 1814 - 1884 (69 years)
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| Name |
Edward Benjamin Fontaine [1, 2, 3, 4] |
| Birth |
5 Aug 1814 |
"Greenwood", Henry, Virginia, USA  [3] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
19 Jan 1884 |
Belvedere Plantation, Pocahontas, Hinds, Mississippi, USA [3] |
| Burial |
Belvedere Plantation, Pocahontas, Hinds, Mississippi, USA [3] |
| Person ID |
I9389 |
Bob Juch's Tree |
| Last Modified |
31 Dec 2022 |
| Father |
Patrick Henry Fontaine, b. 22 Feb 1775, Hanover County, Virginia, USA d. 2 Oct 1852, Ridgeway, Pontotoc, Mississippi, USA (Age 77 years) |
| Relationship |
natural |
| Mother |
Nancy Dabney Miller, b. 16 Aug 1775, Hanover County, Virginia, USA d. 5 Jun 1862, Ridgeway, Pontotoc, Mississippi, USA (Age 86 years) |
| Relationship |
natural |
| Marriage |
23 Jan 1797 |
Leatherwood, Henry, Virginia, USA [5, 6, 7] |
| Family ID |
F765 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family 1 |
Mary Ann "Nancy" Swisher, b. 7 Jan 1821, Williamson County, Tennessee, USA d. 13 Jul 1855, Austin, Travis, Texas, USA (Age 34 years) |
| Marriage |
12 Nov 1840 |
Gay Hill, Washington, Texas, USA [2, 4] |
| Children |
| | 1. Edward Fontaine, b. 4 Aug 1849, Pontotoc County, Mississippi, USA [natural] |
| | 2. Patrick Henry Fontaine, b. Abt 1845, Belvedere Plantation, Hinds, Mississippi, USA d. 16 Mar 1888, New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, USA (Age 43 years) [natural] |
| | 3. Jacques Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar Fontaine, b. 11 Oct 1841, Washington County, Texas, USA d. 1 Oct 1921, Clarksdale, Coahoma, Mississippi, USA (Age 79 years) [natural] |
|
| Family ID |
F3656 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
31 Dec 2022 |
| Family 2 |
Mrs. Susan Catherine Britton, b. 1829, Granville County, North Carolina, USA d. 28 May 1908, Belvidere Plantation, Pocahontas, Hinds County, MS (Age 79 years) |
| Marriage |
1859 |
Hinds County, Mississippi, USA |
| Children |
| | 1. John Eaton Fontaine, b. 12 Dec 1860, Belvidere Plantation, Pocahontas, Hinds County, MS d. 20 Aug 1908, Belvidere Plantation, Pocahontas, Hinds County, MS (Age 47 years) [natural] |
| | 2. Patrick Henry Fontaine, b. 15 Dec 1869, Belvidere Plantation, Pocahontas, Hinds County, MS d. 10 Jan 1959, Jackson, Hinds County, MS (Age 89 years) [natural] |
| | 3. Susan Fontaine, b. Cal 1865, Belvidere Plantation, Pocahontas, Hinds County, MS [natural] |
|
| Family ID |
F3657 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
31 Dec 2022 |
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| Notes |
- Rev. Edward Fontaine and his wife and John E. Fontaine are buried on Belvedere Plantation, next to Sub Rosa, near Pocahontas, Ms. T7NR1W-Sec 11 or 12 Hinds Co., Ms.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/ffo4.html
FONTAINE, EDWARD (1814-1884). Edward Fontaine, early minister and amateur naturalist, was born in Greenwood, Virginia, on August 5, 1814, the son of Patrick Henry and Nancy (Dabney) Fontaine and great-grandson of Patrick Henry. He was admitted to the United States Military Academy, West Point, in July 1830 but was discharged in July 1832 because of a deficiency in math. He was admitted to the bar on February 28, 1835. That year he worked in Pontotoc, Mississippi, as a draftsman on the survey of Chickasaw lands acquired by the federal government.
He became active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, was admitted to the ministry in 1838, and served in Texas at Houston and Galveston by 1840, but later that year he relinquished his ministry. He married Mary Ann Swisher in November 1840, and they had three sons. From May to October 1841 he was private secretary to President Mirabeau B. Lamar. There being no clergyman of any denomination in Austin, Fontaine resolved to do what he could for the religious welfare of his fellow citizens. He organized a Sunday school and preached to all comers, black and white, at informal services in the Capitol or outside in an oak grove. When the seat of government was moved away from Austin and Lamar's term had ended, Fontaine taught school in Independence and Gay Hill in 1842-43. He may have participated in the Somervell expedition in the fall of 1842. About 1843 he went to Mississippi, where he entered the Episcopal Church and was ordained to the ministry on May 14, 1848. In 1851 he returned to Austin as rector of the Church of the Epiphany. He supervised the building of a church, completed and consecrated in May 1855, that became part of the present St. David's Church, Austin. Fontaine's wife died in 1855. In 1859 he married Mrs. Susan Taylor Britton. They had several children, but only two lived to maturity. In Austin Fontaine was active as a clergyman, politician, and amateur naturalist. He traveled widely, served as chaplain of the Texas Senate in 1857-58, and advocated establishment of a state university and a geological survey.
The church suffered in antebellum Texas because of a division in the membership on questions of slavery and secession. Fontaine resigned his charge in Austin and moved to Mississippi in 1859. He was captain of Company H, Eighteenth Regiment, Mississippi Volunteers, and chief of ordnance of the Mississippi Army during the Civil War. He served subsequently as rector at St. Mark's, Mississippi, and at Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. He was a member of the New York Historical Society, the Maryland Academy of Science, and the New Orleans Academy of Science. He delivered addresses and wrote papers about his various scientific interests. His lectures included "How the World Was Peopled" (1872), which contained information on the natural history of Texas, "Winds of the Gulf States" (1873), and "A Lecture on the Peculiarities of the Physical Geography of the Mississippi River and its Delta" (1874). He died at Belvedere, Mississippi, on January 19, 1884.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Austin History Center Files. Edward Fontaine Papers, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Louis Wiltz Kemp Papers, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Texas Collection, October 1943. Daisy Barrett Tanner, The History and Treasures of St. David's Church (Austin, 1976). Work Projects Administration Writers' Program, St. David's through the Years (Austin: St. David's Episcopal Church, 1942).
DuBose Murphy
The Texas State Historical Association, 1997, 1998, 1999.
Last Updated: February 15, 1999
Comments to: comments@www.tsha.utexas.edu
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| Sources |
- [S38] Ancestry.com, U.S., Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970, (Name: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.Original data - Sons of the American Revolution Membership Applications, 1889-1970. Louisville, Kentucky: National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Microfilm, 508 rolls;), Volume: 250.
- [S683] Ancestry.com, Texas Marriage Collection, 1814-1909 and 1966-2002, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2005;), Texas Department of State Health Services; Austin, Texas; Texas Marriages, 1814-1909.
- [S65] Ancestry.com, U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2012;).
- [S685] Ancestry.com, Texas, Select County Marriage Records, 1837-2015, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2014;), Washington County Clerk's Office; Brenham, Texas; Washington County, Texas, Marriage Records.
- [S394] Virginia Anderton Dodd, comp., Henry Country Marriage Bonds, 1778-1849, (Name: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1976;).
- [S103] Dodd, Jordan, Virginia, Marriages, 1660-1800, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 1997;).
- [S105] Ancestry.com, Virginia, Select Marriages, 1785-1940, (Name: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc; Location: Provo, UT, USA; Date: 2014;).
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