FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
125 
GEORGE RAINSFORD FAIRBANKS. 
To mention the name of George 
Rainsford Fairbanks is to bring to 
mind one of the leading characters in 
the history of this and adjoining states 
for the past sixty-four years, and one 
whose literary ability has contributed 
much to perpetuate that history. 
Major Fairbanks was born in Water- 
town, in northern New York, July 
5th, 1820, and died at his summer home 
at the University of the South, Suwan¬ 
nee, Tennessee, August 3rd, 1906, in 
the eighty-seventh year of his age. 
Entering the Sophomiore class of 
Union College, Schenectady, New 
York, at the age of sixteen, he gradu¬ 
ated with the class of 1839, at nineteen. 
He received the degree of M.A., both 
from his alma mata and from Trinity 
College, Hartford, Connecticut. 
In 1842, he was admitted to the bar 
in New York State. In the same year 
he came south. This was three years 
before Florida was admitted to the 
Union, and he remained a citizen of the 
Territory and State for the next sixty- 
four years. 
He first settled in historic St. Augus¬ 
tine, but later made his home in Fer- 
nandina. 
For four years (1842-46), during the 
territorial days, he was clerk of the 
United States Superior and District 
Court for the northern district of 
Florida; and the year after Florida’s 
admission to the Union in 1845 was 
a member of the State Senate (1846- 
48). He became Vice-President of the 
Florida Historical Society, honorary 
member of the New York Historical 
Society, and held other positions of 
trust and honor, but was best known 
to many of us as a fellow-horticulturist 
and the efficient President of the Flori¬ 
da Fruit Exchange, from its first real 
business meeting up to 1895 when the 
big freeze put the Exchange out of 
business. 
Throughout most of the period of 
its existence, he has been a valued 
member of this association, and records 
of the part he has taken in its discus¬ 
sions, and the papers contributed by 
him, form some of the most valuable 
portions of the Society’s annual re¬ 
ports. 
Over the inscription, “George R. 
Fairbanks, Historian,of Florida,” his 
likeness will be found in the report of 
1901. * 
“History and Antiquities of the City 
of St. Augustine, Florida;” “Fair- 
bank’s History of Florida,” “Florida 
Freezes” (the latter ^a short sketch 
contributed to this society in 1895 and 
to be found in its annual report of that 
year), and the many other products 
of his fertile pen will be found helpful, 
instructive and entertaining, but the 
work nearest his heart was the estab¬ 
lishment and fostering of The Univer¬ 
sity of the South, Suwanee, Tennessee, 
of which institution he published a 
history in his eighty-fifth year. 
At a convention of the Episcopal 
church, of which he was an ardent 
member, held on Lookout Mountain, 
July 4th, 1857, the plan of the institu¬ 
tion had been promulgated and formal 
OFganlizaition effiected at a notable 
meeting of representatives of ten 
Southern states. 
At this meeting he was appointed 
delegate and trustee for Florida. 
From .that time it became the leading 
