Williamson Fontaine

Notes:

Noland's home, the Woodruff-Fontaine House, is a historic home in Memphis.

Noland's will probated in White Co. AR

By the age of twenty-one, and with limited experiences, Noland had developed an acute commercial sense, and became a first-class business opportunist. When war clouds began to gather in 1861, he realized that vast fortunes could be made if one were simply in the right place at the right time. For Noland, Memphis, Tennessee was the right place and 1861 the right time. Memphis was ideally located on the Mississippi River between the cotton-growing South and the Northern Mills, where one could acquire contraband cotton at a reduced price and sell it northward where the price would skyrocket. He arrived in Memphis in April of 1861, the same month in which Fort Sumter was fired upon and the Civil War began. With the backing of a certain Louisville interest, Noland quickly established himself as a cotton buyer and became president of the new firm of Hill, Fontaine & Company. By 1862 the city was occupied by Union troops and became the most important center in the South for shipment of cotton to northern mills. On April 21, 1864, Noland married in Memphis, VIRGINIA E. EANES, who was born in Tennessee in 1845. In the years following the war, he became one of the wealthiest businessmen in Memphis, ................Noland died at his home on September 14, 1912. Virginia continued to live at "Fontaine House" with some of their children until her death on July 27, 1928.

Noland married Virginia Eanes on 21 Apr 1864 in Shelby County, TN. Virginia was born in 1845 in Tennessee; died on 27 Jul 1928 in Memphis, Shelby County, TN; was buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, Shelby County, TN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

AARON BENJAMIN FONTAINE (1811-1880) was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, on September 4, 1811, the youngest child of Aaron Fontaine and his second wife, Elizabeth Whiting (widow Thruston). He was reared and educated at home on his father's plantation, "Fontaine's Ferry," located just to the west of Louisville and on the south bank of the Ohio River. Aaron was only twelve years of age when his father died, and in accordance with the will, he was placed under the guardianship of two of his Thruston stepbrothers, both of whom were lawyers in Louisville. He and his older brother, Henry, studied law under one or both of his guardians. Aaron was admitted to the bar in 1831 and, almost immediately, married MARY ELLIOTT, the daughter of an Irish immigrant named Edward Elliott. She was born in Ireland in 1818 and brought to America as a small child. Shortly after their marriage, Aaron and Mary moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, where he held land which he had inherited from his father and the Thurston's had various commercial interests. They lived in Terre Haute for ten years while he practiced law and engaged in land speculation. During their sojourn in Indiana, four of their five children were born, In the mid-1840s, the family returned to Louisville, and Aaron became involved both in the practice of law and in diverse business interests. He died in Louisville on August 29, 1880, and Mary died there, more than two decades later, on April 24, 1904. They had five children.

Source: Ancestors and Descendants of Rev. Peter Fontaine (1691-1759) of
Westover Parish, Charles City County, Virginia, by Charles J. Ragland

Aaron married Mary Elliott on 19 Jan 1832 in Morgan County, IL. Mary was born on 25 Feb 1817 in Dublin, IRL; died on 24 Apr 1904 in Louisville, Jefferson County, KY. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: Abt 1800, Harrods Creek, Jefferson County, KY

Notes:

Served as ensign from Louisa County, Virginia militia.

Spotsylvania Co., VA Land
Book and Page: J
Date Made: 8 Mar 1774
Property: 260 a. in Spts. Co.
Remarks:
Joseph Herndon and Betty, his wife; Charles Gordon and Mary, his wife, of Spts. Co. to Aaron Fontaine. 200 curr. 260 a. in Spts. Co. Wm. Smith, Edwd. Herndon, Peter Stubblefield. Augt. 18, 1774.
Name Title Description Residence
Fontaine, Aaron Grantee Spotsylvania Co., VA
Gordon, Charles Grantor Spotsylvania Co., VA
Gordon, Mary Grantor's wife Spotsylvania Co., VA
Herndon, Betty Grantor's wife Spotsylvania Co., VA
Herndon, Edwd. Witness Spotsylvania Co., VA
Herndon, Joseph Grantor Spotsylvania Co., VA
Smith, Wm. Witness Spotsylvania Co., VA
Stubblefield, Peter Witness Spotsylvania Co., VA

Spotsylvania Co., VA Land
Book and Page: K
Date Made: 15 May 1782
Property: 260 a. in Spts. Co.
Remarks:
Aaron Fontaine and Barbara, his wife, to David Sandidge of Spots. co. 222 curr. 260 a. in Spots. Co. No witnesses. June 20, 1782. Name Title Description Residence
Fontaine, Aaron Grantor Spotsylvania Co., VA
Fontaine, Barbara Grantor's wife Spotsylvania Co., VA
Sandidge, David Grantee Spotsylvania Co., VA

From http://jscott.tierranet.com/ancestry/fontaine/aaronfon.htm

This is transcribed from a copy of a newspaper article "Century of Old Fontaine Estate" by Mary Lytle Byers (maybe from Courier Journal?) from 1914 (this date based on wording in text) The copy was in poor condition. Unreadable text is shown as ..... in the transcription below. It could be more than one article, as the pieces were fragmentary and hard to read. J. Scott, April 1999

"Little of all we value here
Wakes on the morn of its hundredth year
Without both looking and feeling queer -- "

Hardly can be held to apply to Fontaine Ferry park which under the management of Col. Harry A. Bilger, soon will open for the summer season of 1914. It is probable that few persons recall that this is the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the famous fountain that gave the celebrated amusement resort its name and prestige. An article prepared by Charles Thurston who is one of the descendants of the Fontaines, tells some interesting incidents in connection with the origin of the place.

