Oliver Francois-Xavier Fontaine (1829 - 1905)

Born 28 Jan 1829 in St-Constant, Quebec, Canada

Ancestors

Husband of Elmire (Varin) Fontaine — married 9 Oct 1849 (to 1899) in St Rémi de Napiereville, Quebec, Canada

Descendants

Died 22 Jan 1905 at age 75 in North Adams, Berkshire, Massachusetts, USA

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Bob Scrivens [send private message]

Biography

This was one of those ancestors who was difficult to trace. The solution came when it turned out that he was called Xavier in Quebec and Oliver in Massachusetts.

Two names

With the help of WikiTree member, Robert Blais Blais-120, new information came to light about this ancestor. From the various documents he investigated, it seems that "Oliver" began his life as Francois, then Francois-Xavier Fontaine. This possibility became evident when I found his tombstone, a 4 ft. high white marble obelisk with a cross on top, near the front, Church St. side, of Southview Cemetery in North Adams. The tombstone clearly shows his name as "Xavier," even though when I checked city cemetery records, it said that "Oliver Fountain" paid for this plot, around the time that his wife, Elmira Varin Fontaine, passed away. (Even Elmire's name has been spelled variously, Almira, Elmira, and Elmire.) In short, all the American information (NY and MA US Census) seems to have recorded him as "Oliver." All the Quebec sources Mr. Blais found, as Francois-Xavier. The name "Fontaine" became Anglicized in the USA, too, but not on the tombstone! Curious.

One record for him was in the 1852 Canadian Census, where Fountain, Frs Xavier (23) and Elmire Varin (20) are listed. (Note that his name is Francois Xavier and he appears already married to Elmire in 1852) [1] They had been married for three years, the ceremony in St. Remi, Quebec.

Does the X look like Ol?

One other curiousity: if you look at some documents with Xavier's name on it, the script "X" has its two left ends curling toward one another in a way that could have resulted in a misreading of the "X" as "Ol." The rest of the name, "avier," is close enough to the "iveir" (the French spelling of Oliver is "Olivier," with the extra "i.") so that it could have been misread at some point. And why would a person go by a new name when he came to a new country using a new language? Maybe he was just taking the way of least resistance. (Just look at how many people had their names misspelled when they came to Ellis Island--and just decided it was easier to let it stay that way!)

Oliver’s naturalization papers are dated Oct 3, 1872, Carthage, NY. (Sent by email from Robert Blais, 7/22/2013.) Is it possible that, if there was an Oliver AND a Francois-Xavier, that the latter used Oliver's naturalization papers because he had none? If Oliver was living in Williamstown or North Adams at that time (see US Census 1880 below), this was a 200 mile trip! Why would he go that far to settle? Does this reveal that Francois-Xavier was trying to use Oliver's identity for naturalization for some reason? (See naturalization paper image on this page.) Or (more likely to me) do these records represent two different people? That is possible since there is an Oliver C. Fountain listed on FamilySearch [2] who lived in Brooklyn, NY, who was 28 for the 1905 NYS Census.

Oliver's mother

The other area of dispute has been Oliver/Xavier's parents. His father was a Jean-Baptiste Fontaine, whose father had the same name. The discussion comes in with the name of his mother. Oliver's death record and cemetery record clearly have her name as Clouthine Fountaine Bruisseau (perhaps "Brisson" was another spelling?), yet Mr. Blais could not find any record of a marriage between a Jean-Baptiste Fontaine and a Bruisseau in the Québec Drouin Collection (just one between a Joseph Fontaine and a Felecite Bruosseau in 1810). So we must fall back on Clothilde Brisson, who appears on a number of records as wife of a Jean-Baptiste Fontaine, and giving birth to a son, Francois-Xavier (Oliver).

FamilySearch.org has a pedigree for what appears to be Oliver/ Xavier's grandfather and grandmother, Jean Baptiste and Marie Anne Gagne. The interesting thing in this tree is that there is a Francois Xavier listed as one of their children. This, of course, is the same name as Mr. Blais shows that "Oliver" had when he was in Quebec. But the Francois Xavier who is listed here has a DOB about 10 years earlier than the Oliver/ Xavier who was buried in North Adams. So, was Oliver/ Xavier named after an uncle with a similar name? Or, did he for some reason assume his uncle's name for citizenship purposes? As crazy as this sounds, there were two impactful events happening during the time of Oliver/ Xavier's life: The Quebec Patriots Rebellion of 1837-38 (See: Ancestry Timeline) and the American Civil War. The former might explain an indirect route to citizenship; the latter may suggest a reason he adjusted his identity so he didn't have to serve in a war in his new country where he was not really a stakeholder yet. My conclusion is that the easiest answer is correct: the Carthage, NY naturalization papers are for another like-named person, and Oliver/ Xavier continued on to Massachusetts from Black Brook, NY.

