San Francisco County
Biographies
ANTONIO FONTE
ANTONIO FONTE, a
merchant of Oakland, was born in
the Azores, February
25, 1826, his parents being also natives of those islands, and of
Portuguese descent. His mother’s folks
were chiefly of the seafaring class, while his father’s were of the
agricultural community. Both the parents
lived to a good old age, the mother reaching the age of about sixty-two, and
the father being still older, over seventy.
The grandparents were also long-lived, especially his grandmother on his
mother’s side, who was over ninety.
The subject of this
sketch was reared to farm life, with no formal schooling, but h has nobly
repaid that misfortune by a self-education which leaves no suspicion that his
early opportunities in that line were not equal to the best. In 1845 Mr. Fonte
changed to a seafaring life, and soon afterward spent some two years sailing
from English ports, and still later was engaged in the East India
trade for some three years. He came to California
in March, 1851, from Manilla, and has been a resident
here ever since. He first obtained work
in a warehouse at Clark’s Point, San
Francisco, where he remained till October, when he
engaged in conveying milk by whale-boat from San Antonio
(now East Oakland) to San Francisco. Before the close of 1851 he became assistant to James B. Larue, of San
Antonio, in his hotel and store business, remaining
with him two and a half years. In 1854
he went into business there on his own account, first opening a boarding-house,
which he carried on until 1861, with a brief interruption of four months in
1855.
He was married in San
Francisco, January
20, 1856, to Miss Rosanna Lyons, who was born in Ireland,
in 1838, a daughter of James Lyons. Her
mother died young, but the father reached the age of sixty two, dying in Boston,
Massachusetts.
In 1861 Mr. Fonte built his present store, on the site of his
boarding-house, No. 800 and 802 East Twelfth street, where he has now been a
general merchant for thirty years. The
growth of Oakland’s trade has been
more marked in its central sections, but Mr. Fonte
has always been in the front rank in commercial standing and the confidence of
the community. To have obtained larger
results as a merchant he should have changed his location some years ago, but
no wider field or greater prominence in trade could have added to his standing
as a man and citizen. His growth has
been steady, and he has accumulated a competency which under more favorable
circumstances would have been largely increased by a man of his integrity,
thrift and character. He has been
frequently invited to accept nomination to official position, and was once
induced to join a forlorn hope by accepting the Democratic nomination for
Treasurer of Alameda county. With no reasonable prospect and no
expectation of success in a county so overwhelmingly Republican, his personal
popularity was demonstrated by his receiving 500 votes more than his
predecessor on the same ticket. He is
not a strong partisan in politics, having voted successively for Douglas and
Lincoln, for Grant and Greeley, and twice for Cleveland.
He has taken an
active interest in certain local institutions for the benefit of his
fellows. He was the second President of
the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association of the Pacific coast, and for two years
its Grand Treasurer.
He has been, since the organization of the Grand Council in 1886, the
Grand President of the Society of the Portuguese Union of the State of California,
being identified with the movement from the first, and aiding in the formation
of the first subordinate council in San Leandro in 1880. It had ten such councils and a membership of
1,000 before the close of 1890. It is
somewhat similar to the Ancient Order of United Workmen and has some excellent
features. Each council may, if thought
desirable, establish stated sick benefits, while the general principle of the
organization is that no disabled brother shall suffer actual want. Upon the death of a member there is an
assessment of $1 on each surviving member for the benefit of the heirs of the
deceased; and on the death of a member’s wife an assessment of fifty cents
each. The society is moving forward at a
slow but safe rate. It held its fourth
annual general convention in October, 1890.
The worthy president, who is thoroughly Americanized and progressive, is
doing a good work in this direction for the more backward members of his race.
He has had five
children, all born in Oakland and have received a good education, chiefly in private schools
and academies of the Catholic Church.
They are: Henry, who died in
1883, in his twenty-seventh year; Maria, still a resident with her parents;
Joseph T., born in 1862, educated in St. Mary’s College, in business from 1880
to 1883, as junior member of the dry-goods firm of J. P. O’Toole & Co. of
this city. At the death of his brother
Henry he sold out his interest and became assistant in
his father’s general store in East Oakland. Since 1887 he has been connected with the Oakland
Times as a reporter. He is Past President of the Y. M. I., No. 31,
of East Oakland, being a charter member and active in
its institution. He was the Democratic
candidate in 1890 for Justice of the Peace of Brooklyn township,
and was defeated by only 200 votes in a district having a normal Republican
majority of 700 or more. In 1891 he
began the publication of the East Oakland Independent, quite a good specimen of
the local weeklies. James, the fourth of
the children of Mr. Fonte, died in 1884, at the age
of nineteen; and Annie, his youngest surviving child, is now the wife of W. J.
McHugh, of the Whitney, Oakland & Standard Express Company. Mrs. Fonte died in
September, 1887, leaving only three surviving children, --Maria, Joseph T. and
Annie.
Transcribed
by Cathi Skyles.
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2,
pages 298-299, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2005 Cathi Skyles.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library