George T. Fonda Hears Last Taps - Death of Distinguished Civil War Officer - Seattle Pioneer Leaves Many Friends - Lived Here Thirty-Six Years and for Quarter Century Kept the West Point Light - George Thompson Fonda, distinguished officer in the Union army during the civil war, keeper of the West Point light for nearly a quarter of a century and resident of Seattle for more than thirty-six years, died Sunday night at his home near Fort Lawton, in his 84th year. (..) All the older residents of the city knew Mr. Fonda well. His acquaintance among seafaring men naturally was large, and in the Grand Army, especially among survivors of Gen. Grant's Vicksburg campaign, he was greatly honored for his wartime achievements. Mr. Fonda was born at Fonda, N. Y. in 1830. When Fort Sumter was fired on he sought to enlist in a Michigan regiment. Becoming impatient with the slowness in getting the state troops together he went with others to Illinois and then to Missouri, which was nearer to the front and where patriots were urgently needed. He was enrolled as a private in the Seventh Missouri infantry in June, 1861. In May, 1863, when Gen. Grant was in the hottest part of the campaign to open the Mississippi and split the Confederacy by means of the open river, Fonda was a first lieutenant and commander of the sappers and miners in Grant's army operating behind Vicksburg. (..) Mr. Fonda served three years in the army and was offered a majorship when he retired. Mr. Fonda was married July 25, 1864, to Miss Cornelia Matilda Shultes, who survives him as do his two daughters, Dr. Fonda Nadeau, a practicing physician of Seattle, and Mrs. Flora Nadeau, wife of Ira A. Nadeau, manager of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. The funeral will take place today at 11 o'clock under the direction of Stevens post of the Grand Army. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Tuesday, July 15, 1913.