Fondey, William B.

Born: 1821-05-14 New York

Died: 1862-02-19 Springfield, Illinois

Flourished: Springfield, Illinois

Fondey served in the Mexican War as an adjutant at the rank of second lieutenant in the Fourth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. In early September 1848, he returned to Springfield, Illinois and ran unsuccessfully for clerk of the Sangamon County Circuit Court. In June 1851, he married Mary Lee Barret, with whom he had two children. In 1854 and 1855, Fondey purchased tracts of public land in Logan, Marion, Rock Island, and Whiteside counties, acquiring 320 acres. In 1857, he owned a store in Springfield on the south side of the town square. He was also a founding member of the Springfield and Pana Railroad Company, which was incorporated in 1857 to build a railroad from Springfield to Taylorville, Illinois and on to Pana, Illinois. Fondey was the Democratic Party's nominee for Illinois state treasurer in 1858, but lost to Republican James Miller. In 1860, Fondey is listed as a clerk in the Springfield city directory and as a merchant in the U.S. federal census. During the Civil War, he served as an adjutant in the Eighteenth Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. He resigned from the army October 13, 1861.

Cadmus M. Wilcox, History of the Mexican War (Washington, DC: Church News, 1892), 659-60; John Moses, Illinois: Historical and Statistical (Chicago: Fergus, 1895), 1:493; Illinois Journal (Springfield), 6 September 1848, 3:4; 13 September 1848, 4:3; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Cook County, 9 June 1851, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Logan County, 70:198; Whiteside County, 812:116; Marion County, 812:70; Rock Island County, 812:90, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield, IL), 21 September 1857, 1:3; Charters and Organization, Ohio and Mississippi Railway Company (New York: George F. Nesbitt, 1885), 133-39; Arthur Charles Cole, The Era of the Civil War 1848-1870, vol. 3 of The Centennial History of Illinois (Springfield: Illinois Centennial Commission, 1919), 162; Charles H. Coleman, "The Lincoln-Douglas Debate at Charleston, IL September 18, 1858," Eastern Illinois University Bulletin 220 (October 1, 1957), 11; U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2011), 81; History of Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1881), 374; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 114; Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Gravestone, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, IL.