Thomas Wafer Fuller
Encyclopedia
Thomas Wafer Fuller (May 28, 1867-December 20, 1920) was an educator and newspaperman from Minden
, Louisiana
,who served as a Democrat
in the Louisiana State Senate
from 1896 to 1900.
Fuller's area Senate colleague was J. A. W. Lowery; the two represented Bienville
, Bossier
, and Webster
parishes. Thereafter, a single-member district was created for Bossier and Webster parishes with E. S. Dortch as the senator from 1900 to 1908. One of Fuller's Senate colleagues was Samuel Lawrason
of West
and East Feliciana
parishes, the author of the Lawrason Act
, which defines the scope of municipal government in Louisiana.
captain, and district attorney,Thomas Walker Fuller (1828-1896), a native of Houston County
, Georgia
. His mother was the former Margaret A. Wafer (1832-1880) of then Claiborne Parish
, from which Webster Parish was severed in 1871.Margaret Fuller was a graduate of the former Minden Female College.Thomas Walker and Margaret Wafer Fuller are interred in the former Fuller Memorial Shrine Cemetery behind West Union Street in Minden.
In 1890, Fuller graduated at the age of twenty-three from the Methodist-affiliated Centenary College
in Jackson
, Louisiana, later relocated to Shreveport
, where one of his classmates was future Governor Oramel H. Simpson
.For a time, Fuller taught school in Sibley
, south of Minden.
school superintendent, a position that he retained for the last twelve years of his life. At the time the superintendent ran in a parishwide plebiscite, from which the school board members made the final selection. Fuller narrowly led in the election with 35 percent of the vote and was chosen by the board after it was deemed that his principal opponent lacked the educational credentials to be superintendent. Fuller was succeeded as superintendent by E. S. Richardson, a Webster Parish native and a former superintendent in neighboring Bienville Parish
, who later became the president of Louisiana Tech University
in Ruston
.
In 1915, Fuller attended the conventon of the National Education Association
in Cincinnati
, Ohio
, where he became acquainted with the agricultural extension and home demonstration agent programs. He soon named, with school board approval, Mrs. Julia Cookey as the first home demonstration agent in Webster Parish.
From 1891 to 1894 and again from 1917 until his death, Fuller published the former Webster Signal, a weekly newspaper founded in 1864 and one of the numerous forerunners of what in 1966 became the daily Minden Press-Herald
newspaper. The Signals competitor at the time was the Minden Democrat, and the two publications contested for legal advertising revenues from the various governmental entities. Fuller sold The Signal in 1894 to James Peter Kent, Sr., and then re-purchased it in 1917.In 1926, Mrs. Fuller merged The Signal with the Minden Tribune to become the Webster Signal-Tribune, which operated under that name until 1937.
.
Thomas and Alma Fulloer had three daughters, Lee Aura Fuller Griffin (born 1895), Xenia Doyle Fuller Ruffin, and Miriam Rupert Fuller White (1900-1983), and sons-in-law, Robert M. Griffin (born 1896), a native of Henderson
, Texas
, and Truehart H. Ruffin (also born 1896) and Russell Lanier White (1898-1967), both of Minden. A subsequent granddaughter, Miriam White King, was born in 1929. Thomas and Alma Fuller are interred at the Fuller-White plot in the old Section A at the historic Minden Cemetery
.
The Fuller-White House (built 1905) at 229 West Union Street in Minden, is located down a hill from the front campus of Minden High School
. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
. The house has five upstairs bedrooms, with parlors, a study, and kitchen on the bottom floor. It is not open for public touring, but the caretaker may conduct individual tours when he is on the property. Fuller lived there for at least the last five years of his life. After his death, Alma Fuller resided there as she continued publishing the Webster Signal.
Minden, Louisiana
Minden is a city in the American state of Louisiana. It serves as the parish seat of Webster Parish and is located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport, the seat of Caddo Parish. The population, which has been stable since 1960, was 13,027 at the 2000 census...
, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
,who served as a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
in the Louisiana State Senate
Louisiana State Legislature
The Louisiana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is bicameral body, comprising the lower house, the Louisiana House of Representatives with 105 representatives, and the upper house, the Louisiana Senate with 39 senators...
from 1896 to 1900.
Fuller's area Senate colleague was J. A. W. Lowery; the two represented Bienville
Bienville Parish, Louisiana
Bienville Parish is a parish located in the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Arcadia and as of the 2000 census, the population is 15,752....
, Bossier
Bossier Parish, Louisiana
Bossier Parish is named for Pierre Bossier, a 19th-century Louisiana state senator and U.S. representative from Natchitoches Parish.Bossier Parish was spared fighting on its soil during the American Civil War...
, and Webster
Webster Parish, Louisiana
Webster Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is Minden. In 2010, its population was 41,207....
parishes. Thereafter, a single-member district was created for Bossier and Webster parishes with E. S. Dortch as the senator from 1900 to 1908. One of Fuller's Senate colleagues was Samuel Lawrason
Samuel Lawrason
Samuel McCutcheon Lawrason was an attorney who served two nonconsecutive terms in the Louisiana State Senate from West Feliciana Parish, located north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana...
of West
West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 15,111 people, 3,645 households, and 2,704 families residing in the parish. The population density was 37 people per square mile . There were 4,485 housing units at an average density of 11 per square mile...
and East Feliciana
East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
East Feliciana Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Clinton. In 2000, the population was 21,360.East Feliciana Parish is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the Baton Rouge–Pierre Part Combined Statistical...
parishes, the author of the Lawrason Act
Lawrason Act
The Lawrason Act is an 1898 measure of the Louisiana State Legislature which permits municipalities in the state to incorporate into towns or cities without specific clearance from the legislature....
, which defines the scope of municipal government in Louisiana.
Background
Fuller was the fifth of six children born to a planter, lawyer, ConfederateConfederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
captain, and district attorney,Thomas Walker Fuller (1828-1896), a native of Houston County
Houston County, Georgia
Houston County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on May 15, 1821, as one of five huge counties, later reduced in the formation of Bibb, Crawford, Pike, Macon and Peach counties. As of the 2000 census, the population is 110,765...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. His mother was the former Margaret A. Wafer (1832-1880) of then Claiborne Parish
Claiborne Parish, Louisiana
Claiborne Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Homer and as of 2000, the population is 16,851.-History:The parish is named for the first Louisiana governor, William C. C. Claiborne....
, from which Webster Parish was severed in 1871.Margaret Fuller was a graduate of the former Minden Female College.Thomas Walker and Margaret Wafer Fuller are interred in the former Fuller Memorial Shrine Cemetery behind West Union Street in Minden.
In 1890, Fuller graduated at the age of twenty-three from the Methodist-affiliated Centenary College
Centenary College of Louisiana
Centenary College of Louisiana is a primarily undergraduate, liberal arts and sciences college in Shreveport, Louisiana. The college is one of the founding members of the Associated Colleges of the South, a pedagogical organization consisting of sixteen Southern liberal arts colleges...
in Jackson
Jackson, Louisiana
Jackson is a town in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 4,130 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, Louisiana, later relocated to Shreveport
Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport is the third largest city in Louisiana. It is the principal city of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana and is the 109th-largest city in the United States....
, where one of his classmates was future Governor Oramel H. Simpson
Oramel H. Simpson
Oramel Hinckley Simpson was an American politician from the US state of Louisiana. He became the 39th Governor of Louisiana in 1926, upon the death of his predecessor, Henry L. Fuqua...
.For a time, Fuller taught school in Sibley
Sibley, Louisiana
Sibley is a town in south Webster Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 1,098 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Minden Micropolitan Statistical Area....
, south of Minden.
