Cornelius C. Fonda (1809 - 1897)

Ancestors

Died 1897 at about age 87 in Michigan, United States

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Biography

"Cornelius C. Fonda (1809-1897) father of William Henry Fonda (see next entry), spent the days of his " and youth in the state of his nativity (New York) and then he too became a pioneer resident of Michigan, arriving in Calhoun County in the spring of 1838. He made the journey up the Hudson River by steamer, across the country by the Erie canal to Buffalo, thence by boat to Detroit and from there by wagon to his destination, twenty-three days being required to make the trip. He was accompanied by his wife and three sons and the journey across Michigan was made with a double ox team. In New York he had married Miss Esther Moe, who was born in Pleasant Valley, Dutchess County, NY, in 1814.

Arriving in Calhoun county they settled upon the property where the Independent Congregational Church now stands and at the Verona Mills. Mr. Fonda secured slabs with which he erected a small slab shanty, this being the first home of the family. Soon afterward, however, he built a (traditional) house across the road. He was a blacksmith by trade and opened a smithy where the Trump block now stands.

It was entirely unroofed, save that there was a covering over the bellows. Cornelius Fonda made the iron work for the first thresher built by Nichols & Shepard Co. and in his later years he presented the firm with the hammer with which he did that work; today the implement is to be seen in their office. For many years he followed the blacksmith's trade and became the first foreman in the blacksmithing department in the Nichols & Shepard shops. He was an expert mechanic and proved a most capable and trusted employee of the house, but about 1850 he retired from active connection with blacksmithing and removed to his farm east of the city. He had there one hundred and five acres of land now comprised within what is now known as the Fonda addition to Battle Creek.

On that property Cornelius spent his remaining days, devoting his energies to the supervision of his agricultural interests. He was a great lover of horses and owned some of the finest running stock to be found in the county. He took great pleasure in testing their ability and he once trained a horse to run without a rider and it made such splendid records that it passed everything on the race track. Mr. Fonda died in 1897, having survived his wife by about three years and his remains were interred by her side in Oak Hill Cemetery. Mrs. Fonda was a member of the Methodist Church and a most estimable lady. Mr. Fonda cast his first presidential ballot in support of the Republican party. Through an active business career he gained an enviable reputation for reliability that made his name an honored one in trade circles."^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.fonda.org/stories.htm#William%20Cornelius

• www.fonda.org