Finding Clara: The Biography of Clara Fuller and Her Colonial Ancestors, 1875–1638

By Jeri Fuller

The one thing I knew for sure was, the more family history I found, the more I knew there was more to find!

The question was asked if our ancestors came from England on the Mayflower. I answered no, “Our English ancestors sailed into Cambridge Harbor, Massachusetts in 1638, instead!”
Finding Clara is a result of a single genealogical lead, that became a family mystery in 1972. Jeri Fuller’s great-grandfather, Charles Emery Fuller and first wife, Martha had a daughter named Clara in 1875. She was born in Northfield, Minnesota. My mother did not know that he had been previously married, because there was no family history, stories or photos handed down of Clara or her mother.
Jeri solved the mystery of finding Clara, old school, by writing to relatives and obtaining copies of vital records. She provides intimate details of Clara’s life, where she lived, attended college, who she married and her children, after she traveled to Northfield in 1997.
Her get-up and get-personal research method gets results. While completing Clara’s biography she found that Charles Emery Fuller had served in the Civil War. She tells where she obtained a copy of his mustered-in and mustered-out record and the narrative of where his regiment served.
Finding Clara reveals the discovery of numerous Fuller family connections to Northfield’s unique history. One ancestor witnessed Northfield’s famous attempted robbery of the First National Bank by Frank and Jesse James and the Younger Brothers in 1876. Some ancestors served as volunteer fire fighters for Northfield’s Hook and Ladder No. 1, some attended either Carleton or St. Olaf College. The connections of her family to these places and events are amazing.
Jeri recounts her Fuller family history, alongside America’s history from colonial New England to the eighteenth-century in the Mid-West. She tells of how Chauncey C. Olin supported the Underground Railroad in Wisconsin. She goes on to solve seven family history mysteries. Using the strategy of her family’s naming convention, she identified her Violet Barber who was born in 1796. Her inspiring stories of tenacity and perseverance are insightful.
Her research located her family’s American Revolutionary Soldier, who moved to Canton, New York in the early 1800s. She includes eleven generations of her Fuller family tree. The staff at the Flint Public Library in Middleton, Massachusetts provided a map locating Thomas Fuller’s home built in 1684. These stories in Finding Clara can assist any novice or expert genealogist find inspiration to complete their family histories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Nov 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665718288

Jeri Fuller

A genealogist and family historian of forty-years, Jeri Fuller began tracing her family tree in 1972, when there was no internet or online databases. Her success comes from preforming family research first-hand at the local level across the country, in the towns where her ancestors lived. She documented over three-hundred-eighty years of her family’s history, unfolding alongside America’s history. She developed some great what-if strategies, which allowed her to break through some brick walls, solving over seven family history mysteries, identifying her ancestors back eleven generations to Cambridge, Massachusetts to 1638. Jeri’s first book, Finding Clara, is the result of an arduous labor of love, curiosity, and dedication.

Book preview

Finding Clara

The Biography of Clara Fuller and Her

Colonial Ancestors, 1875–1638

Jeri Fuller

Copyright © 2022 Jeri Fuller.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Archway Publishing

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.archwaypublishing.com

844-669-3957

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6657-1827-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-1826-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-1828-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022908215

Archway Publishing rev. date: 12/21/2022

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Table of Contents

Part I

Chapter 1: The Early Years

My four-generation Fuller family sheet

Chapter 2: First Regiment Of Heavy Artillery

Charles Emery Fuller

Minnesota Historical Society

Research, Wish List 1

Northfield’s Civil War Monument

The Mock Trial of Frank and Jesse James flyer

Frank, Marie, Pam, and Younger Brother

Chapter 3: Attempted Robbery

Defeat of Jesse James Days

Northfield’s Historical Society

Robbery and Murder article

Campbell Mill and Cannon River

The Grand Events Center of Northfield

Part II

Chapter 4: Martha (with no last or maiden name)

Home of John and Sarah Way

Chapter 5: Meeting With C. C. Olin

Cows, Colleges and Contentment

Althea Olin Fuller Portrait

Clara May Fuller Portrait

Robb and Margaret Williams’s family

Mrs. Robb R. Williams Obituary

Research Wish List 2

Chapter 6: Mr. And Mrs. W. H. Hollands

Plaque of Olin Science Building

Carleton College

William H. Hollands’s class photo

Senior Class of 1895 Program

Clara and William Hollands’s headstones

Charles Emery Fuller’s family 1923.