Mr. Thurston says:
"Col. Aaron Fontaine came from Virginia in 1798 with a family of twelve children and his son-in-law, Judge Fortunatus Cosby, and settled on Harrods Creek in Jefferson county, of this State. He afterward removed, on January 17, 1814, to the banks of the Ohio river west of Louisville and established his family on a large estate which was purchased by him from Mr. William Lytle, of Cincinnati, O. This estate was part of 3,000 acres purchased by his son-in-law, Judge Fortunatus Cosby, from Sarah Beard, July 7, 1806, the property being known as part of the Connolly and De Warnsdorff tracts.

"The estate purchased by Col. Aaron Fontaine from William Lytle embraced... acres and at the time of its purchase the property was called "Carter's ferry". It was afterward named "Fontaine Ferry" by Col. Fontaine in 1814 and the place was laid out in orchards lawns and grasslands. The house, of substantial construction, faced the Ohio River, where a boat was kept for pleasure and service. A fine cypress avenue opened on what is now Main and the old "Fountaine Ferry Road" was a famous drive leading into the country retreat. Here Col. Fontaine lived the life of a country squire in the good old days in peace, plenty and hospitality, 100 years ago.

"Col. Fontaine was a gentleman of the old school whose type almost has passed away. He was of French descent and a member of a noble Huguenot family in France. Among the number of the ancestors of this Huguenot was the noted Peverence Peter Fontaine, rector of Westover parish, Charles City County, Va., in 1716. It is said of Col. Fontaine that he was particularly courteous and polite to everyone with whom he came in contact and particularly so to his wife to whom he always doffed his hat before taking his morning toddy and insisted that she taste the toddy first.

"Col. Fontaine, previous to his emigration to Kentucky in 1798, married Barbara Terril, of Virginia, who traced her lineage to the royal house of Stuart and was the granddaughter of Col. William Overton, of "Glencairn," Hanover county, Va. Twelve children were born of this marriage as follows: Mary Ann, the wife of Judge Fortunatus Cosby; Mathilda, the wife of Thomas Prather; Martha, the wife of Alexander Pope; America, the wife of William S. Vernon; Sallie, the wife of Gov. George Floyd; Deborah, the wife of Judge Edmund Bullock; Maria the wife of Sterling Grimes; Barbara, the wife of John Sanders, Ann Overton, the wife of John I. Jacob, and Peter, John and Maury Fontaine, sons.

"Soon after the death of his first wife, Barbara Terrill Fontaine, Col. Fontaine married Mrs. Elizabeth Whiting Thruston, the widow of Col. John Thruston, of "Sans Souel," of Jefferson county, who was with Gen. George Rogers Clark in the campaigns against the British and the Indians at Kaskaskia and Vincennes. Mrs. Thruston had ten children when she married Col. Fontaine and four children were the result of this marriage.

"Mrs. Elizabeth Whiting Thruston's children were Charles M. Thruston, Sr., lawyer in Louisville from 1800 to 1856; Alfred Thruston, cashier of the Bank of Louisville in 1833; Algernon Thruston, Attorney General of Texas, killed at the side of Davy Crockett in "The Alamo:" Lucius Thruston, Louisville; Mrs. Kitty Luckett, Louisville; Mrs. Worden Pope, Louisville; Mrs. Mollie January, St. Louis, Mo.; Mrs. Fanny Rector, of Arkansas; Mary Thruston, of Louisville, and John Thruston, II, Louisville. The children of the marriage of Col. Fontaine and Mrs. Thruston were Aaron B. Fontaine, Alexander Fontaine, Henry W. Fontaine and Emmeline Dillon Fontaine.

.... have twenty six children .... ets of children in this ... family and the writer has ... distinction of being the ...grandson of Col. Aaron Fontaine and his two wives as well as Judge Fortunatus Cosby and his wife Mary Ann, and the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Thruston, Sr., the latter being a granddaughter of Col. Fontaine and the daughter of Judge Cosby. It is unusual that a grandson should be related on both sides to all the heads of the three families by direct blood descent.

"There may be several omissions in this genealogy which the writer is notable to supply from his notes, but the data given is of sufficient scope to interest the large number of descendants of this extensive connection now living in Louisville.

