasty of Fine Arts. They include some famous nationally and internationally known artists such as Avard Fairbanks.

Back Cover

Blurb and Reviews

In the shadows of the English Plague of 1625, Jonathan Fairbanks finds himself snubbed in his father’s will and thrust into the chaos of King Charles’s persecution of Puritans. Risking everything, he sails with his young family over treacherous seas to the uncertainty of the wilderness founded as the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Jonathan struggles to carve a place for his family in the new town of Dedham. His wife Grace strives to overcome her doubts and hardships while sustaining their family. Just when Jonathan sees security for the family, his son Jonas asserts his own ambitions, contrary to his father’s, and is sent away to a newer frontier. There Jonas finds a way to marry for love.

Inside the Covers

Do You Like a Good Story?
Rudyard Kipling said, “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”

This book is written as a biographical historical novel. It’s based on facts about the Fairbanks family, Dedham, and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is written in a way that tells a story. In particular, it deals with family relationships which can’t be known, only surmised from the history and the facts we know. These relationships add the intrigue and emotion to the story that you couldn’t enjoy in a purely historical book with footnotes and documentation.

The central portion of this house was built in 1637 at the direction of the original Fairbanks family.

Find out why the young Fairbanks family of six and, possibly, an indentured servant came to the wilderness of early Massachusetts Bay Colony (MBA) leaving all other family and friends in England. This book was written during Covid, so the similarities between the Plague and Covid are vivid.

Learn what the Fairbankses faced as settlers in the “Little Ice Age” of New England and the untested territory, quite different from their Northern England land and culture.

How could they manage to build the sturdy frame house, The Fairbanks House, which still stands today as a National Historic Landmark? Did they fit into the society in which they chose to settle?

Forge at the Saugus Ironworks, NPS

How did this family get involved in the first successful ironworks in the colony which is now the Saugus Ironworks, a part of the National Park Services? How did this bring trouble to the family?

What was the family’s relationship to the Prescott family that founded Lancaster, Massachusetts.

Where to Buy the Book?

The Fairbanks House Gift Shop
Dedham Museum & Archive
Women’s Exchange of Dedham
Amazon

I’m Enjoying this Journey with You.

Sharmin Fairbanks McKenny

Thank you for joining me on this journey through time to explore the common men doing uncommon things to build this nation as depicted by the Fairbanks family. Escape into the 1600s where you can either leave your troubles behind or empathize with the settler’s plight. Like, Kipling said, enjoy learning history that will stick with you; then share it with generations to come.

If you are part of a book club or family discussion group, there are discussion questions at the back of the book and at Book Club Discussions at FairbanksHistory.com. You are welcome to ask questions of the author here at FairbanksHistory.com.

What’s Next!

Come back next month as I recreate the facts as
they are found in the book.
Made to Last Forever: A Family. A House. A Nation.