Charles E. Fuller’s and Second Wife’s family

Charles and Ida’s Wedding photo

Three generations of Fullers

Part III

Chapter 7: Grand And West Theaters

The Grand Theater, 1937 article

Chapter 8: Hook And Ladder Company No. 1

Old Betsy

Althea Fuller’s headstone

John and Emma Fuller’s headstones

Clara M. Fuller’s headstone

Northfield firefighter Mitch DeWar and me

The first minutes from Hook and Ladder No. 1

John Olin Fuller firefighter

Fire Department’s roll call lists from 1921 and 1927

Poster of the Northfield Area Fire and Rescue Service

The 125th Anniversary Celebration

Charles Edward Fuller

Emery L. Fuller home

John Olin Fuller and Emma’s family photo

Chapter 9: Rice County Historical Society

Photo of the Rice County Historical Society

Chapter 10: Ball Game In Owatonna

Beverly Fuller, with Charlie’s aunt, Caroline Fuller Fleisch

Charles Emery, John Olin Fuller, and Mary A. (Fuller) Eckels

Chapter 11: Fog And Farewell

The Aaker House and signage

Chapter 12: Olin And Barber Family Ties

Silas Wright House

Henry B. Fuller’s headstone

Part IV

Chapter 13: The Fullers And Our American Revolutionary Soldier

Caleb Olin’s headstone

John L. Fuller Jr.’s Monument

John L. Fuller Jr.’s Land, Working Farm

John L. Fuller Jr.’s Homestead Canton

Chapter 14: Middleton, Massachusetts

Flint Public Library built in 1891, Middleton

Thomas Fuller Jr.’s lineage 1644

John Fuller’s lineage

Andrew Fuller’s lineage

John Fuller 2nd’s lineage

Lieutenant Thomas Fuller home

Fuller Meadow School

Part V

Fuller Genealogy, eleven generations.

Thomas Fuller Sr. 1618 - 1698

Thomas Fuller Jr. 1644 - 1719

John Fuller 1674 - 1735

Andrew Fuller 1717/1718 - 1802

John Fuller 2nd 1757 - 1840

John L. Fuller 1788 - 1856

Emery L. Fuller 1819 - 1904

Charles Emery Fuller 1846 - 1923

Charles Emerson Fuller II 1918 -1968

Clara Fuller daughter of Charles Fuller

John Olin Fuller

Jesse Rae Fuller

Margaret E. Fuller

Ralph Edwin Fuller

Thomas Barber 1612 - 1909

Caleb Olin 1753 - 1838

Thomas Olin 1779 - 1866

Johannes Anderson 1820 - 1980

Wilhelm Royer Part I

Wilhelm Royer Part II

Levi Woodward 1773 - 1926

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Clara’s grandparents, Emery L. and Althea A. Fuller, in 1883 in Northfield, Minnesota.

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To my mother, Mary Josephine Fuller who gave unconditional respect, encouragement, and kindness to everyone she knew; and who taught me the value of perseverance.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The encouragement I received from professional authors, historians, and genealogists to publish the history of my journey of Finding Clara has been overwhelmingly supportive. This journey has filled my life with proof of what one person can achieve.

I have become more familiar with American history alongside my Fuller family history, which has been enlightening. Identifying our American Revolutionary War soldier, John Fuller 2nd, and discovering his life’s story was cause for celebration. Locating his military service record, pension application, and bounty-land warrant was priceless.

The discovery of the connection to our first Fuller ancestor, Thomas Fuller of Woburn, who came into Cambridge Harbor in Colonial Massachusetts in 1638, was unexpected. My research was now complete. I began a lifelong search to find Clara and write her life’s story. I discovered more than I ever expected. I found my Fuller family’s history dating back to 1638 in Massachusetts.

I wanted to reconnect with those who allowed me permission to use their photographs, signs, and documents to solve the mystery of Finding Clara, verifying my Fuller family’s history. Thanks go to Evelyn Neste Fuller, who wrote me of the existence of Clara Fuller and the first name of my great-grandfather’s first wife. Thanks go to Sylvia Waters, my cousin who provided me with the obituary of her mother, Margaret Eileen Fuller Williams, which provided me with the name of Clara Fuller’s husband.

Thanks go to Tim Rummelhoff Photography for permission to use his Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) photo. It lends itself to his talent for capturing the majesty of this impressive building. Thanks to Heidi Heller, licensing assistant at MNHS, who permitted me to use the Regiment of Heavy Artillery’s, Roster of Company I. This document was created after the Civil War and identified Charles Emery Fuller’s participation and Minnesota’s contribution.

