Annie was the first of the seven children of Amelia Whalton and John Parvost Baldwin. She grew up in Key West, the daughter of a prominent family. Her father was Customs Collector and several term mayor of Key West. Annie's father left in 1861 to fight in the Civil War and died in 1864. A few years later, Annie married Philip H. Fontane, the son of one of the Baldwin's neighbors. On an 1838 map of Key West, the P J Fontane house is next to the Patterson house, both at the end of the walk over the Salt Pond, approximately where Duval Street would later be. Philip's father, Felipe Juan Fontanet, was originally from St. Augustine, as was Annie's grandmother Felicia Bucani Whalton. Annie and Philip had one child, Eugenia, born in 1870. Philip was working as a clerk in a billiard room in 1870 and by 1880, Annie was either widowed or divorced as she and their daughter were living with her mother and grandmother. After her grandmother died, Annie remained living with her mother. By 1900, Annie was living on Division Street at the intersection of Simonton, where she owned her home free of a mortgage. Her daughter, son-in-law, and her granddaughter lived with her. Eight years earlier, on September 22, 1892, her daughter Eugenia had married Samuel J. Wolf and by 1895, they had a daughter, Mary Eugenia. By 1910, Annie appears to have given the house to her daughter as she is living there at 527 Division Street with them. In addition, Annie's sister Angela Baldwin is living with them as her mother, with whom she had always lived, had died in 1908. Two years later, 1912, Annie died of stomach cancer. She was survived by her daughter Eugenia Fontane Wolf, her son-in-law Sam Wolf, her granddaughter, Mary Eugenia Wolf, her sister Angela Baldwin, and two brothers, Beltzhoover and John Baldwin.
©2010 by Claudia Naugle