George Rainsford Fairbanks

{{Infobox person

| name = George Rainsford Fairbanks

| image = George Rainsford Fairbanks.png

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1820|07|05}}

| birth_place = Watertown, New York

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1906|08|03|1820|07|05}}

| death_place = Sewanee, Tennessee

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| spouse = {{Plainlist|

{{Marriage|Sarah Catherine Wright|October 8, 1842|1858|end=d.}}
{{Marriage|Susan Beard|April 25, 1860}}

}}

| children = 7

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George Rainsford Fairbanks (1820–1906{{cite journal|last=DuBose|first=William Porcher|title=George Rainsford Fairbanks|journal=The Sewanee Review|date=Oct 1906|volume=14|issue=4|pages=493–503|jstor=27530817|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press}}) was a lawyer, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Florida State Senator, president of Florida Fruit Growers Association and the Florida Fruit Exchange; editor of the Florida Mirror; the author of books on Florida history; and the founder and president of Florida Historical Society. He lived in Fernandina Beach. He is listed as a Great Floridian.

Life and career

File:Fernandina Beach FL Fairbanks House01.jpg on Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island]]

File:Fernandina Beach FL Fairbanks House plaque01.jpg

George Rainsford Fairbanks was born in Watertown, New York on July 5, 1820. He married Sarah Catherine Wright on October 8, 1842. She died in 1858, and he remarried, to Susan Beard, on April 25, 1860.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tt4DAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA506 |title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography |volume=X |publisher=J. T. White Company |page=506 |year=1900 |access-date=2020-07-25 |via=Google Books}}

Senator David Yulee brought Fairbanks, a Confederate Major during the U.S. Civil War, to Fernandina in 1879 to run the town's Florida Mirror newspaper. Fairbanks was also a historian, an educator, a former state senator, and one of the founders of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. He and his granddaughter witnessed the fire that destroyed downtown Jacksonville 40 miles away from the house he built in 1885.[https://books.google.com/books?id=SbeNdF9R42QC&dq=George+Rainsford+Fairbanks&pg=PA54 Florida's Finest Inns and Bed & Breakfasts] – Page 54

He died at his home in Sewanee on August 3, 1906.{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/56025307/maj-george-r-fairbanks/ |title=Maj. George R. Fairbanks |newspaper=Knoxville Sentinel |location=Sewanee |page=2 |date=1906-08-06 |access-date=2020-07-25 |via=Newspapers.com}}

The Fairbanks House was converted into a bed & breakfast and is on Amelia Island's Fernandina Beach at 227 South Seventh Street.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/recommendedcount0000thal_f7p1 |url-access=registration |quote=George Rainsford Fairbanks. |title=The South |author=Carol Thalimer |author2=Dan Thalimer |publisher=Globe Pequot |date=Oct 1, 2001 |access-date=2014-03-28 |page=[https://archive.org/details/recommendedcount0000thal_f7p1/page/35 35]|isbn=9780762712380 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.fairbankshouse.com/ |title=Home |website=fairbankshouse.com}} It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.{{cite web|url=http://www.flheritage.com/facts/reports/places/index.cfm?fuseaction=ListAreas&county=Nassau |title=Florida's History Through Its Places – Nassau County |publisher=Florida Division of Historical Resources |date= |access-date=2014-03-28}}

Bibliography

History of the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tennessee: From its founding by the Southern Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Episcopal Church in 1857 to the year 1905
[https://books.google.com/books?id=L1MVAAAAYAAJ&q=George+Rainsford+Fairbanks Florida, its history and its romance]: the oldest settlement in the United States, Associated with the Most Romantic Events of American History, Under the Spanish, French, English, and American Flags. 1497–1901 Richard Allen Martin H. and W. B. Drew Company 1901
History of Florida from its discovery by Ponce de Leon, in 1512 to the close of the Florida War in 1842 Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1871
[https://archive.org/details/spaniardsinflori00fair The Spaniards in Florida]; Comprising the notable settlement of the Huguenots in 1564, and the History and Antiquities of St. Augustine Founded A.D. 1565 Columbus Drew, Jacksonville, Florida 1868
[https://books.google.com/books?id=mKwuAAAAYAAJ&q=George+Rainsford+Fairbanks The Early History of Florida]; An Introductory Lecture 1857
The Perils of the Republic: An Oration – 1856
The History and Antiquities of St Augustine, Florida, Etc.