I want to thank Rick Esse, photographer, for using his awesome photo available as a postcard for the Defeat of Jesse James Days, art imitating life, which captures the events of the attempted robbery of the First National Bank in Northfield, Minnesota, in 1876. Thank you to Chuck Pryor, owner of the Grand Events Center, for using the photo taken during the mock trial held at the Grand Theater in 1997 in Northfield. Thanks to Kari VanDerVeen, director of communications at St. Olaf College, for permission to use the 1997 photo taken of Old Main and the photo of their student Aaker House, which is located on campus in Northfield. The student house was the family home of my great-grandfather, Charles Emery Fuller, from 1898 to 1923. Thanks to Mr. Gary De A Krey, PhD, the archivist at St. Olaf College, for discovering the article Saving the Fuller Family Home from Fire.

Thank you to Joe Hargis, Associate Vice President for External Affairs at Carleton College, for permission to use the Olin plaque, which is mounted on the entrance of their science building, and the photo taken in front of the Gould Library on the Carleton College campus in Northfield. Thanks to Eric Hillemann, senior archivist, who located the picture of William H. Hollands, Clara’s future husband. He attended Carleton College from 1891 to 1895. Thanks to Fire Chief Gerry Franek for permission to use the extraordinary discovery of Northfield’s Hook and Ladder No. 1 first minutes in 1872, two roll call lists, and photos of John Olin Fuller, Charles Edward Fuller, and George LaPointe. They were volunteer firefighters during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Thanks to my daughter, Heather, for her initial editing of this work and for providing guidance and unconditional support. Thanks to Lynette Peterson, Northfield’s city clerk. She offered the city of Northfield’s permission to use their famous sign, Cows, Colleges and Contentment the Civil War Monument, and the photo taken of the Ames Mill and the Cannon River at Bridge Square. Thanks to Cathy Osterman, director of the Northfield Historical Society, which is in the Scriver building, for permission to use the mock trial flyer from 1997 and a photo of the Scriver building, which is where the Northfield Historical Society resides.

Thank you, Randy Rickman, publisher and regional president of APG Southern Minnesota, for permission to use several historical articles from the Rice County Journal and Northfield News, documenting my Fuller family history. Thanks to Susan Garwood, executive director of the Rice County Historical Society, for permission to use the photo of the signage of the Historical Society in Faribault, Minnesota. Thanks to James Lundgren, executive director in 1997 of the Rice County Historical Society, in Faribault, Minnesota. Special thanks to retired researcher and librarian Kathy Ness at the Northfield Library.

A special thank you goes to the owners of Martin Oaks Bed-and-Breakfast, Marie Vogl Gery and Frank Gery. Marie’s roles as chef, proprietor, historian, poet, character reenactor, and friend were welcoming. She has a wonderful way of making a stranger feel at home in a new place. Martin Oaks Bed-and-Breakfast, in Dundas, Minnesota, was the perfect spot to spend ten days of genealogical research in 1997.

Thank you to Randy Merrill, executive director at the St. Lawrence County Historical Association, for using the photo taken of the Silas Wright House Museum, including the historical marker for the house from Canton, New York. A special thanks go to Jodie Cameron, licensing assistant at the House of Names in Ontario, Canada, for permission to use the Fuller Family Crest image of my Fuller family’s name.

Thanks to Steve Mutz, artist and illustrator, for creating the artwork used in my genealogical business from 1996 to 2002 in Camarillo, California. Thanks to the E. P. Foster Public Library in Ventura, California, whose genealogical section had a copy of A Genealogy of the Descendants of Thomas Barber of Windsor, Connecticut 1614 - 1909 published by Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1909. This vital discovery led to the connection of generation seven with the marriage of Violet Barber to John L. Fuller.

Special thanks go to my friends and authors Lynn Bonfield and Mary C. Morrison, of Roxana’s Children and New England to Gold Rush California, The Journal of Alfred and Christina W. Rix 1847–1854. Thanks to Norm Young, volunteer at the St. Lawrence County Silas Wright Historical Society in Canton, New York. Thank you to co-associates and authors of Images of America, Canton, (New York); Linda A. Casserly; Judith C. Liscum and Julie Sherman Grayson.

Thank you to Melissa M. Gaspar, director of the Flint Public Library in Middleton, Massachusetts. And thanks go to Melissa’s staff—Loretta Johnson (now the new Director), Justin Liberti, Charlie Pope, Dave Moore, and Nicole Dow—along with the Middleton Historical Society’s expert, Shirley Paul Raynard.

