Lafayette County FlArchives Biographies.....Chaires, McQueen February 15, 1871 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn Naev@earthlink.net August 10, 2007, 1:16 am Author: The History of Florida: Past & Present, The Lewis Publishing Co., 1923, Vol. III pg. 25 CHAIRES, McQUEEN, a progressive exponent of farm industry in the new county of Dixie, was born at Cedar Keys, Levy County, Florida, on the 15th of February, 1871, and is a son of THOMAS PETER CHAIRES, who was born in Leon County, this state, in 1847, and who died at Old Town, in the present Dixie County, in the year 1899. GREEN CHAIRES, grandfather of the subject of this review, was a native of Virginia and a representative of a family there founded in the Colonial period of our national history. GREEN CHAIRES became one of the extensive landholders and successful planters in Leon County, Florida, where he established the town of Chaires, and where he was a leader in community affairs, especially in church work and in the developing of schools. From that county he went forth as a loyal soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war. His son THOMAS P. having been a lad of but fourteen years when he entered the Confederate service in the capacity of courier for General Dickinson, his service having continued during three years of the war. After the close of the war THOMAS P. CHAIRES became a clerk in a general store at Cedar Keys, and there was solemnized his marriage to Miss CLARA McQUEEN, daughter of JAMES McQUEEN, one of the leading citizens of that section. In 1871 Mr. CHAIRES moved to that part of Lafayette County that is now included in Dixie County, and he developed one of the large farm estates of this locality, with incidental prestige as a specially successful agriculturist and stockgrower. He represented Lafayette County in the Lower House of the State Legislature, and in 1899 was a member of the State Senate, as a representative of the Twelfth District, his death having occurred while he was holding this office. Mr. CHAIRES was a man of energy and marked business ability, became an extensive buyer and shipper of cattle, and was also prominently identified with the cedar-lumber business as a representative of the Eberhard Faber Company, the great pencil manufacturing corporation. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and he and his wife, who died in 1895, were zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He gave freely of his time, influence and money in furthering the development and prosperity of Lafayette County, and was a citizen who commanded unqualified popular confidence and good will. McQUEEN CHAIRES, eldest in a family of four children passed his boyhood and early youth on the home farm, and his educational advantages included those of the Kirkwood Military Academy, the East Florida Seminary, the Means High School of Atlanta, Florida, and the high school at Starke, Florida. At the age of nineteen years he engaged actively in the buying of cedar lumber, and identified himself also with the cattle business, he having gained experience in these lines through former association with his father’s business affairs. He is now the owner of a large amount of valuable cedar land in this section of Florida, and his fine stock farm comprises 2,000 acres, his live stock brand being T Fleur de Lis, the T representing the initial of the first personal name of his father. Mr. CHAIRES was the first to introduce in this section of his native state sires of the Hereford full- blood cattle and also Duroc-Jersey swine, and in this and other ways he has done much to raise live stock standards. His progressiveness is shown equally in the agricultural department of his farm enterprise, and he has in a distinct way reputation for leadership in civic and industrial affairs in his county. He finds his chief diversion in hunting and fishing. Mr. CHAIRES is influential in the councils and campaign activities of the democratic party in this part of the state, and in 1909 and 1917 he represented Lafayette County in the State Legislature. He was prominently identified with the movement that resulted in the establishment of the new county of Dixie, and was a member of the Florida State Democratic Committee at the time when Dixie County was formed. He is a leading member of the Cattle Men’s Association of Florida, and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He and his wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1902, at Ocala, this state, Mr. CHAIRES wedded Miss RUBY SHEPPARD, daughter of C. R. M. SHEPPARD, who was for more than twenty years engaged in the cedar-timber business, in which he was associated with the late THOMAS P. CHAIRES, father of the subject of this review. The maiden name of the mother of Mrs. CHAIRES was MARY BARNNETT, and the parents now reside at Newberry, where the father is living retired. Mrs. SHEPPARD is a kinswoman of ROBERT BARNNETT, famed in the work of the Methodist Church in the South. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/lafayette/bios/chaires33nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/flfiles/ File size: 5.5 Kb