This is a photo of my great-great uncle Doctor, Dock, or Thomas D. Haire.
He was born in Gadsden County, Florida, in March, 1874. His name
first or middle name was Doctor and as a child he appeared in censuses both
as Doctor and as Dock. Either he went by his middle name as a child,
or, as sometimes happened before names were systematically recorded, he may
have changed the order of his first and middle names at some point in his
life. For awhile I looked into the possibility that he was, as I was
once told, a dentist. However, I found him on the 1900 U.S. Census
for the 1005 Georgia Military District of Decatur County, Georgia, listed
as a farmer; and on the 1930 U.S. Census for Grady County, Georgia, Whigham
District, listed as employed as a janitor at the school house (presumably
in Whigham) so I think that any idea he was a dentist has been dispelled.
Dock Haire married Emma J. Knight in Decatur County, Georgia, on 22 December
1892, and no children appear in their household either in 1900 or in 1930
so I suppose that they had none though I do not know that for an absolute
fact.
Richard White
Tallahassee, Florida
22 July 2003