Wilfred Fountain

My cousin Doug Brown has established a time line with sources for our grandfather Wilfred "Bill" Fountain. [1] The following facts are compiled from his sources:

"Bill" Fountain was born in North Adams, MA in 1895, acccording to the 1900 US Census to Gedeon and Adeline (Vezina) Fountaine. He is the second youngest of four children, living with his family and two boarders, Xavier Vezina and Archille Fontaine, members of the family. They were living at 4 Canal Street in North Adams. By 1910, the family was living at 40 Folsom (?) St. and Wilfred (age 15) worked in a cotton mill.

Records show Wilfred registered for the draft in 1917 for World War I and in 1942 for World War II. The WW I draft registration shows he was still single and working as a "weaver" at the Hoosac Cotton Mill. (Also note that his last name is misspelled on the registration, reversing the "a" and "i.") By the census of 1930, Wilfred is married to Yvonne and he and his daughters are living at 65 Howland Ave. in Adams (Zylonite), MA. He worked for the State Street Railway as a bus driver. The draft registration for WW II shows him still living on Howland Ave. at 47 years old, working for Berkshire Street Railway of Pittsfield, MA. (Interesting! People in their late 40's had to register for the draft!) The 1940 US Census confirms that he was a bus driver. My mother, Doris, and her three sisters were all living at home then. The North Adams, Massachusetts, City Directory for 1944 shows the family now lived at 88 Beaver St. My mother, Doris, is the only one of the sisters who is listed as still living there (employed at Sprague Specialty Co.)

The Troy Record reported his funeral on Dec. 14, 1966 as the brother of Troy resident George Fountain. The article also mentions his brother Lawrence of N. Adams and his sister, a Mrs. Wilfred Daignault of Phoenix, AZ.

What I remember of "Bill" Wilfred Fountain was a kind, quiet man, who was always friendly toward his grandchildren.

I spent some time with Pepe (as we called him, probably "Pepere") when I used to take public transportation home from school, and he drove the bus. He was a bus driver for years. When we'd go and visit he and Meme in their house "in the Beaver" (Beaver St.), he'd let me count all the change he collected on his bus run, which he turned in the next day, I guess. For a little boy, all those coins were a lot of fun! One time, I got in trouble for standing up next to his seat while he was driving the bus on a school run. An officious older "patrol boy," tattled on me for not following the rules. (God, those Catholic school nuns had their thing about following those rules!) It was the only time I remember my parents going down to school and going to bat for me when I ran afoul of one of their silly infractions. There was another time I almost gave my mother a heart attack when I came home from riding on his bus and said he was late because he was robbed. My mother called up right away and got the real story: what Pepe had said was that he was late because he was "held up" (meaning by traffic). I took it to mean by bandits, of course (too many cowboy and stage coach stories).

My cousin Doug Brown also had some good stories. "He liked fishing. We went several time when I was in High School and the summer before he had died. On one of our trips to Cheshire Pond, along the way, he asked me to pull over in the rest area and to stop in front of a 55 gal drum. We got out and he asked me to open the trunk and then asked me to help him with putting the drum in the trunk. He said that he couldn't do it alone and that Meme would have "problems" helping him. He wanted the Drum for burning trash. No police showed, but at that time, I don't think they would have said anything. He had better use for it than the State. I believe that was before [First Lady]Ladybird Johnson cleaned up the highways. [Another one was] When they first moved up on Overlook Terrace, Meme was taking a nap and their neighbor, Fred Dindore, was out shooting pigeons and put a round through the end wall of the trailer where Meme was napping. Pepe went out and hollered "What hell do you think your doing!" Dindore: "Shooting Pidgeons" Pepere: "Well you all most shot a big pidgeon! My Wife!" The bullet went about 2' over Meme's head ( when laying down) if I recall. From that day, Dindore couldn't do enough for them."

When my son Rob got married, I was surprised to see how much he resembled my grandfather Bill's own wedding picture (seen here). Rob had all his features: nose, lips, the tilt of the eyes, everything except the hair.

Pepere died while I was away at college my first year. I got the impression that my mother was trying to spare me by not telling me until I got home for Christmas break. Through my mother, I think I inherited Pepere's quiet, soft-spoken, easy-going disposition for the most part. I remember my mother saying my laugh, sort of a soft, "He, he, he" was like his.

According to the North Adams Transcript Obituary, he was a WW I veteran. From Cousin Doug Brown: "In the North Adams Transcript Friday June 19, 1919, Personal Paragraph tells when Pepere came home from Ft. Devens." Doug said Pepere never was shipped overseas. On Ancestry.com, Wilfred Fountain's registration card is listed; at the time, he was living at 61 Cleveland Ave, N. Adams; the name "Fran Xavier" seems to be there, but it's unclear; he was then working at the Hoosac Cotton Mill. In a WW II Registration, he lived on 67 Howland Ave. in Adams, then, at age 47, employed by Berkshire St. Railway, of Pittsfield.

Sources

Personal information and cousin Doug Brown's data from family records.

Massachusetts, Birth Records, 1840-1915 about Wilfred Fontaine (Note: the original French spelling of the surname is on this record) US Census, 1900, 1910, 1930, 1940