Ed Stout

[Reading the article about the Sen. Fulbright genealogy in the Dec. 1998 issue of the FFA News prompted me to gather together more information on the subject. -- and I thought you might be interested. And also that you, after reading the following, might be able to add still more to our store of knowledge and/or family legends, whichever it may be. E.S.]

Almost all Fulbright descendants seem to properly treasure their relationship to the late 'Senator Bill', and many of us seem to have our own, often convenient, notion of how that relationship is established. I recall how my own Granddad happily claimed the Senator as a cousin, and how unwilling he was to discuss exactly how distant that relationship might have been! In my communications with the Senator, several years ago, he seemed to have no great and burning personal interest in his progenitors, but was certainly willing to share with anyone the information that others had given him during the years -- usually with a disclaimer as to it's accuracy. Establishing family ties probably earned the good man a few extra votes!

I later corresponded with the Allan Gilbert mentioned in the notes on page ten of the Dec. 1998 News, just prior to the publishing of his "A Fulbright Chronicle" in late 1980, and barely early enough to get me a word of thanks and an autographed copy of the booklet fresh off the press. While his purpose in writing was more to record immediate family legends, rather than in making a study of the family genealogy, he was surprised and seemed disappointed to find that some of the information he had been supplied, accepted as correct, and was using, was in fact erroneous. Unfortunately the booklet had gone to press and it was too late then to make corrections or additions -- if he desired to do so.

In my humble opinion, then and now, Gilbert's informants had simply missed a generation between Henry Joseph Fulbright and William Fulbright, "Old Bill" as he was known, the husband of Ida Empson. The note indicating that William was an only son is also wrong.

Also, Old Bill's remains may not really rest beside those of wife Ida in the Fulbright family plot in the Keytsville, Chariton County, Missouri, cemetery as their stone would tend to indicate. His death certificate, signed by his wife, clearly shows he was buried on 16 June in the Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles. Quite possibly his remains were later re-interred in Keytsville with the other members of the family.

Old Bill, also known as a hard headed tyrant endowed with but little patience, was not an only son but instead had eight known siblings! His part of this family moved from Indiana to Chariton County, Missouri, during the time of the Civil War and seem not to have had farther contact with some of the immediate family members. For a long time this appeared to me to be a family whose members were violently split by their intense loyalties at the time at the time of the war, which was not too uncommon. That thought was supported by the fact that one of his younger brothers, Benjamin, on 31 July 1841, joined Co. 'G', 25th Regiment, of the Indiana Volunteer U.S. Army for three years. More recently Marilyn Cardona, has determined that Bill and two of his brothers, Benjamin and James, all served in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. William served two hitches, first from 22 Apr. 1861 to 2 Aug. 1861 in H. Co., 6th Regt. Inf. IN Vol. and the second from 22 Sep. 1864 to 11 July 1865 in K. Co., 140th Regt., Inf., IN, Vol. according to his Indiana Civil War Service Record Extract, his Pension Card Extract, his Pension Pay Record, and his Pension Record.

Old Bill was a son of Joseph M. Fulbright, 15 May 1800-30 Mar. 1875, who married Mary A. Carter, Feb. 1815-27 July 1903, on 27 Nov. 1930, in Indiana and he was buried in Brownstown, Indiana. Joseph M. Fulbright, in turn, was a son of Henry Joseph Fulbright, c.1781-after 1850.

The 1840 Indiana Census shows Joseph M. Fullbright, aged 40-50, with a wife of 20-30, a son and daughter under the age of five and two sons between 5 and ten years of age. One of those sons was to be known as Old Bill.

The 1850 Indiana Census, Grassy Fork Twp. of Jackson County, taken in Sept. of 1850 shows Joseph Fullbright, aged 50 and his wife Mary A. Carter, aged 36, and the other children named William (Old Bill), 15; Nancy, 13; James, 11; Elizabeth, 9; Benjamin, 7; Lucinda, 6; and Sarah aged 2 years. It also shows John Fulbright, the oldest son, aged 17, living with a neighboring family named Carter.

The 1860 census, same location, shows Joseph Fullbright, aged 55, and Mary A. aged 45. In the marvelous way the census sometimes mangles ages, Joseph seems to have aged but five years while his poor wife has aged 9 years. Children are shown as William (Old Bill), 25; Benjamin, 16; Sarah, 12; having aged the normal ten years and this family record adds a new son, Thomas, then aged 7. Daughter Lucinda is shown living with a neighboring family named Keller.

It is interesting that the spelling 'Fullbright' is used in all the above census records as well as being used on Old Bill's death certificate -- signed by Ida Fullbright -- while apparently the more common spelling, 'Fulbright', was used by the immediate descendants.

Recently an instance has been found of some family members spelling the name Fulbrecht/ Fullbrecht, while others used Fulbright, in the fifth and sixth generations in America! What, I wonder, might they have had of our ancestry, information that we still are searching for? That was the spelling used in old John Schuck's will written in 1763 !!!