C. A. F. RONDEAU, Livingston County, was born November 17, 1858, on an island in the Ohio River, two miles above Golconda, Ill. He is a son of James S. and Charlotte (Hawkins) Rondeau. The father was born in Pope County, Ill., in 1825. His father, William Rondeau, came from England about 1818, and settled first in Philadelphia, and later moved to Illinois, buying, in 1830, the island on which our subject was born. William Rondeau subsequently left his family on the island and went to New Orleans, where he engaged in steam-boating. He was a lawyer in England, but after his arrival here abandoned that profession and became a minister. After residing in New Orleans for a number of years he came north and again turned his attention to farming. James S. Rondeau, father of subject grew to manhood on the island, and in 1855 he married Miss Hawkins, who was born in Hardin County, Ill., about 1827. Her parents were emigrants from Connecticut, and her father was a soldier in the war of 1812. Subject's father continued to reside on the old homestead until his death in May, 1867. The mother is still living on the home farm. C. A. F. is the third of a family of seven children, of whom six are living: Isabel, C. A. F., Katie, James, Will and Henry. Subject remained on the home farm until about eighteen, and then began life for himself. His first venture was clerking for J. C. Baker at Golconda. He remained with him two years, and then again turned his attention to farming. In the fall of 1884 he assumed the editorship of the Livingston Sentinel, a paper published by J. C. Hodge, of Golconda. The first number was issued September 16, 1884, and is at present in a flourishing condition. It is a weekly, being printed every Thursday, at Golconda, but mailed at Smithland.
Source: J. H. Battle, W. H. Perrin, & G. C. Kniffin. Kentucky. A History of the State. Louisville, KY, Chicago, IL: Battey, 1885. Page 831.