INTRODUCTION

Being a child of a career military man in the US Air Force, we seldom had relatives over for the holidays. My grandmothers lived in Iowa and California, and cousins lived in Northern California, Minnesota, Colorado, and Illinois. My father’s career in the US Air Force took us from the West to the East Coast of the United States and two tours overseas. Then, the military offered my father a tour of Vietnam in 1966. Since he had served twenty-five years, he chose to retire as a lieutenant colonel. Two years later, in 1968, my father passed away. He was forty-nine and was an only child.

It wasn’t until four years later, in 1972, at the age of eighteen, that I became aware of the lack of Fuller family history on my father’s side. As a senior in high school, we were to complete a four-generation report on our immediate family. The timing was surreal. I had to find out information about people I did not even know. For an eighteen-year-old, genealogy is an unlikely subject to get involved in.

I had seen some of our old family pictures and keepsakes from World War II. Mom kept our family’s birth, marriage, and death dates in a 1942 calendar book. I had never met any of my father’s aunts and uncles.

As I began learning the ropes, my research was slow and steady—and I found I liked it! I started writing inquiring letters to my Fuller aunts, uncles, and cousins. More importantly, for me, I was connecting with people who were my family! I would come to know and love them, and I saw how my life would fit into the scheme of things. The four-generation report for a class project would come in handy.

My first challenge came at the onset of my research in 1972, when I learned of a child named Clara Fuller. Clara’s father was my great-grandfather, Charles Emery Fuller. Her mother’s name was Martha. My mother did not know that he had been previously married, because there was no family history, stories or photos handed down of Clara or her mother.

I called her Little Clara because she was only two years old when her mother died in 1877 in Northfield, Minnesota. I had always loved a good mystery. So, I set out to solve the mystery of finding Clara. I would be discovering the life of a family member born in 1875, a little more than one hundred years from my own life in 1972.

The first generation identified my siblings and me, and the second was my father, Charles Emerson Fuller II, and mother, Mary Josephine Royer. The third generation was my father’s parents, Charles Emerson Fuller I and Ida Anderson. My mother’s parents were Edward Lewis Royer and Mary Josephine Woodward. The fourth generation was my father’s grandparents, Charles Emery Fuller, and first wife, Martha, and the second wife, Alice J. Jones. My father’s maternal grandparents were Johannes Anderson and Maren Solberg. My mother’s grandparents were John C. Heenan Royer and Emma Jane Lower and Nelson G. Woodward and Mary Hilton Relyea (see a copy of the four-generation Fuller family sheet at the beginning of the next chapter, The Early Years).

I would have to learn to perform genealogical research to gather information about Charles Emery’s first wife, Martha—with no last name—to know who Martha was and her parents and siblings. Where was Martha’s family from originally? How did the death of Martha affect the raising of Little Clara?

My Fuller relatives filled in the family history regarding generation four. These letters described the family of my great-grandfather’s second marriage to Alice. My grandfather, Charles Emerson Fuller, was the third child of Charles and Alice. He was born on January 20, 1894, and he had four siblings. They were all born in Minnesota. Jessie Rae was born October 24, 1887; Margaret Eileen was born February 15, 1891; Donald Van Dyke, born April 16, 1897; and Ralph Edwin was born June 28, 1903. They were all born in Minneapolis, except Margaret, born in Merriam Park, and Ralph in Northfield. My grandfather, Charles Emerson Fuller, died on November 26, 1943, in Los Angeles, California, so I never met him.

My great-grandparents were Charles Emery Fuller, born on August 18, 1846, and Alice M. Jones, born on June 18, 1862. The letters from Fuller relatives said Charles Emery was born in Wisconsin, and Alice was born in Minnesota. I would have to verify all this new family history. I would have to write more letters and pay fees to obtain birth, marriage, and death certificates from the County Health and Vital Records to verify the information I received from my relatives.

Slowly the photos came, and I could place faces with names. A friend of mine introduced me to a family history center at the Church of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in Camarillo, California. They have great resources to help identify one’s ancestors. So, a relationship began with the local family history center. I became very familiar with looking up genealogical records on microfilm, microfiche, and US Census records. Once I found a document or book on microfilm, I paid for the rental of these requested reels.

My knowledge for learning how to research was reinforced with every successful addition to my four family trees. Most of this early research was collected by viewing miles of microfilm and spending long hours behind a curtain looking at these films to see the information. I was becoming an expert research genealogist going back to 1846, one-hundred-fifty years ago.

I discovered a copy of the 1860 US Census record of a Fuller family who lived in Northfield, Minnesota, with Charles E. The name of the head of household