ID: ind06634
Name: Charles Henry FONDE
Given Name: Charles Henry
Surname: Fonde
Sex: M
Birth: 1827
Death: 17 OCT 1881
Age: 54y
Note: b. Washington, DC; 1850, 1860 & 1870 US Federal Census, Mobile Co., AL; 1859 NY City, NY Directory (Charles Fonde, dredger); [Alabama State Census, 1820-1866 - Name: C. H. Fonde, Race: White, County: Mobile, Sixth Ward, Census Year: 1866, male 10-20: 1, male 20-30: 1, male 30-40: 1, female 20-30: 1]; 1880 US Federal Census, Beat 1, Wayne Co., MS; 1890 New Orleans, LA City Directory; d. Belmont Springs, Wayne Co., MS; bur. Magnolia Cemetery, Mobile, AL; o. Artist, Engineer, Architect, Railroad Superintendent; [Fonde, Charles H., "An Account of the Great Explosion of the United States Ordnance Stores, Which Occurred in Mobile, on the 25th Day of May, 1865." Mobile, AL, H. Farrow & Co., Printers, 1869. E334 M6 F6.]; [Charles Henry Fonde (1) was an artist, a draftsman, an inventor, and an engineer, and this in spite of being cross-eyed and with a crippled or missing right hand. His father, John Philip Fonde, died when he was a small boy, but Charles remembered him "all dressed up with sword clanking" as a member of the Columbia Guards. He also remembered being taken to hear the great men of the day while he sat quitely beside his father as he recorded the proceedings of Congress. According to a letter written by his daughter Elizabeth, Charles Henry left home at the age of 15 or 16 and joined a panorama that was fitted out on a Mississippi river boat. His job was to help with the painting and renewing of the scenes. He ended up in New Orleans, where it is believed that his uncle Charles lived and worked. Charles Henry found a job as a teacher of art at Mandeville College on Lake Pontchartrain. He was a very large and strong man (6'6") and must have looked older than his age at the time. When the school met financial reverses and he lost this job, Charles was about 20 years old and for a time he resided with some of the "most reputable creole families of the parish of St. Tammany, and spent a year amongst the sylvan retreats of Bayou Lacombe and Bonfouca" (from obituary). He later moved to Mobile, Alabama where he married his first wife, Elizabeth McClester and had his first son, Henry. He invented and patented a dredging machine designed to deepen river channels and improve harbors. (Dredging Machine, Patent No. 10.668, March 21, 1854). Fonde's excavator or dredge was used by the city of Marseilles, France, to improve its harbor. It was also used in Nicaragua. The Civil War disrupted the income from his patent, and after the war was over he "went North only to find his patent rights invaded, and his original invention so disguised as to protect the plunderers, and after vain efforts to secure recognition of his rights, he returned to his family and the struggles of his early life." (Obituary). Ref: Ancestors of Charles Henry Fonde website] >> www.fonda.org <<
Father: John Philip FONDE b: 1794
Mother: Elizabeth STEWART b: 1796
Marriage 1
Elizabeth R. MCCLESTER b: 1826
- Married:
05 JUN 1851
Religious Marriage
- Note: m. Mobile, Mobile Co., AL
Children
 Henry FONDE b: 24 APR 1852
Marriage 2
Camilla WELCH b: 02 NOV 1836
- Married:
01 DEC 1855
Religious Marriage 1
- Note: m. Manhattan, New York City, NY (1-Dec-1855) & Springfield, MA (29-Nov-1855)
Children
 Ida Elizabeth FONDE b: 28 SEP 1857- Sarah Hamilton FONDE b: MAY 1859
Marriage 3
Lydia Stickney WRAGG b: 05 APR 1840
- Married:
31 OCT 1865
Religious Marriage
- Note: m. Mobile, Mobile Co., AL
Children
- Keith FONDE b: APR 1868
- Hiram Cornelius FONDE b: 09 NOV 1869
- Gertrude FONDE b: 1871
- George Heustis FONDE b: 12 MAY 1873
- Elizabeth FONDE b: 12 MAY 1873
- Raphael FONDE b: 12 FEB 1876
Sources:
- Title: New York City Marriages, 1600s-1800s
Index to approximately 410,000 individuals who were married in or near New York City between 1622 and 1899
Vital Records
Publication: Toronto, Ontario, CAN
Publisher: Genealogical Research Library
Issue: V7
Author: Elliot, Noel
Note:
VitalMarriagesNewYorkCity
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