Fuller, Joseph Allen

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Joseph A. Fuller is clerk of the district court of Greenwood County, with home and offices at Eureka. For a man not yet thirty years of age he had had a great variety of experience, had been a successful teacher, and had also been a participant in the farming and stock raising activities of his home county.

His Fuller ancestors came to the colonies in the Mayflower. His grandfather was Joseph Allen Fuller, for whom he was named. The grandfather was born in Illinois, and in 1860 came out to Kansas and was one of the early settlers at Emporia. He served as a soldier in the Civil war, being with an Illinois regiment for a time and afterwards joined a Kansas regiment in assisting to repel Price's invasion. During that campaign he received a gunshot wound, and that hastened his death. He served as deputy sheriff at Emporia, and died there a number of years before his grandson was born.

Joseph Allen Fuller, of Eureka, was born near Madison, Kansas, March 11, 1888. His father, Robert Allen Fuller, who resided on the old farm at Madison, was born in Emporia in 1860, grew up in that town and when a young man came to Greenwood County where he married. He bought a farm near Madison, and had been very successful in diversified agriculture and stock raising. He now had 320 acres. At one time he enjoyed more than a local reputation as a breeder of Shorthorn cattle. He is a republican, an active supporter of the Methodist Church, belongs to the Kansas State Grange, and is a member of the Anti-Horse Thief Association. He married Viola Josephine Huntington, who was born in Illinois in 1861. Their children are: O. K. Fuller, who is district manager with the Cudahy Oil Company and with home at Emporia; the second child died in infancy; Joseph A., is the third in order of birth; John W. is a farmer at Madison; Mildred A., is the wife of Erie Honeyman, a farmer near Madison, Kansas; Frank Alva is a student in the Eureka High School.

Joseph Allen Fuller gained his early education in the rural schools of Greenwood County. His local school was three and a half miles from home and he walked back and forth every day. Afterwards he had the advantages of the Kansas State Normal School at Emporia for two and a half years and with that preparation he became a teacher. He taught ten winter terms in Greenwood County, the alternate summers being spent in farming. He also had some courses in the State Agricultural College at Manhattan. He continued as a farmer until he was elected clerk of the District Court in 1914. In 1916 his previous term was given approval by a large majority, and he is now on his second term. Mr. Fuller owned his home on West Third Street. He is a member of the Methodist Church and a teacher in its Sunday School. In 1911 at Eureka, Kansas, he married Miss C. Shell Swenney, daughter of William and Carrie (Thompson) Swenney. William Swenney resided with Mr. and Mrs. Fuller, being a retired farmer, and her mother is now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Fuller have one daughter, Ruth Mildred, born November 10, 1913.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

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