George R. Fairbanks:
Fernandina’s Renaissance
Man
photo by Stephan Leimberg
In his time, George Rainsford Fairbanks was an attorney,
historian, citrus magnate, newspaper editor, soldier, author, and a politician. Though he was born in New York, Fairbanks
adopted the state of Florida as his home for most of his adult life. He helped found the Historical Society of
Florida and served as its first Vice President.
Fairbanks was also one of the co-founders of the University of the South
in Sewanee, Tennessee. He was a great friend
and colleague of David Levy Yulee, his father Moses Levy, and William Pope
Duval. Moses Levy, the owner of
significant tracts of land in Central Florida, engaged Fairbanks to tend to his
many pressing legal matters. Fairbanks
also served on the board of directors of Yulee’s Florida Railroad, and owned
stock in the company. His lifelong thirst for knowledge made George Fairbanks
one of the brightest and most well-rounded minds of his day and a great
chronicler – not to mention a part of – Florida’s history.
Born in Watertown, New
York on July 5, 1820, George was the second son of Jason and Mary Massey
Fairbanks. Although George was born into
a fairly wealthy family, his father and maternal grandfather had both recently
earned their respective fortunes. Jason
was a self-made man with little formal education who parlayed his skills as a
tanner into several business ventures, eventually employing up to 500
people. He was also a respected public
servant, serving as a county sheriff and treasurer and as a U.S. Marshall for
almost 30 years. Mary Massey’s father
built a lumber mill and settled his family in the area that would become
Watertown before it was a city. Mr.
Massey bought a great deal of property, and with the city’s expansion, became a
wealthy and powerful man.
Though his mother was a staunch anti-catholic, George was
sent to school at La Petit Seminaire in Montreal Canada, a Catholic school for
boys which provided a top notch education.
English was banned at the school, and George was forced to speak only in
French. A cholera epidemic forced him to
return home in 1832, where he spent the next four years preparing for college.
Fairbanks graduated from Union College (the first
interdenominational institution for higher education in the United States) in
1839, and began to study law. In 1842, he became engaged to Sarah Wright, a
judge’s daughter, and the two were married just weeks before George moved to
Florida to take a job as Clerk of the Superior Court of East Florida. Now living in Saint Augustine, George
immersed himself in the city’s history and in the history of Florida in
General. He learned Spanish so that he could
read first-hand accounts from Conquistadors and early explorers. In 1858, Fairbanks’ first history book was
published - The History and Antiquities
of the City of St. Augustine, Florida. In that same year, George’s wife Sarah died of
tuberculosis, leaving him to care for their five children. Two years later, Fairbanks married his
brother-in-law’s widow Susan Beard Wright, combining their households; George
and Susan had two daughters of their own.
Fairbanks made powerful friends while living in St.
Augustine, which led to his becoming involved in politics. The support of William Duval and David Yulee
helped him win a state senate seat in 1846. When his term was over he returned
to Saint Augustine and continued to be involved in the community. In 1856 he
helped to found the Florida Historical Society, and served as its Vice
President. A year later he became the city’s Mayor.
When war broke out between the states, Fairbanks endorsed
secession from the Union. He was
commissioned an officer and served under General Braxton Bragg, with the rank
of major. He served in the commissary
department and spent most of the war in Georgia overseeing Army hospitals. After the war, Major Fairbanks returned to
Sewanee to help rebuild the University of the South, which had been ravaged by
four-years of conflict. For the rest of
his life Fairbanks would spend at least a portion of the year in the cabin he built
near campus dubbed “Rebel’s Rest,” which still stands to this day.
Fairbanks spent a great deal of his time managing his various
land holdings. His private records (kept
at Florida State University) indicate that at one time he held property in
Nassau, Duval, Clay, Putnam, St. Johns, Volusia, Lake, Marion, Brevard, and
Alachua counties. In 1871, George completed his second book, History of Florida, which was the first
connected and complete work on the history of the state.
In 1880, David Yulee invited Major Fairbanks to move to
Fernandina to become editor of the local paper, The Florida Mirror. George’s
active role in the Episcopal Church allowed him to quickly make connections
with some of Fernandina’s most prominent citizens, many of whom were part of
St. Peter’s congregation. Around this
same time, Fairbanks donated a tract of land near Gainesville, Florida to build
a church for the citizens in a small town that was to be named after him. He brought in New York architect Robert
Schuyler to design the building - dubbed “All Saints” at the suggestion of
Fairbanks’ wife Susan - and paid for its construction.
It was of the utmost importance to Susan Fairbanks to have
her children and grandchildren near her at all times, and with a family as
large as the Fairbanks’ this necessitated a home of substantial size. In 1885 George turned once again to Robert
Schuyler to design and build a home in Fernandina that could accommodate the
entire family. The lavish Italianate home featured a 15-foot tower and a
fireplace in every room (ten in all), two of which were decorated with English
tiles depicting scenes from Shakespeare’s plays and Aesop’s fables. The
Fairbanks house was the first home in Fernandina to have an elevator. A long standing local myth is that upon seeing
the house for the first time Susan Fairbanks was so displeased with it, she
gave it the moniker it carries to this day, “the folly.” However, the story passed down through the
Fairbanks family is that it was the decoration and furnishings that Susan
disapproved of, not the house itself.
Fairbanks managed much of his business out of Fernandina, but
spent his summers in Sewanee helping to manage the University of the South and
ensure the institution stayed true to the original intentions of its founders (of
which he has was the last living). In 1898, George published the second edition
of his History of Florida, followed
by a third in 1904 which added chapters up to that date. This edition was designed for, and used as a
textbook in the Florida school system.
George continued with his devotion to the University of the South, as a
trustee, and never lost his zeal for researching history. He passed away in 1906 at the age of 86 in
his home in Sewanee, Tennessee.
George Fairbanks’ legacy is still alive today in the city of
Fernandina, and his impact on his adopted state is undeniable. His home still stands on South Seventh
Street, now operating as a bed and breakfast.
The coat he wore as a Major in the Confederate Army hangs in the Amelia
Island Museum of history. The Florida
Historical Society he helped found exists to this day, and the books he wrote
about the histories of Florida and Saint Augustine are still used as source
material in text books read by students across the state of Florida.
Gray Edenfield
Education Director
Amelia Island Museum of History
