formed the Canada Oil Association of Oil Springs.In 1865, he purchased land in Petrolia and built a white frame house. J.H.Fairbank, and his partner, Benjamin Van Tuyl opened a grocery and liquor store in 1865, which later became the largest hardware store west of Toronto,Ontario. In 1869 he and Leonard Vaughn opened Petrolia’s first bank known as The Little Red Bank. Before his death in February of 1914, J. H. Fairbank was also heavily involved in politics, including being elected three times to counsel, serving as reeve,and being elected as the Federal Liberal Member of Parliament in 1882.
John Henry Fairbank came to Lambton County in the late 1850’s as a surveyor. Within the next thirty years he became a very successful oilman and businessman in Petrolia. While most of that time he lived modestly
in a white frame house, it wasn’t long before he began construction of his mansion. Construction of Sunnyside
Mansion began in 1889. It would take two years to complete. The mansion, located on five acres of land, overlooked Bear Creek. The three story Victorian Queen Anne style home with Ohio red clay bricks, boasted 22 rooms including 6 bedrooms, 6 baths,
and 6 fireplaces. It also had a third floor
ballroom for high society balls which were held
by the Fairbank family.
Four generations of the Fairbank family have been producing oil longer than anyone in the world. The family line of oilers starts at
John Henry Fairbank (1831-1914) and continues right up to Charles Oliver Fairbank, the 3rd. Oil is the second largestquantity of fluid in the world. Oil has been such a big industry across the world that it is truly remarkable that it
all started with John Henry Fairbank.
In 1858, John Henry Fairbank was living with his wife, Edna, and six children on a Niagara farm, working as a land surveyor for the Great Western Railway Company, when he was approached to survey an oil patch in
Lambton County. This was the beginning of his love for the oil industry.
J.H. Fairbank built a shack in Oil Springs where he began to dig for oil. He would travel between London and St. Thomas selling machine lubricating oil.
He also came up with the idea to use the river to transport his barrels of oil
for export. In 1862, he and 300 other oilmen