Husband William Thompson Fulton, Esq. 1
Born: 27 Feb 1835 - West Nottingham Twp, Chester Co, PA 1
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Father: James Jefferson Fulton (1801-1864) 2
Mother: Nancy Ann Ramsey (1802-1870) 2
Marriage: 5 Apr 1865 1
Other Spouse: Annie E. Neeper ( - ) 1 - 19 Oct 1876 1
• Memorial. To read a poem written in honor of his fiftieth birthday, click here.
Wife Hannah A. Kirk 1
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Father: Joseph Kirk ( - ) 3
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Children
1 M Kirk Fulton 4
Born: 25 Aug 1866 4
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Spouse: Sarah Kimble (1870- ) 4
Marr: 25 Mar 1891 4
2 F Annie E. Fulton 4
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General Notes: Husband - William Thompson Fulton, Esq.
He was educated in the common schools, and later at the Jordan Bank Academy. He engaged in farming, then learned the blacksmithing trade, and later taught school some two years. He read law with "the Great Commoner," Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, and afterward with Hon. J. Smith Futhey. He was admitted to the bar May 13, 1861. He settled at Oxford.
In August and September, 1861, he helped to recruit Company E, Purnell Legion Maryland Infantry, made up of the bordermen of Pennsylvania and Maryland.
He was captain of the company until August, 1862, when he was promoted to be major of the regiment and was subsequently discharged on account of physical disability. After leaving the Army he resumed the practice of his profession which he continued until the invasion of the state by Lee in 1863, when he volunteered in the State service to repel the invaders.
He was elected a Justice of the Peace in 1863, reelected in 1868 and again in 1873, resigning November 1, 1876, to accept a seat in the legislature to which he was that year elected and to which he was reelected in 1878. In the legislature he was a member of many important committees among which were those Judiciary general and local, and of Federal Relations of which he was chairman. He was a staunch Republican and very active in politics. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and one of its trustees; also belonged to Fairview Lodge, No. 334, I. O. O. F. and a Commander of Thompson Post, Grand Army of the Republic; was a director in the Oxford National Bank and associate counsel of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad.
From a circular issued by his friends when his name was announced as a candidate for Judge, comes the following:
The subject of our sketch is, to a great extent, a self-made man, receiving his early education at the public schools and at Jordan Bank Academy, conducted by Dr. Evan Pugh, late president of the Pennsylvania State College. It was a favorite theory of Dr. Pugh, that every boy should learn a trade, and young Fulton imbibing that sentiment took an apprenticeship and became a blacksmith. He carried on the business for himself for about two years at Hilamans, in East Nottingham, and built up a successful business. Finding, however, that increasing business left him but little time for reading and study, which was his ambition, and having a desire to study law, he resolved to apply himself to teaching and study. Dr. Franklin Taylor, the County Superintendent at that time, after the usual strict examination, gave him a teacher's certificate.
He was appointed to a school in his native township, where he taught for two years. During this period he utilized his spare time by a systematic review of his former studies, mathematics and English classics, with the addition of the Latin and French languages.
At the end of two years teaching he went to Lancaster, where he registered as a law student with the late Hon. Thaddeus Stevens. Mr. Stevens, however, leaving for Congress, young Fulton was recommended by him to Hon. J. Smith Futhey for the completion of his law studies, and under his instructions and training he was admitted to the West Chester bar in 1861.
The War of the Rebellion had now broken out, and the great thought with many young men was how best to defend their country's honor and to save the union of the States. Young Fulton laid aside his law books and turned his attention to raising and drilling a company for the war. This required him to leave West Chester and join in with a number of young men in the neighborhood of his old home in Nottingham, on the borders of the States of Pennsylvania and Maryland. In recruiting this company, it was agreed that the organization should be accredited to the State furnishing the most men. Colonel Purnell, postmaster of Baltimore, was raising a regiment, as also Colonel Guss, of West Chester. The young men of Maryland, however, outstripped the Pennsylvanians in recruiting, and having furnished the greatest number of members of the company, the organization became Company E of Purnell Legion, Maryland Volunteers, remaining in the service three years. Fulton was chosen captain of the company. After about a year's service he was promoted to major of the regiment. The many hard marches and great exposures of the campaigns of 1861 and 1862 and particularly those incident to the rebel invasion of Maryland and the battle of Antietam, brought on a fever disabling him from active service. He held on for several months, but was finally ordered before a Board of Surgeons, examined and discharged.
After recovery he opened a law office in Oxford in 1863. Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania and the battle of Gettysburg found the Major again in the field as a member of Company C, 29th Regiment of Pennsylvania Militia. After the emergency was over he resumed his law practice. He was elected Justice of the Peace, of the Borough of Oxford, the duties of which position he performed with remarkable satisfaction to the people and to the honor of the office for thirteen years, when he resigned to take his seat in the Legislature of Pennsylvania.
His record as a member of the assembly for his three years' service, 1877-1879, was one of close application to the duties of the office, the performance of those duties to the State and to his constituents with sterling integrity, sound judgment and marked ability.
In politics he has always been an earnest and active Republican. He joined the party at its formation, voted for Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, and has been a steadfast member of the party ever since.
He has been an earnest advocate of the temperance cause, but holds steadfastly to the principle that temperance reform, like any other political reformation in this county or in this State must come through and within the lines of the Republican party. All his efforts in that direction have therefore been confined within the limits of his party.
Although a Presbyterian, he has always been tolerant and liberal in religious opinion. He has frequently been heard to say that "he hoped the time would never come when any religious denomination, not even his own, would attain supreme ascendancy in this country, but that for all time while our government endures, all denominations would continue to be equal before the law and the right of conscience and religious worship be allowed to remain untrammeled and uncontrolled by party or sect."