OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 39 



CULTURIST AND AGRICULTURIST 



10. Honorable Henry Fairfax was a high type of cultured 

 Virginian gentleman. He bore himself with a dignity of manner 

 that was at all times democratic, and he deservedly became one 

 of the most popular men of his county and state, as well as the 

 leading proponent in America of that breed of horses he so ener- 

 getically fathered. Bom in Alexandria, Virginia, May 4, 1850, 

 he had not sufficient age to participate in the internecine conflict 

 which occurred during his teens. His family emigrated from 

 England in 1767, locating first in Maryland, but after fourteen 

 years of struggle removed to Virginia. In 1852, his father. Col. 

 John W. Fairfax, bought the famous estate in Loudoun county 

 known as Oak Hill, long the residence of President James 

 Monroe. Except for a few years when owned by Dr. Quinby, 

 during the reconstructive period of the south, the estate has ever 

 since been in the hands of the Fairfax family. In 1867, Mr. 

 Fairfax entered the Virginia Military Institute where he gradu- 

 ated in 1871. He thereupon entered his first work as chainman 

 with an engineering party in Pennsylvania, and worked in New 

 York, New Jersey, Colorado and Idaho. In 1879 he took railroad 

 contracts in Tennessee and continued in such work until 1887, 

 building a considerable portion of the Norfolk and Western, 

 Shenandoah Valley, Ohio River and East Tennessee & North 

 Carolina railroads. He was engineer in charge of Machinery 

 Hall at the Centennial Exposition in 1876. 



In the early 80's, Mr. Fairfax maintained his office in Roanoke, 

 Virginia, where he was elected to the town council, his first ven- 

 ture in politics. From 1890 to 1900 he was a member of the 

 state senate from Loudoun and Fauquier counties, and the follow- 

 ing two years was a member of the state constitutional conven- 

 tion, at which he was chairman of the Finance and Taxation 

 Committee. From 1902 to 1905 he was a member of the Cor- 

 poration Commission. His fitness for this latter position had 



