Frederick Ayer

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title: "Frederick Ayer" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1822-births", "1918-deaths", "19th-century-american-businesspeople", "american-businesspeople-in-manufacturing", "american-businesspeople-in-the-textile-industry", "american-woolen-company", "businesspeople-from-massachusetts", "people-from-lawrence,-massachusetts", "businesspeople-from-lowell,-massachusetts", "people-of-the-american-industrial-revolution", "people-from-ledyard,-connecticut", "burials-at-lowell-cemetery-(lowell,-massachusetts)"] description: "American businessman (1822–1918)" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Ayer" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American businessman (1822–1918) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Frederick Ayer
image	Frederick-Ayer.jpg
alt	Frederick Ayer
birth_date
birth_place	Ledyard, Connecticut, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Thomasville, Georgia, U.S.
spouse	{{ublist
{{marriage	Cornelia Wheaton
{{marriage	Ellen Barrows Banning
children	7
occupation	Businessman
relatives	James Cook Ayer (brother) George S. Patton (son-in-law) George S. Patton IV (grandson)
Mark Gordon (great-grandson)
Frederick Ayer Jr. (grandson)
signature	Frederick Ayer (signature).jpg
signature_alt	Frederick Ayer Signature
::

| name = Frederick Ayer | image = Frederick-Ayer.jpg | alt = Frederick Ayer | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Ledyard, Connecticut, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Thomasville, Georgia, U.S. | spouse = {{ublist | | }} | children = 7 | nationality = | other_names = | known_for = | education = | occupation = Businessman | relatives = James Cook Ayer (brother) George S. Patton (son-in-law) George S. Patton IV (grandson) Mark Gordon (great-grandson) Frederick Ayer Jr. (grandson) | signature = Frederick Ayer (signature).jpg | signature_alt = Frederick Ayer Signature ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Ayers_Cherry_Pectoral_for_colds_and_coughs_Wellcome_L0041350.jpg" caption="Ayer Mill, Lawrence, Massachusetts, named for Frederick."] ::

Frederick Ayer (December 8, 1822 – March 14, 1918) was an American businessman and the younger brother of patent medicine tycoon James Cook Ayer.

Early life

Ayer was born on December 8, 1822, in Ledyard, Connecticut, and was the son of Frederick Ayer (1792–1825) and Persis Herrick ( Cook) Ayer (1786–1880).

His nephew, J.C. Ayer's son, was also Frederick Ayer. Frederick Fanning Ayer, born in 1851, became a lawyer and philanthropist, and was director or stockholder of many corporations.

Career

Ayer was involved in the patent medicine business, but is better known for his work in the textile industry. After buying the Tremont and Suffolk mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, he bought up many textile operations in nearby Lawrence, combining them in 1899 into the American Woolen Company, of which he was the first president. He was involved in other businesses of the time as well, such as being the co-founder of the Arctic Coal Company.

Personal life

Ayer's first wife was Cornelia Wheaton (1835–1878), daughter of Charles Augustus Wheaton and Ellen Birdseye. They married on December 15, 1858, and Cornelia's mother died the following day. The couple had four children:

• Ellen Wheaton Ayer (1859–1951), who married American Woolen Company's William Madison Wood.
• James Cook Ayer (1862–1939)
• Charles Fanning Ayer (1865–1956)
• Louise Raynor Ayer (1876–1955).

After Cornelia's death, Ayer married Ellen Barrows Banning (1853–1918) in 1884. They had three children:

• Beatrice Banning Ayer (1886–1953), who married future World War II general George S. Patton.
• Frederick Ayer (1888–1969)
• Mary Katherine "Kay" Ayer (1890–1981).

He died on March 14, 1918, in Thomasville, Georgia, and is interred at Lowell Cemetery. His home in Lowell is now the Franco American School, a Catholic school, and the Frederick Ayer Mansion on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts is a National Historic Landmark.

References

Archives and records

• Tremont & Suffolk Mills records at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School.

|onlinebooks=yes |by=yes |viaf=65683301 |label=Frederick Ayer}}

References

1. [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mabiog/Middlesex_County/ayerfredrickf.htm Short Bio on F.F. Ayer, 1914]
2. (7 July 1951). "MRS. WILLIAM M. WOOD". [[The New York Times]].
3. (4 February 1926). "FUNERAL OF W. M. WOOD TO BE HELD SUNDAY; Burial of Former Woolen Company Head to Take Place at Andover, Mass.". [[The New York Times]].
4. (23 March 1939). "Deaths". [[The New York Times]].
5. (16 January 1956). "CHARLES F. AYER". [[The New York Times]].
6. (13 March 1910). "AYER-PATTON". [[The New York Times]].
7. (22 April 1969). "FREDERICK AYER, 80, INDUSTRIALIST, DIES". [[The New York Times]].
8. (5 January 1974). "FREDERICK AYER, US, AIDE ABROAD". [[The New York Times]].
9. (15 March 1918). "FREDERICK AYER DIES IN GEORGIA AT 95; Boston Millionaire Medicine Manufacturer Was the First President of American Woolen Co.". [[The New York Times]].
10. (11 May 2021). "A Rare Tiffany Building Owned by a Nonprofit May Be Sold". [[The New York Times]].

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