Superintendent and publisher
In 1908, upon the death of John M. Davies, Fuller became only the second Webster ParishWebster Parish, Louisiana
Webster Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The seat of the parish is Minden. In 2010, its population was 41,207....
school superintendent, a position that he retained for the last twelve years of his life. At the time the superintendent ran in a parishwide plebiscite, from which the school board members made the final selection. Fuller narrowly led in the election with 35 percent of the vote and was chosen by the board after it was deemed that his principal opponent lacked the educational credentials to be superintendent. Fuller was succeeded as superintendent by E. S. Richardson, a Webster Parish native and a former superintendent in neighboring Bienville Parish
Bienville Parish, Louisiana
Bienville Parish is a parish located in the northwestern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Arcadia and as of the 2000 census, the population is 15,752....
, who later became the president of Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana Tech University, often referred to as Louisiana Tech, LA Tech, or Tech, is a coeducational public research university located in Ruston, Louisiana. Louisiana Tech is designated as a Tier 1 school in the national universities category by the 2012 U.S. News & World Report college rankings...
in Ruston
Ruston, Louisiana
Ruston is a city in and the parish seat of Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 20,546 at the 2000 census. Ruston is near the eastern border of the Ark-La-Tex and is the home of Louisiana Tech University. Its economy caters to its college population...
.
In 1915, Fuller attended the conventon of the National Education Association
National Education Association
The National Education Association is the largest professional organization and largest labor union in the United States, representing public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college students preparing to become...
in Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, where he became acquainted with the agricultural extension and home demonstration agent programs. He soon named, with school board approval, Mrs. Julia Cookey as the first home demonstration agent in Webster Parish.
From 1891 to 1894 and again from 1917 until his death, Fuller published the former Webster Signal, a weekly newspaper founded in 1864 and one of the numerous forerunners of what in 1966 became the daily Minden Press-Herald
Minden Press-Herald
The Minden Press-Herald is a Monday-Friday daily newspaper published in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, by Specht Newspapers, Inc...
newspaper. The Signals competitor at the time was the Minden Democrat, and the two publications contested for legal advertising revenues from the various governmental entities. Fuller sold The Signal in 1894 to James Peter Kent, Sr., and then re-purchased it in 1917.In 1926, Mrs. Fuller merged The Signal with the Minden Tribune to become the Webster Signal-Tribune, which operated under that name until 1937.
Death and family
Fuller died at his Minden home at the age of fifty-three as a result of complications from an appendectomy.. Fuller was married in 1891 to the former Mary Alma Bright (November 16, 1871-June 3, 1949), a daughter of Edward Clarence Bright (1840-1893) and the former Texana Phillips (1845-1893), natives of TennesseeTennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
.
Thomas and Alma Fulloer had three daughters, Lee Aura Fuller Griffin (born 1895), Xenia Doyle Fuller Ruffin, and Miriam Rupert Fuller White (1900-1983), and sons-in-law, Robert M. Griffin (born 1896), a native of Henderson
Henderson, Texas
Henderson is a city in Rusk County, Texas, United States. The population was 11,273 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Rusk County...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and Truehart H. Ruffin (also born 1896) and Russell Lanier White (1898-1967), both of Minden. A subsequent granddaughter, Miriam White King, was born in 1929. Thomas and Alma Fuller are interred at the Fuller-White plot in the old Section A at the historic Minden Cemetery
Minden Cemetery
The Minden Cemetery, located in Minden, the seat of Webster Parish in northwestern Louisiana, United States, has graves dating from 1843, seven years after the founding of the city in 1836...
.
The Fuller-White House (built 1905) at 229 West Union Street in Minden, is located down a hill from the front campus of Minden High School
Minden High School (Minden, Louisiana)
Minden High School is the public secondary educational institution in Minden, a small city of 13,000 and the seat of Webster Parish located twenty-eight miles east of Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana...
. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. The house has five upstairs bedrooms, with parlors, a study, and kitchen on the bottom floor. It is not open for public touring, but the caretaker may conduct individual tours when he is on the property. Fuller lived there for at least the last five years of his life. After his death, Alma Fuller resided there as she continued publishing the Webster Signal.