Co. He was afterwards special partner in several manufacturing firms.
But it is not as a manufacturer or business financier that Mr. Fay is best known to the country, but as a philanthropist in the broadest interpretation of the term.
He was a member of the Chelsea school board in 1856, chairman of the overseers of the poor from 1878 to the present time; member of the first common council, 1857; president of that body, 1859; mayor of Chelsea, 1861, '62, and '63, and known as the "War Mayor." During the war, until its close, he spent much of his time at the front, caring for the sick and wounded; was present immediately after first and second Bull Run, evacuation of Yorktown, seven days' fight, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, "The Wilderness," and in front of Petersburg until it was evacuated, entering the city the same day. He was also in 1863 on Folly and Morris islands, S. C, when Gilmore was shelling Fort Sumter. In 1864, at his suggestion, the Sanitary Commission organized the "Auxiliary Relief Corps," and he was made chief. During that year probably one hundred thousand sick and wounded men came under the care of the corps. He resigned the position in January, 1865, but continued as an independent worker, as he had been previous to 1864, completing his work at Richmond in June of that year. Probably no other Massachusetts civilian spent as much time at the front in similar service, paying his own expenses and receiving no compensation for any of his army work—while his salary as mayor was only four hundred dollars per annum.
Mr. Reed, in "Hospital Life in the Army of the Potomac," says: "Of the labors of Mr. Fay, it would be hard to speak in terms of too much praise. I prefer rather to let the memory of all his wise and gentle ministries, his kindly and self-forgetting services, be kept fresh in one more heart, of all the thousands who have had such good reasons for treasuring it." . . . "Mayor Fay was known in every division and brigade of the Army of the Potomac." . . . "With characteristic foresight, he was always prepared and was early upon the field of battle with his stores; and with all the blessed appliances of healing, moved among the wounded, soothing the helpless, suffering and bleeding men parched with fever, crazed with thirst, or lying neglected in the agonies of death."
Mr. Fay was a member of the Massachusetts Allotment Commission for receiving soldiers' wages, which sent home nearly three million dollars; also the United States Allotment Commission for colored troops.
He delivered the first Decoration Day address in Chelsea in 1868; was chairman of the soldiers' monument committee and delivered the address at its dedication, 1869. He was chairman of the trustees of the "Patriotic Fund;" was one of the trustees of the "Massachusetts Soldiers' Fund," of which Robert C. Winthrop was chairman, and of the "Governor Andrew Fund" for
Frank B. Fay.
relief of soldiers' families—both of these continuing some years after the war. He was an officer in the "Soldiers' Memorial Society," and is now an honorary member of the "First Massachusetts Regiment Association," and a companion of the "Loyal Legion." In 1866–'67 he was an officer of "Boston Station House" for the relief of homeless men and women.
In 1849, as president of the "Prisoners' Friend Association," he drew and presented the first petition to the Legislature, which resulted in the establishment of the "State Industrial School for Girls." His father was trustee and treasurer, serving until 1865, when Mr. Fay was appointed, serv-
