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| Reverend Fontaine (1808-1898) was a prominent political, civic, and religious leader in Austin's black community. In addition to publishing Austin's first black newspaper between 1876 and ca. 1880, he also founded Austin's First (Colored) Baptist Church and the St. John Regular Missionary Baptist Association in 1867. He actively promoted the establishment of the University of Texas in the early 1880s, and he had founded five more churches in the Austin area by 1887. Despite his prominence in the community, Jacob Fontaine is buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in the African American section of the Oakwood Cemetery, but his contributions are honored with a Texas State Historical Marker there. |