"In conclusion it may not be amiss to mention some of the members of this family who have achieved something more than a local reputation. Among the number whose names are recalled are Gen. George Cosby, C.S.A., of California; Admiral Frank Coast, U.S. Navy; Gen. Gates Thruston, U.S.A., Nashville, Tenn.; Admiral Levin Powell, U.S.N., Washington D.C., Algernon Thruston, ex - Attorney General, of Texas; Henry Rector, formerly Governor of Arkansas; Alfred Thruston, first cashier of the Bank of Louisville; Judge Buckner Thruston, United States Senator from Kentucky from 1805 to 1809; Patrick ... (Fontaine?), member of Congress from the... district of Kentucky, and Charles .... Thruston, eminent as a lawyer in Louisville from 1800 to 1856.

The son of this Jean de la Fontaine became a minister of the Protestant churches of Royan and Vaux -- he was called the "prophet of the persecution," as by his untiring labor and exhortations he prepared his people for the great persecution of the Huguenots that followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes. This devoted pastor, though of simple tastes and abstemious habits, was a man of commanding figure and dignified presence. By his second marriage to a beautiful French girl --Marie de Chaillon -- an heiress and much his, junior, he became the owner of the estate of Jenouille and the Manor of Jaffe. It was here that his youngest son -- and a man destined to make the name renowned in history as "the fighting Huguenot" -- was born in 1653.

"The Fighting Huguenot."

Jacques Fontaine -- for the title had been dropped -- the most famous of the name, gives a personal account in his "Memoirs of a Huguenot" of his trial and persecution for the faith, his daring escape with his betrothed wife from France, and their subsequent life and adventures in England. After teaching school, inventing and manufacturing a new weave of cloth, he finally went to Ireland, taking charge of a French congregation in Cork. Here M. Fontaine was held in such esteem that he was presented with the freedom of the city. It was in an engagement with a French privateer, manned by Frenchmen and carrying eighty men and ten guns, off the coast of Ireland, that M. Fontaine defended his household and himself so bravely that through the influence of his friend, the Duke of Ormonde and Governor General of Ireland, he was granted a pension from Queen Anne in 1705, in recognition of his bravery and service.

The Coming to Virginia

It remained for three sons and one daughter of "the fighting Huguenot" to perpetuate the name and qualities of their ancestors in the new world. Capt. John Fontaine, and English officer; Pierre and Francis, both clergymen of the Church of England, and Mary Anne Fontaine, their sister, who had married Matthew Maury, of Castle Mauron, Gascony, landed in Virginia, and were given a cordial welcome by Gov. Spotteswoode. Mary Anne Maury became the ancestress of the many noted men and women of that name. Pierre Fontaine had the good fortune to become the rector of Westover parish and chaplain to that "prince of the lordly manor of Westover," the distinguished Col. William Evelyn Byrd. In a novel by Marian Harland, called "His Great Self," founded on the Westover manuscripts of Col. Byrd, Pierre Fontaine is shown to be a familiar member of the household, and an intimate friend of the beautiful Evelyn. He is described as "a polished scholar and courtly gentleman of winning manners, with an olive complexion, clearly chiseled features, soft, dark brilliant eyes, 'a true descendant of the handsomest man in Navarre.'"

Romance says he was in love with the ill-fated Evelyn Byrd, but realizing the hopelessness of his own suit aided her by every means in his power in her unfortunate love affair with her English lover, Lord Peterborough.

Both Pierre Fontaine and his brother, Capt., John Fontaine, were members of Gov. Spottesswoode's famous expedition across the blue Ridge in 1716, which ended on their return in the institution of the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe," Gov. Spotteswoode presenting to each member a miniature gold horseshoe inscribed with the motto "Sic Juvat transcendere Montes." The journal of Capt. John Fontaine had been preserved, in which he gives an account of the party reaching the top of the range of mountains, and drinking a health to King George and the royal family.

Some Noted descendants.

A grandson of the Rev. Pierre Fontaine, of Westover, Col. William Fontaine, was an officer in the Revolution, being present with his regiment at the surrender of Yorktown by Lord Cornwallis. A letter written to his relatives, soon after the glorious event, gives the personal description of an eye-witness.

Other noted representatives of the family were Charles D. Fontaine, of New Orleans, a great-grandson of Patrick Henry, and a celebrated statesman; Dr. Clement Rush Fontaine, an eminent physician of Virginia; Col. Walter Lloyd Fontaine and Lamar Fontaine, known as a "raconteur" and daring Confederate soldier.

Various descendants of the Fontaine family have distinguished themselves in the service of the army and navy while others in the church and the professions have reflected credit on the name.

The Kentucky Fontaines.

The Fontaines of Kentucky, brought to the Commonwealth the heritage of an honored ... and ancestry, were descended from Aaron Fontaine, son of the Rev. Peter Fontaine, of Westover, and born -- it is said -- in his father's seventieth year, 1753.

In his youth young Aaron Fontaine lived with his sister, Mrs. Isaac Winston

Aaron married Elizabeth Thruston Whiting on 18 Jun 1805 in Louisville, Jefferson County, KY. Elizabeth was born about 1771 in Virginia, USA; died in Jul 1822 in Kentucky. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Mrs. Elizabeth T. Thruston already had ten children when she and Aaron married.