One of a Thousand/Faxon, Henry Hardwick
Faxon, Henry Hardwick, son of Job and Judith B. (Hardwick) Faxon, was born in Quincy, Norfolk county, September 28, 1823.
He is a descendant in the eighth generation of Thomas Faxon, who came with his family from England previous to 1647, and settled in that part of the ancient town of Braintree which is now Quincy.
His early education was received in the common schools of his native town. He passed his youth on his father's farm until sixteen years of age, when he was apprenticed to a shoe-maker.
In 1843, in company with his brother John, he began manufacturing boots and shoes. About 1846 he changed his business to that of grocer and provision merchant in Quincy, conducting the same for about seven years, the last three years carrying on a bakery also. The bounds of this business becoming too narrow for one of his active temperament, he changed his base of operations to Boston, becoming a wholesale and retail grocer, the firm name being at first Faxon, Wood & Co., and subsequently Faxon Bros. & Co. Retiring from the firm in 1861, he made successful ventures in various kinds of merchandise, but finally devoted his business energies to dealing in real estate, in which he accumulated the bulk of his fortune.
During these years Mr. Faxon was not a total abstainer, and had made some speculative transactions in liquors; but at the time he first represented his town in the Legislature he was appointed a member of the committee on the liquor law and there became interested in the temperance question. He has ever since been a prohibitionist, intense in feeling and active in prosecution. It has been his aim to accomplish temperance legislation through the Republican party rather than outside of it, although induced in 1884 to run on the Prohibitory ticket for lieutenant-governor. He has had the satisfaction of seeing Quincy rid of dram-shops during the past eight years, in which time he has had the responsibility of enforcing the laws regulating the sale of intoxicating liquors.
Mr. Faxon was married, November 18, 1852, in Quincy, to Mary B., daughter of
Henry H. Faxon.
Israel W. and Priscilla L. (Burbank) Munroe. Mrs. Faxon died September 6, 1885, leaving one son, Henry Munroe Faxon, now in his twenty-sixth year.
Mr. Faxon was elected to the General Court in 1864 and again in 1871. He was a police officer in Quincy from 1881 to '86, inclusive, and was re-appointed to the latter position by Mayor Porter in 1889, in the first year of Quincy's new era as a city. His church connections are with the Unitarian society.