John Philip FONDE

                   NOTE:
Only daughter of John Philip and Elizabeth Stuart Fonde.  she was born in Alexandria, Virginia or in Washington D.C., sister of Charles H. Fonde.  Her tragic story is told in Magnolia Cemetery.  She married Thomas H. Wier, native of Nassau, a resident of New Orleans and of Mobile.  He was big and jolly, a favorite in the family and outside it.  He died at age 50 years in 1864, a war year, under trying circumstances.  A man of high integrity, he had become involved in the disappearnce of some funds in his charge; after his death, the misappropriation was traced directly to the son of the head of the firm.  The whole matter was held from the public but according to family tradition, it killed Thomas Wier.

Only one child of Sarah and Thoma Wier grew up, John F.S. Wier.  The initials probably stand for John Fonde Stuart Wier.  Born in 1850, John Wier was only two years older than Henry Fonde.  they grew up like brothers.  Henry Fonde, having lost his own mother, looked to "Aunt Sarah" for mothering.  His foster brother, John Wier, became ill with an organic trouble, Bright's disease.  He died after several years of ill health.  This explains the unusual inscription on his tombstone: "Let me sleep, Mother.  The days seem long."

Aunt Sarah continued a close association with her brother, Charles H. Fonde.  Henry lived with her part of the time.  And after his first wife, Lula Redwood, died, he wanted to have Aunt Sarah take charge of his motherless little girls, Dora Fonde (Little) and Corinne Fonde (of Houston).  He finally managed it.  The children were in her charge until he married Alice Broun and made a home for them.

Alone again, Aunt Sarah lived in her little Dauphin Street Cottage and then in rented rooms about the city.  She said that she had lost so many that she loved that she was afraid to let herself love anyone again.

She was an accomplished needle-woman.  She made shirts and suits for John Wier and for Henry Fonde that were expert tailoring.  In her later years, she made a white house coat of Albatross for Henry Fonde to put on at meal times on hot days.  She would not have considered having him come to a meal in shirt sleeves.  the white coat should have been kept.  It would have been interesting.  A tiny gold thimble, given to Aunt Sarah as a child may still be in possession of Gertrude Fonde Kilborn.  With it the little Srah did her daily task of find hand-sewing.  Sewing for those she loved was her greatest pleasure in old age.  She was widely known and loved in Mobile.  She died at 68 years.
                  

                   Charles Henry Fonde was a noted engineer.  As a civil engineer, and patentee of the first bucket-wheel-dredge, which revolutionized dredging of present days.  Also, he was a manager of the large syndicated operation from New York City, and which under his management dredged in New York Harbor, or North River, Baltimore, Havana, Cuba, Savannah and Harbor of Marseilles, France.  He also did some engineering work in Austria.  Having been born in Virginia, and later a resident of New Orleans and Mobile, his home at the time of the Civil War was Mobile, Alabama.  He happened to be in Cuba but returned at the outbreak.  

The business success and brilliant outlook for the future was blasted by the seizure of property and confiscation of patent rights.  He was also the originator of the revolving cannon which is the mother of the idea of Mettraillense, the famous French and of the American Gatlin Gun.
His schooling was in the country home in Wayne County, Mississippi with private tutors, and in country schools up to sixteen years of age.  He then returned to Mobile and entered George B. Clevelands Business School, with high school qualifications.
Seven years later, he entered the Medical department at the University of Alabama and graduated in medicine and pharmacy in 1897.
He wrote a key document entitled: An Account of the Great Explosion of the United States Ordinance Stores on 25 May 1865.
Charles married 3 times: (1) Elizabeth R. McClesteer, 1851; (2) Camilla Welch, 1855; & (3) Lydia Wragg, 1865 (Notes by Melvin Scott Jr.)

Fonde, Charles Henry 1827-1881Who Was Who in American Art. 400 years of artists in America. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.The New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860. Yale University Press, 1957.