How did the family come to Black Brook, NY?

Oliver lived in Black Brook, Clinton Co., NY and had a number of his children there. In the 1870's, he came to Williamstown, MA in his 40's. He lived in North Adams, MA in the later stages of his life, and died there five years after his wife. (North Adams Death Index confirms his DOD under the name "Oliver".)

Black Brook is a small community in Clinton Co, in the northernmost section of New York. It's soil was too poor to support farming, "The soil is cold, wet, and poorly calculated for agricultural pursuits. [But] Extensive beds of iron ore are scattered through the town. The Palmer mine, two miles north of Au Sable Forks, yields from 16,000 to 20,000 tons annually. The Myers and Trombois mines are also largely worked. The people are principally engaged in the manufacture of iron, charcoal and lumber." [3]

My cousin Doug Brown added this in an email in 8/2016: "I had a thought that at the start of the Civil War, they needed iron mined, and I still think that's why our family came. However, I took this from Google:

'From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, nearly a million French Canadians poured across our northern border to take jobs in New England textile and shoe mills. This movement, part of an even larger mass of Anglo Canadians also moving south, surged after the Civil War and ended with the Great Depression, with peaks in the 1880s and 1920s.

'The majority of these job seekers — French speaking, slow to assimilate, mainly Catholic — entered without visas, work permits or passports, because during most of this period our land border with Canada was effectively wide open.' "

--Contributed by my cousin, Doug Brown.

So maybe the border crossing document from Carthage, NY was not for Oliver/ Xavier after all.

Marriage Record

This is Robert Blais' translation of the Marriage Record in the Drouin Collection:

"October 9 1849, after publication of 3 advise of marriage done at our church between François Xavier Fontaine , son of Jean Baptiste Fontaine and Clotilde Brisson, and Elmire Varin, daughter of Joseph Varin & Marguerite Surprenant, from this village. etc etc etc in presence of Théophile Gervais and Magloire L'Asselin, friend of the spouse and Joseph Varin (father) and Louis Bazinet (friend of the spouse). No one can sign, Bedard Ptre, Priest sign"

Oliver was 23 and Elmire was 20 when they got married in St. Remi, Quebec, where they were born, according to Marriage Records for St. Remi Parish in 1852.

On Mesaieux.com[4], Oliver is listed as "Francois-Xavier"

In the 1880 Census, the family was living in Williamstown, MA, and Oliver was 51. Minnie and her husband John Garno were living there, too, and Elvoser (Edward); both of them were born in Quebec. Jed (Gideon) had been born two years after Elvoser, which means the family came to Black Brook, NY between 1862-4. Their son Oliver was 7, and also born in Black Brook, so they had been in Williamstown for fewer years than that.

Oliver had no children, however, while he was in Williamstown. The birth of Dennis was in 1870 in Black Brook, NY, and their next child, Joseph W., born in 1887, was the first of children born in N. Adams.

According to the 1900 US Census, son Jedeon Fountaine was born in January 1864 in New York. He married Adeline in 1885. They had four children during their marriage. In 1900, he was 35 years old and lived in North Adams, Massachusetts with his wife, Adeline, 2 sons, and 2 daughters.

His Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915, 1905 North Adams says he lived on 284 Union St. in North Adams, MA when he died of "old age [75] due to chronic cystitis." He was attended from May 1904 to Jan 1905 by a doctor, W. A. Brosseau.

Sources

Francois Xavier Fontaine in the Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968 (baptismal)

Fountain,Frs Xavier and Elmire Varin,1852 Canadian Census

1880 United States Federal Census, Massachusetts, Berkshire, Williamstown.

FamilySearch.org has three sources for Oliver Foutain [5], two US Census records, 1880 in Williamstown, MA and 1900 in North Adams, MA/ The third is a death certificate from North Adams, which lists his parents, John-Baptiste and his mother as "Clouthine Bruisseau"

Marriage date:[6]

FamilySearch.org profile of Jean-Baptiste Fontaine, son of Rene and Marguerite [1]

FamilySearch.org for Adolph Fontaine [7]

North Adams Marriage Index, 1916

Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915 1905 North Adams

Oliver Fountain in the Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 (death date)

• PRDH/Repertoire des Actes de Bapteme, Mariage, et Sepulture, et des Recensements de Quebec Ancien XVIIe Siecle

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Robert Scrivens for creating WikiTree profile Fontaine-309 through the import of 2293fi_608439562v2o181f2jw4c6.ged on Apr 19, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Robert and others.