St Johns County FlArchives Biographies.....Fairbanks, George Rainsford July 5, 1820 - 1906
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Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 July 7, 2015, 8:50 pm

Source: Vol. II  pg.36-37  The Lewis Publishing Co. 1923
Author: History of Florida, Past and Present 

        FAIRBANKS, Maj. GEORGE RAINSFORD. In an age that is decidedly 
commercial, it is refreshing to record the names of a few whose lives were 
spent in scholarly pursuits, and whose pleasure centered in deep and productive 
studies. Such men in dying leave behind them work which will stimulate others 
to follow in their footsteps and emulate their example. There are few who have 
either the inclination or ability to devote themselves, their talents and their 
years to the writing of history, but Florida claims one who measured up to the 
highest standards of literary production and historic accuracy, and uses in her 
public schools his history of the state and of the Antiquities of Saint 
Augustine as standard books of reference. This honored historian and noble 
gentleman of the old school of the South, Maj. GEORGE RAINSFORD FAIRBANKS, has 
passed to his last reward, having written finis on the page of his life history 
many years ago, but his books live after him, and his descendants, among whom 
one of note is his grandson, Dr. HORACE RAINSFORD DREW of Jacksonville, carry 
out in their lives the lessons taught by his fine character and praiseworthy 
work. Major Fairbanks was born at Watertown, New York, July 5, 1820, and he was 
educated in his native state, securing his degrees of Bachelor of Arts and 
Master of Arts at Union College, Schenectady. Following the completion of his 
literary training he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1842.
	Soon after securing his admission to the legal profession Major 
Fairbanks moved to Saint Augustine, Florida, and received the appointment of 
the clerk of the United States District Court, and held that office until 1846, 
when he retired from it and took up the practice of the law, remaining in it 
until 1859. In the latter year he moved to Tallahassee and spent a year in the 
state capital, leaving it to accept the offer of a trusteeship of the 
University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee.
	Scarcely had he become settled in what was very congenial work when the 
war cloudburst, involving North and the South in war, and he, although of 
Northern birth, had lived too long in the South to ignore its claims, so he 
enlisted in the Army of the Confederacy, serving in it with the rank of a major 
of the quartermaster department. With the defeat of the cause he held so close 
to his heart Major Fairbanks began to devote more of his attention to his 
historical researches, and returned to the University of the South, which he 
served as treasurer until 1880, when he resigned and moved to Fernandina, but 
he continued to maintain a summer home at Sewanee, and there he died in 1906, 
aged eighty-six years. He was a member of the Upper House of the State Assembly 
of Florida during 1846 and 1847, was a presidential elector in 1848, and in 
1857 served as mayor of St. Augustine. All his life Major Fairbanks was a close 
student of the masterpieces of English, and his conversation and writings were 
tinged with lofty thoughts of a spiritual tone. His character was broad and 
sweet, and his influence for good upon the young was markedly strong and always 
directed upward.

       

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