[citation needed] Though lying in the peripheral of Baldwin County's history, Bell Fontaine predates much of the area.

The settlement first appeared in 1775 on A Map of the Southern Indian District of North America produced by surveyor Joseph Purcell and John Stuart.

However, a highly detailed account comes from German Prince Carl Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach's Travels Through North America, During the Years 1825 and 1826.

This succeeded; we heard dogs bark, moved in the direction whence the sound came, and reached about ten o’clock, the desired Belle Fontaine, a log house with two rooms, or cabins, and a cleared opening before it.

His wife, a pale, sickly looking being, who hardly returned an answer to our questions, was obliged to rise from her bed, to prepare us a supper and sleeping-room.

The whole establishment had at first, the look of a harbour for robbers, but there was well roasted venison prepared for us, on a neat table, and tolerable coffee, for which we had, luckily, brought sugar along with us.

[4] Prince Bernhard gives a further description of the settlement while returning to Blakely, stating: About five o’clock in the afternoon we reached the same log-house in which we had passed the night, near Belle Fontaine.

The landlord was not at home, and the whole domestic management rested on the poor pale wife, who had five children to take care of, and expected a sixth soon.