William Henry Fullerton was 24 years old when he enlisted with the Union Army to fight the Civil War on August 6th, 1862 in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He was mustered in to Captain Allen’s 38th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry on August 20th and received $13 advance pay for his troubles.
The third child of Harvey and Mary (Gurney) Fullerton, William was born on January 11, 1838, in Abington, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. He joined two older sisters, Mary E. and Almira J. A younger sister, Calista W., and a younger brother, Noah A., joined the family later.
During the 1850 United States Federal Census, William was 12 and his father was listed as a shoemaker. The family rented their home in East Bridgewater. By the time Will was 17, he was working alongside his father as a shoemaker, and occupation he would stick with for much of his life.
On the 8th of November 1859, William married a young woman named Mary Hall Ford.
Mary was born in 1839 in Pembroke, Plymouth, Massachusetts to Charles T. and Deborah H. Ford. She was the oldest of six children–Hannah, Charles F., Angelia T., Samuel D., and Deborah F. Ford. Mary’s father worked as a stonecutter, and the census shows several other Ford families living in the same neighborhood, so it’s likely Mary grew up with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins living nearby.
Will was 21 and Mary was 20 when the couple wed. On the marriage record, Will was listed as a bootmaker from Abington, and Mary was from Pembroke. The couple was married in East Bridgewater and made their home in Abington. All three towns–Abington, East Bridgewater, and Pembroke–are fairly close to each other.
The following year, William and Mary welcomed their first, and only, child. William Martin Fullerton was born on September 28, 1860, in East Bridgewater.
Two years forward finds us back with William as he enlists to fight in the Civil War. The company spent its first two months in Baltimore before being sent to Louisiana. The area, not far from New Orleans, was marshy, full of swamps and the diseases that go along with camping in the swamp. The first big battle that the company fought was the Battle of Fort Bisland, however William did not participate as he was hospitalized in New Orleans two days before the battle broke out. This was the first of many times William spent in various hospitals during his service. For all of the hospital stays, his military records are marked “sick”, as opposed to injured. Malaria was rampant in the swamps and my best guess is that is what William suffered with.
From the records I could find, I believe it is likely William fought beside his fellow soldiers in the Red River Campaign in the spring of 1864, which was a failure for the Union troops. By July of 1864, William was once again marked “Absent” and hospitalized for the duration of his service. At some point, he was sent north to recuperate in a hospital in Massachusetts. William was mustered out of service on June 30, 1865, in Savannah, Georgia.
Five years later, in June of 1870, the census takers find William, age 32, back in Abington with Mary and their son. He’s once again working as a shoemaker. The family owns their own home, which is valued at $2,000.
By 1900, William and Mary had relocated to New Haven, Connecticut, where they rented a home and William worked as a clerk in a grocery store. The 1910 census finds them in the same place. William is 72 now and still working at the grocery. The Fullerton couple have three of their son’s children living with them–Ione, 12, Frank, 8, and Muriel, 7.
In 1920, at age 82, William is still working as a grocer while Mary tends to the house. The grandchildren have moved on.
On July 29, 1922, William passes away at the age of 84. It’s not clear if he and Mary were still living in Connecticut, but William is buried back in the area of his birth, in the Colebrook Cemetery in Whitman, Plymouth County, Massachusetts.
Eight years after William passed, the census takers arrived again, finding Mary, at the age of 90, living back in Pembroke with her youngest sister, Deborah and Deborah’s husband, Harris Ramsdell.
Mary lived for another eight years, passing away at the ripe old age of 98 on March 2, 1938. From The Boston Globe – Boston, Massachusetts, dated 3 Mar 1938:
MRS. MARY FULLERTON – PEMBROKE, March 2 – Mrs. Mary Hall Fullerton, 98, oldest woman resident of this town, died this morning at the home of her nephew, Alfred Anderson. Until two years ago she had been unusually active and vigorous, keeping house for her brother-in-law, Harris Ramsdell, 91. She was the widow of William Fullerton and had spent her whole life in her native town of Pembroke. She leaves one son, William Fullerton, Short Beach, Connecticut.
The obituary was mistaken about Mary having spent her whole life in the area, since the couple had lived in Connecticut for about 20 years, but it was still a treasure to find!
When Mary passed away 16 years later, she was buried beside her husband. She also has a flat stone similar to William’s at the base of their standing stone, but it’s degraded enough you can barely see the initials.
Finding Promise 