Alfred Fuller Family

Alfred Fuller was born on December 10, 1874, in a log house in Washington Township on the Henry-Fulton County line, northeast of Colton, to Harlus and Mary Farnam Fuller.

Alfred, at the age of three, along with brothers, Samuel, Charlie, and Willis, and sisters, Jane and Ann, was left an orphan. Alfred, the youngest child, was taken and raised by foster- parents Dyre and Sarah Mathews who lived on the northside of the Henry- Fulton County line in Fulton County.

Young Alfred followed his foster father across the fields and through the woods to the Heckerman School where Mr. Mathews was the teacher. Alfred not only learned his "3 Rs" from his foster father, but also the fundamentals of farming on the Mathew farm.

Alfred Fuller married Rose E. Altman, of Wauseon, in August, 1898. He was the first, and only rural mail carrier out of the Colton Post Office in1901, and he retired in 1933. Alfred drove a horse and buggy for many years to cover the twenty-five mile route that was mainly in Washinton Township. Around 1910, in the summertime, for awhile, he was just a letter carrier as parcel post had not come in yet, so he used a motorcycle since the narrow wheels could follow in the narrow tracks of the sand roads that made up most of his route. The going much easier after the advent of the Model T Ford. However, many times he had to go back to the horse and buggy to get through the winter snows.

The patrons of the mail route found him to be friendly, accommodating and punctual. Since he was community minded, Mr. Fuller was a supporter of the consolidation of Washington Township's one room schools with Liberty Center.

The Alfred Fuller farm is three- quarters of a mile north of Colton in Washington Township. The Fuller family moved to the farm in 1907 from a small home on the east edge of Colton

At that time the Fuller children were Clair, born in 1899, Solomon, born in 1901, and Doris, born in 1903.

J. Austin was born in 1907 in the farm home, Florence was born in 1911, and Alice in 1918.

The oldest daughter, Doris Fuller Upell, resides on the Fuller farm today.

Submitted by: Florence Fuller Barnard