Miriam Fonder
Miriam Donegan Fonder
For residents of Parker, Colorado, the name Fonder may ring a bell. Traces of the name endure in the area due to the life and impact of early settler Miriam Fonder. Fonder (née Donegan) was born in Ohio in 1835. At two years old, Fonder was badly burned over large portions of her body after her parents went out for a walk. When her mother died, 13-year-old Fonder took charge of her seven siblings. In her memoirs, she recalled "I can't keep back the tears when I think of those lonesome, lonesome days without my Mother."[1]
At 16, her aunt and uncle took her in and she was finally able to attend school, earning a teaching certificate at age 20. "After that, my life was different," remembered Fonder. "I was well and strong and had my share of joy and plenty of the comforts of life."[2]
Colorado Days
At 26, Fonder traveled to Colorado, where she worked at an Idaho Springs boarding house. There, she met and married Hubert Fonder in 1861. Soon, the Civil War struck and Hubert joined McLain's Independent Light Artillery Battery, of the Union Army. Fonder worked as a laundress for the regiment while they trained, giving birth to baby Madgie during a march over the Divide between Colorado Springs and Castle Rock. The regiment nicknamed Madgie the "Battery Baby" and loved to coddle her. But when the Battery was sent to Kansas for active duty, Fonder could not follow.[3]
Fonder struggled through illness and a harsh and freezing winter as a mining town washerwoman at Nevadaville (later called Bald Mountain, which is near Blackhawk). Fed up with the hardship, she joined a mule train to Kansas to find Hubert. After a stormy journey, she caught up to the men at Fort Leavenworth. Of the reunion, Fonder said "Well, if ever I did have a rousing welcome, I had it there."
Hubert was honorably discharged in 1865 and the couple began ranching along Douglas County's Cherry Creek, in Bayou Gulch.[4] It is believed that during her time in Cherry Valley, Fonder taught school out of her home before a log schoolhouse was built nearby sometime between 1865 and 1870.[5] The log school was destroyed by fire and a new school was built in 1884 using local rhyolite.
The building, dubbed the Fonder School, still survives in Parker. It was once furnished with a pot-bellied stove, a blackboard, a stable for horses, a well, an outhouse, and a stage platform that often sat under the teacher's desk.[6] Early schools served as social centers, where community events and even religious services took place. For example, the log schoolhouse also served as the Fonder Grange, and the rhyolite schoolhouse served as the Pikes Peak Grange.[7]
Later Years
Hubert suffered an untimely death in 1871 when he was kicked in the head by a horse. He is buried in Parker's Fonder Cemetery.[8] Pregnant with their fifth child, Fonder mourned the loss of her industrious, kindhearted husband. Disastrous winters followed, killing cattle, and grasshopper infestations destroyed crops.[9] In 1875 Fonder once again uprooted herself to Spring Valley, living on property just north of the Spring Valley School. It is suspected that she taught at the school, though this is unconfirmed.
Fonder died in 1927 in Glenwood Springs, surrounded by her children and grandchildren.[10]
References
- ↑ Fonder, Miriam (1991). Manuscript reprinted in "My Father's Belgian Fonder Roots" by Kathy Fonder Wait. Lead, South Dakota: Self-published. p. 33. Retrieved 2019. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) Search this book on
- ↑ Fonder, Miriam (1991). Manuscript reprinted in "My Father's Belgian Fonder Roots" by Kathy Fonder Wait. Lead, South Dakota: Self-published. Retrieved 2019. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) Search this book on
- ↑ Fonder, Miriam (1991). Manuscript reprinted in "My Father's Belgian Fonder Roots" by Kathy Fonder Wait. Lead, South Dakota: Self-published. Retrieved 2019. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) Search this book on
- ↑ Jones, Clyde. "Pioneer Teacher". Clyde Jones Materials, 2015-051, DCL Archives & Local History. Retrieved 2019. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ Lowell Marr, Josephine (1983). Douglas County: A Historical Journey. Gunnison, Colorado: B&B Printers. p. 40. Search this book on
- ↑ Smith, Larry T. "Fonder School". ParkerHistory.org. Retrieved 2019. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ Lowell Marr, Josephine (1983). Douglas County: A Historical Journey. Gunnison, Colorado: B&B Printers. p. 41. Search this book on
- ↑ Parker Area Historical Society. "Eggleston/Fonder/McMurdo Cemetery". ParkerHistory.org. Retrieved 2019. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ Fonder, Miriam (1991). Manuscript reprinted in "My Father's Belgian Fonder Roots" by Kathy Fonder Wait. Lead, South Dakota: Self-published. p. 39. Retrieved 2019. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) Search this book on
- ↑ Fonder, Miriam (1991). Manuscript reprinted in "My Father's Belgian Fonder Roots" by Kathy Fonder Wait. Lead, South Dakota: Self-published. p. 39. Retrieved 2019. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) Search this book on
This article "Miriam Fonder" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Miriam Fonder. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
