Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

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Use Restrictions

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Preferred Citation

Papers of Charles Snowden Fairfax, Accession #7041, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collecton was placed on loan in the Library on March 19, 1963, and was made a gift by Mrs. C. Marshall Barton, Jr., of Owings Mills, Maryland, on December 3, 1980.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of seventeen items, 1850-1913, relating to Charles Snowden Fairfax (1829-1869), of Virginia and California. Included in the collection are eleven letters, 1850-1861, written by Fairfax to: his mother, Caroline E. Sanders; his brother, John C. Fairfax; Charles S. Coutel; and Nicholas Shipley. The letters describe Fairfax's life in California during the gold rush and include accounts of the economic situation, gold mining, the landscape, his farm, and living conditions. Also present is a letter from Fairfax's uncle, Richard Snowden, to Caroline E. Sanders, describing his and Charles's work in the mines. Copies of two accounts of Charles Fairfax's death appearing in the Baltimore Sun , April 5, 1869, a 1913 newspaper clipping from the San Francisco Bulletin regarding Charles Fairfax and his wife; and two photographs of Charles Fairfax and his wife complete the collection.

Charles Snowden Fairfax was born at "Vancluse," Fairfax County, Virginia, on March 8, 1829, the son of Albert Fairfax of Virginia and Caroline Eliza Snowden of Maryland. He became de jure 10th Lord Fairfax of Cameron in 1846 upon the death of his grandfather, Thomas Fairfax ( de jure 9th baron) of "Vaucluse," Fairfax County, Virginia (Albert Fairfax having predeceased his father in 1835). Charles married Ada Benham of Cincinnati, Ohio, and was a pioneer settler in California. He was elected to the first House of Delegates when that state was admitted to the Union and became speaker of the house in 1854. In 1857 he became clerk of the Supreme Court of California and served in that position for five years. Fairfax died in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 4, 1869.