CO.F 44TH ALA. INF. C.S.A. Raised in Bibb/ North Perry County, Alabama near the Cabaha River in a farming family. Lost his mother when he was ten years old and was raised in the 1850's by his father and older siblings. When his father remarried, he was about 16, and a vital worker on the farm with his father and older brother John. At age 22, he was the prime age for enlistment at the start of the Civil War. His older brother also enlisted as an officer.
Entered the Civil War as part of the 44th Alabama Infantry, Company F. The historical record roll, Company F, 44th Alabama Regiment shows him wounded at the second battle of Manassas, August 30, 1862. He was absent, wounded, through Sharpsburg and absent detailed, for the rest of the period of the war. The detailed service is indicated as provost guard duty during that period. Known as A.J. or 'Jack'. Dismissed at Darby Town, Virginia 12/31/1864.
Returned to North Perry County/South Bibb County. Married at the New Year 1866 and farmed near the LeVert farm near Payne Chapel Church and the Cahaba River in North Perry County, a little south of where his father farmed in Bibb County. They would have fifteen children between 1867 and 1888 that would live to adulthood. When typhoid fever swept Perry County in 1890, he was one of the victims, dying at 50 years old. He likely died, as did a number in the Heiberger, Alabama area in 1890.
While most of his fifteen children would remain in Perry, Bibb or Dallas County's of Central Alabama, John Lee would strike out to work for the railroad in Mississippi and was killed at 19 years old in an accident, one would head to Tuscaloosa, and the youngest two would migrate to the Birmingham area. The glue in the family had to be Fate at the turn of the 20th century or from 1890 to 1902. Son Wylie would pick up the day to day family responsibilites for his mother and younger children from about 1902 until Nancy died in 1924. During WWII, and after the parents and three of the fifteen children had died, the second oldest child, Sarah Helen would visit her siblings and serve as the family glue from 1941 to 1959 when she would die. Three children would die during the forties, five in the 1950's including the two oldest Fate in 1950 and Sarah Helen in 1959. The sixities would see three more die, leaving only one member of the A. J. & Nancy Fondren family living after 1967--Anna Levert Fondren Rinehart. She passed away in 1975 closing the chapter on this family which covered over 136 years of time! Of the 15 children, 13 had approximately 69 children, most living to adulthood. Two sons, Johnnie Lee and Arthur Felix never married.
Contributor: C Cooke (49542214) • [email protected])

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