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- "ORIGINAL SURVEY OF TRACT GRANTED TO JOHN CONNOLY BY LORD DUNMORE, OF VIRGINIA, IN "FINCASTLE COUNTY," DECEMBER 14, 1773, UNDER THE PROCLAMATION OF KING GEORGE 111., OF 1763 -- "FOR MILITARY SERVICES."
"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 grass lands. 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 Aexander 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, Attourney 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 not able 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
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1753 - 1823 (69 years)