Francis Fontaine was born May 7, 1845 in Columbus, Georgia to John Fontaine, the first mayor of Columbus, and his wife Mary Ann Stewart. Francis Fontaine was a student at the Georgia Military Institute in Marietta when the Civil War began. Though only a boy, he enlisted in the Confederate army and served as a private and an aide-de-camp, suffering a severe hearing loss in the field. After the war, he returned home and managed his father’s large planting interests. In 1874, he and an associate founded the Columbus Times and in 1877 he was elected to the convention to draw up a new state constitution. He was the author of numerous works, including Etowah: A Romance of the Confederacy in 1887. Fontaine was twice married, first in 1870 to Mary Flournoy (b. 1852) of Columbus with whom he had two children, Francis Maury and Mary Flournoy. His second marriage in 1885 was to Natalie Hamilton of Athens. He died on May 3, 1901 at his home in Atlanta and is buried in the Fontaine plot in Linwood Cemetery in Columbus. (See the New Georgia Encyclopedia for more information.)