Sacramento County
Biographies
JOSHUA FOUNTAIN
JOSHUA FOUNTAIN. The Fountain family, whose
California immigrant was Joshua Fountain, well known throughout the Sacramento
valley, was established in America by one of three brothers, who emigrated from
France before the middle of the last century.
One settled in Maryland, one in Long Island, and the other went south;
afterward the last-named returned to France, where his death occurred and
through whose demise a large fortune was left to the American heirs. This has never been investigated by the
descendants, as they have inherited the sturdy characteristics of the American
pioneer and have won for themselves a competence in whatever location they have
resided. A grand-uncle of Joshua
Fountain was a colonel in the French and Indian wars about 1760, serving on the
side of the British colonies, and is said to have received the grant of one or
two sections of land over which the city of Baltimore has since spread. The name became prominent in public affairs
in Maryland, and in that state, February 27, 1811, Joshua Fountain was born,
the son of Andrew and Rebecca Fountain, the mother who lived to be over seventy
years old, being a daughter of James and Mary (Fisher) Barwick
and a descendant of an early established family in that state. Joshua Fountain was reared on the Maryland
farm near the Delaware line. In 1834 he
married Prudence Rebecca Fountain, who was born June 15, 1815, a daughter of
Solomon and Anvibater Fountain.
During the first year after his marriage
Mr. Fountain rented a farm in Maryland, and in 1835 removed to Michigan. He began farming on property he purchased in
Cass county and three years later bought a farm near
Farmington, Iowa. Later he located in
Lee county, that state, and farmed for seven
years. In 1850 he crossed the plains to
California, accompanied by his oldest son, then a boy
of fourteen years, and upon his arrival in Grass Valley on the 15th
of September of the same year, turned his attention to mining. During the spring of the following year he
engaged in prospecting and afterward began mining on Big Rich bar, on the north
fork of the Feather river. During the winter of 1851 and the following
spring he mined at Oregon Gulch, below Oroville, and in the summer of 1852 came
to Sacramento, his accumulated earnings amounting to about $3,000. He purchased property at the corner of Eight and
O streets and there began his old business of brick-making, which work he
continued from 1852 to 1861. August 20,
1855, Mr. Fountain left his son in charge of the business and retuning to Iowa
brought back his wife and four children.
Two years later he bought the ranch of two hundred and forty acres at
the northeast corner of Franklin township, which he
still owns, and where he has made his home since 1859. While manufacturing brick in Sacramento Mr.
Fountain went to Grass Valley in 1857, and there made brick for the Catholic
Church of that place; and in 1859 to Suisun City, where he made brick for the
courthouse and jail. Mr. Fountain still
devotes his farm to the raising of grain.
The death of Mrs. Fountain occurred in
December 13, 1871. She was the mother of
the following children: William Andrew,
born June 9, 1836, a member of the firm of Fountain Brothers, brick
manufacturers of Sacramento; James Barwick, born July
11, 1838, associated with his oldest brother in the brick manufactory; Ann
Eliza, born January 13, 1841; George Walton, born January 19, 1844; Sarah Jane,
who was born December 17, 1847, and died in 1849; and May Marion and an unnamed
twin sister, born March 17,1849, the first-named dying in 1851, and the latter
soon after birth. All but William A.
were natives of Iowa, he being born in Michigan. The following were born in Sacramento:
Joshua, Jr., born April 2, 1857; an un-named child who was born March 31, 1861,
and died April 12, 1861; and Charles Henry, who was born April 6, 1862, and
died February 12, 1884. Ann Eliza
married F.S. Hotchkiss, of Sacramento.
George W. is engaged in the dairy business on the Locke and Lavenson place, below Courtland; he supplies half the
stock, the firm the other half and the land, the products being owned in equal
shares; his wife was formerly Louisa Hollman. Joshua Jr., is a traveling salesman for the
hardware house of Hillburn Brothers, of Sacramento;
his wife was in maidenhood Clara Hoyt.
December 30, 1874, Mr. Fountain was united in marriage with Mary Myers,
a native of Dade county, Mo., and the daughter of Garrrett
Laure and Delina
(Robertson) Myers, the father being of French and the mother of English
descent, both now living in Sacramento.
Transcribed
by Louise E. Shoemaker, October 10, 2007.
Source: “History of the State of California and
Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley, California” by J. M. Guinn. Page 661. Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1906.
© 2007 Louise E. Shoemaker.