Buckingham County Houses: Ivy Hill, Part III
Trinity Presbyterian Church
Click here to catch up: Buckingham County Houses: Ivy Hill, Part I
Digging for Buckingham County gold often requires dedicated sleuthing.
The Library of Virginia houses the “Walter Lloyd Fontaine Papers, 1813-1870,” which includes receipts, invoices, letters, promissory notes, etc. The library provides this short biography for Col. Fontaine:
Walter Lloyd Fontaine (1787-1860) was the son of Abraham (1757-1831) and Sarah Ballard Fontaine (1762-1825) of Charles City and Goochland Counties, Virginia. He married first G. Nicholas and second M.F. Nicholas. With his second wife he had a child named Walter Scott Fontaine (b. 1826). Walter Lloyd Fontaine moved often both in Virginia and out-of-state. Records list his occupation as both an attorney and a farmer.
Additionally, Fontaine was a member of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Buckingham County, served as an elder of the church, and was friendly with my ancestor and fellow Presbyterian, Col. John M. Harris. A letter, written in 1836, from Harris to Fontaine survives, along with copies of a Fontaine family Bible and account books, and is part of the Fontaine collection at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
The University of Virginia safeguards an even larger collection, acquired in 1965. “Fontaine Family Papers 1809-1908” contains 355 items.
These scattered Fontaine family papers are a reminder to search the collections at a variety of institutions when investigating any Buckingham County family.
Coming next: Buckingham County Houses: Ivy Hill, Part IV
slate river ramblings . . . . 
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