Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

3156 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSWILLIAM HENRY FOUNTAIN. Well up on the roll of honorable mention onthe records of the peace officials of Ben Hill County is found the name ofWilliam Henry Fountain. For many years he has served as deputy sheriff,city court sheriff and county sheriff, and has always led a most active career,replete with incident and responsibility and frequently fraught with danger.The most trying and irksome routine duty has always found in him a cheerfuland faithful'official, and occasions of public excitement and danger, a judicious and fearless officer. At the present time he is acting in the capacity ofsheriff of Ben Hill County, a position for which his abilities and energieseminently qualify him.Sheriff Fountain is a Georgian by nativity and was born in Wilcox County,October 10,1868, his parents being Jonathan and Elizabeth (Stone) Fountain.His father was born in Wilkinson County, Georgia, in 1813,'and there becamea successful planter and leading and influential citizen. When the Civil warcame he enlisted in the army of the Confederacy, in which he was promotedan officer for gallantry and meritorious service,' and when that struggle wasfinished he returned to the duties of civil life and resumed his successfulactivities as an agriculturist. He was one of the most prominent democratsof Wilkinson and Wilcox counties, serving the former as sheriff for two terms,and the latter as treasurer for a like period, and his official life was characterized by faithful devotion to duty and efficient discharge of his responsibilities.Mr. Fountain was a man of strong character, well known and highly respectedthrough the southern part of the state. He died in 1898, at the age of eightyfiveyears. Mrs. Fountain was born in Wilcox County, Georgia, and diedJune 10, 1907, in that county, when nearly eighty-four years of age. Bothshe and her husband were faithful members of the Missionary Baptist Church.They had twelve children, as follows: John Steely, who is engaged in agricultural pursuits in Wilcox County; James, who was the owner and operatorof a farm in that county; Eusibia, who died in infancy; Manning, who diedat Darien, Mclntosh County, at the age of twenty-two years; Sallie, who isthe wife of John Land, a farmer of Calhoun County, Florida; Bettie, whodied in Wilcox County, Georgia, as the wife of J. J. Deikes; Nancy, who isthe widow of John W. Brown, a f armer of Wilcox County; Celia, who is thewife of John Whittle, a farmer of Ben Hill County; Jonathan Moore, who isengaged in tilling the soil in Ben Hill County; William Henry, of this review;Miss Lula, a resident of Wilcox County; and Drury, who is engaged in farming in that county.William Henry Fountain attended the public schools of Pulaski Countyand Hawkinsville, Georgia, and received a good*common school education toprepare him for the battles of life. When he was eighteen years of age hebegan to work as a clerk in stores at Rochelle, Georgia, and during the threeyears that he was thus employed saved enough from his earnings to engage in.business on his own account. Moving to Wilcox County, he engaged in lumbering and sawmilling in a modest way, and while thus engaged attracted theattention of the officials of the River Lumber Company, one of the largestconcerns of the kind in Wilcox County. He was offered, and accepted, aposition as superintendent for this industry, disposed of his business interests,and for three years had under his charge some 300 men.At the end of this period Mr. Fountain began his experience as an officer ofthe law. He was first appointed as deputy sheriff under Sheriff D. A.Mclnnis, of Irwin County. He proved himself an efficient and courageous official, and his next appointment was to the office of city court sheriff of Fitzgerald, his appointment coming from Hon. L. Kennedy, judge of the citycourts, in 1904. He served two terms in this office, and in 1907 was electedsheriff of Ben Hill County, on the democratic ticket, and served until 1911.He was not a candidate in the next term, but in 1912 again entered the lists,after having devoted himself to his large farming interests, and again