Fountain County, Indiana Genealogy Trails

Fountain County, Indiana

This county was so called in respect to Major Fontaine, of Kentucky, who was killed at the head of the mounted militia, in the battle on the Maumee, near Fort Wayne, in 1790. The surface of the county is mostly level, though the central and southern parts are occasionally undulating; and it is beautifully variegated with heavy forest and rich prairies,which later constitute about one-fourth of the county. The soil is generally a black loam, with a slight mixture of sand, and is very fertile, producing excellent crops of wheat and corn. In the southern part of the county there is a preponderance of clay, and the soil there is consequently better adapted to wheat and grass. There was originally an abundance of timber, consisting of poplar, sugar, beech, oak, walnut and hickory.

Covington, the county seat, is a thriving town on the Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railway. Attica is another smart town in this county. It is located on the Toledo, Wabash and Western Railway. The county has made great improvement during the last decade, both in the growth of its towns and the general developments of the farming districts. The schools are efficient and prosperous.
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Fountain County lies in the western part of the U.S. State of Indiana on the east side of the Wabash River. The county was officially established in 1826 and was the 53rd in Indiana.

James Fontaine 1757-1790 was an officer who served in American Revolutionary War and the Northern Indian War. The name is spelled several ways, including "Fountaine". James Fontaine is believed to have been born in Hanover County, Virginia in1757. At an early age he entered on a military career, becoming a member of the first expert rifle company raised in Buckingham District, Virginia, for the defense of the colony in 1775. Later this company was attached to the 2nd Virginia Regiment, Oct 21, 1775. Served until March 1776, near Williamgsburg, Virginia.

Fontaine moved to Kentucky, where he served as Major in the Northwest Indiana War. In 1790 he served under General Josiah Harmar in a march northward from Cincinnati against the Miami, under the leadership of Little Turtle.

Fontaine was killed on October 22, 1790 at a battle variously known as Harmar's Defeat, Battle of the Maumee, Battle of Kekionga, or Battle of the Miami Towns. This occurred near where the St. Joseph River and St. Mary's River merge to form the Maumee River, near modern Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Miami called it the "Battle of the Pumpkin Fields", because, after the battle, the scalped heads of the Americans reminded them of a pumpkin field.

The state of Indiana was established in 1816. The first non-indigenous settler in the area that became Fountain County is thought to have been a Mr. Forbes, who arrived here in early 1823 and was soon followed by others. Fountain County was officially created on December 30, 1825, the act taking effect on April 1, 1826; the boundaries of the county have not changed since that time.

The first Fountain County courthouse was a two-story frame building constructed in Covington in 1827; Abraham Griffin submitted the winning bid of $335. Two years later in 1829 it was decided that a brick building was needed, and plans were made for a new courthouse; but then an act of the legislature called for the county seat to be moved. In the end it was decided that the county seat should remain in Covington, and the brick courthouse was completed in 1833. A third courthouse was commissioned in 1856, and was completed in 1857 at a cost of $33,500. The circuit court met for the first time in the new building in January 1860, and the building was largely destroyed by fire the same day. Isaac Hodgson was the architect for the rebuilt courthouse, which was first occupied in January 1861; the total cost, including the reconstruction, totaled $54,62. 05 The current courthouse was built it 1936-37 at a cost of $246,734; it replaced the previous building which had been declared unsafe, it was constructed by the Jacobson Brothers of Chicago; the architects where Louis R. Johnson and Walter Scholar of Lafayette. The courthouse walls display many murals painted by Eugene Francis Savage and others from 1937 to 1940; the murals cover over 2,500 square feet of wall space and depict the settlement of western Indiana.

Construction on the Wabash and Erie Canal began in 1832 and worked southwest, it reached Lafayette in 1842. In 1846 it reached Covington, and by 1847 traffic had begun to flow through the county via the canal. Although the coming of the county's first railroad a decade later heralded the end of the canal's usefulness, it wasn't until 1875 that the last canal boat passed through Covington.
Wikipedia

TOWNSHIPS
Logan - Davis - Shawnee - Richland - Troy - Van Buren - Wabash - Cain - Fultron - Mill Creek - Jackson

CITIES AND TOWNS
Attica - Covington - Hillsboro - Kingman - Mellott - Newtown - Veedersburg - Wallace

UNINCORPORATED COMMUNITIES
Cates - Coal Creek - Fountain - Harveysburg - Independence - Rob Roy - Silverwood - Steam Corner - Stone Bluff - Yeddo

EXTINCT TOWNS
Stringtown

County Seat: Covington
Year Organized: 1826
Square Miles: 397.88