Douw Henry Fonda was born in the Mohawk Valley in 1830 and came of age while railroads were remaking travel and commerce across upstate New York. His early employment included railroad work and service as a ticket agent at Palatine Bridge under Webster Wagner.
In 1853 he entered banking at Canajoharie as a teller and soon advanced to cashier. The move suggests a useful combination of skills—public contact, accounting, reliability, and familiarity with the region’s expanding commercial network.
Albany and the drug business
Fonda later moved to Albany and became identified with the pharmaceutical trade. Biographical sources cited in the genealogy describe him as president of the D. H. Fonda Drug Company and one of Albany’s prominent druggists.
His business life intersected with public figures and institutions. A surviving anecdote in the genealogy notes records his presentation of a Mount McGregor Railroad pass to Governor Grover Cleveland in 1885; Cleveland politely returned it.
Near the end of his life Fonda survived being carried from a burning building while seriously ill. He died in Albany on February 23, 1908, and his remains were returned to the family vault at Prospect Hill Cemetery.
The story is useful because it follows the changing economy of nineteenth-century upstate New York through one career: railroad transportation, local banking, urban commerce, and the professionalization of the drug trade.
Sources and references
- Fonda-Genealogy.pdf: Current genealogy report, Updated July 2026; biographical notes and cited source extracts.