Francis Fontaine (May 7, 1845 – May 3, 1901) was an American Confederate soldier, plantation owner, newspaper editor, poet and novelist from the state of Georgia.
Early life Francis Fontaine was born on May 7, 1845, in Columbus, Georgia.Francis Fontaine (1845-1901) , Digital Library of GeorgiaFrancis Fontaine , Georgia Center for the BookHubert H. McAlexander, 'Francis Fontaine (1945-1901)', in The New Georgia Encyclopedia Companion to Georgia Literature , Hugh Ruppersburg (ed.), John C. Inscoe (ed.), Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2011, pp. 145-146 McAlexander, Hubert H. "Francis Fontaine (1845-1901)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 04 September 2013. Web. 08 October 2014.Francis Fontaine Diary (SMC 97), Columbus State University His father, John Fontaine (1792–1866), had served as the mayor of Columbus from 1836 to 1837, and he was a planter. His mother was Mary Ann Stewart. He was educated at the Georgia Military Institute in Marietta, Georgia.John C. Inscoe, The Civil War in Georgia: A New Georgia Encyclopedia Companion, Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2011 p. 125
During the American Civil War of 1861–1865, he joined the Confederate States Army and served as a private and aide-de-camp. He fought at the Battle of Peachtree Creek.
Career After the war, Fontaine inherited his father's plantations and managed them, becoming a planter in his own right.
In 1874, Fontaine co-founded The Columbus Times, a newspaper in his hometown of Columbus, Georgia. He then served as a state diplomat, encouraging European immigration to the state of Georgia. In 1877, he was elected to a convention to write the new state constitution.
In 1878, his poem entitled The Exile: A Tale of St. Augustine was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons. The theme of the poem was the massacre of Huguenots by Spanish forces in Florida in 1565. The poem received negative reviews from The New York Times and the Evening Post. He went on to publish three novels, including Etowah: A Romance of the Confederacy, which received good reviews from critics.
Personal life and death Fontaine married Mary Flournoy in 1870, and they had a son and a daughter.James Edmonds Saunders, Early Settlers of Alabama, Genealogical Publishing Com, 2010, p. 297 In 1885, he remarried to Nathalie Hamilton. They resided in Atlanta, Georgia.
Fontaine died in Atlanta, Georgia on May 3, 1901, at the age of 55. He was buried at Linwood Cemetery in Columbus, Georgia.
Bibliography
Poetry The Exile: A Tale of St. Augustine (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1878).Google Books
Non-fiction The State of Georgia: What It Offers to Immigrants, Capitalists, Producers and Manufacturers, and Those Desiring to Better their Condition (1881).Google Books
Novels Etowah: A Romance of the Confederacy (1887).Etowah : a romance of the confederacy / by Francis Fontaine, Digital Library of GeorgiaGoogle Books Amanda, the Octoroon (J. P. Harrison, 1891).Google Books The Modern Pariah: A Story of the South (1892).
References