For
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 57
JEFFERSON D. FULLIAM, M.D. The name of fulliam is inseparably associated with the history of the medical profession in Muscatine, and the record of Dr. Jefferson D. Fulliam is one which reflects added credit and honor upon an untarnished family name. As a physician and surgeon he is practicing successfully here, having for twenty-three years devoted his time and energies to the alleviation of human suffering and the restoration of health.He was born in this city, November 9, 1865, a son of Dr. George W. and Elizabeth ( Van Natta ) Fulliam, natives of Indiana and Pennsylvania respectively. The former was a son of Bland Ballard Fulliam, who was the first white child born in the fort on what is now the site of Lexington, Kentucky. His maternal grandfather, Bland Ballard, was a soldier of the Revolutionary war, being a member of Clarke's Illinois regiment of Virginia troops. Benjamin Fulliam, the paternal great-grandfather of our subject, also fought for American independence. Bland Ballard Fulliam was a private in Captain Lyddall Bacon's company of infantry, the Seventeenth, Frisco's regiment of Kentucky in the war of 1812. In Washington county, Indiana, whither he went in pioneer times, he married Elizabeth Hardin, who was born near Greeneville, Tennessee. He was of Welsh decent while his wife was of Irish lineage on the paternal line and German on her mother's side. At the time of the war of 1812 Bland B. Fulliam espoused the American cause, seeing active service during the period of hostilities. He died in 1852 at the age of fifty-five years, having for about five years survived his wife, whose death resulted from cholera in 1847 at the age of forty-five years. Their family numbered seven daughters and two sons, of whom are now all deceased.
Dr. George W. Fulliam, the father of Jefferson D. Fulliam, was reared upon a farm in Washington county, Indiana, amid the wild scenes and environment of frontier life. In early manhood he removed to Nauvoo, Illinois, and in 1847 came to Muscatine, where he made his home continuously until his death. When still quite young he took up the study of medicine and began practice in Nauvoo. After living in Wapello for a time he followed the advice of Mr. Parvin and came to Muscatine in 1847, finding here a profitable field for his professional labors, in which he continued actively until his demise on the 1st of June, 1893, when he was seventy-two years of age. He had married Elizabeth Van Natta, a native of Pennsylvania, and a daughter of William Van Natta, who was born in the keystone state and was of Holland Dutch descent. The death of Mrs. Elizabeth Fulliam occurred in 1889, when she was fifty-three years of age. She held membership in the Congregational church and her life was the exemplification of earnest Christian womanhood. Dr. Fulliam had previously married Miss Eliza Jane Morford and had two daughters by that marriage: Mrs. Sultana Bartlett, now of Muscatine; and Mrs. Eliza J. Bond, the wife of Rev. F. F. Bond, of Philadelphia. The children of Dr. Fulliam's second marriage were: Charles, deceased; Dr. Edmond B., of Muscatine; William J., of Horton, Kansas; Stonewall J., also of Muscatine; Jefferson D.; George, Deceased; Belle,deceased, who was a deaconess in the Methodist and Presbyterian churches; and Etta, the wife of Crawforn Johnson, of Norristown, Pennsylvania.
No event of special importance occurred to vary the usual routine of life for the small boy who devotes his time to the acquirement of an education and to the sports which are a constant source of pleasure, in which manner the youth of Dr. Jefferson D. Fulliam was passed. His professional education was acquired in the Bennett Medical College of Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1887, and since that time he has been an active representative of the medical fraternity in his native city. Aside from his private practice, which has constantly grown in volume and importance, he served as health officer for eight years. He is now secretary of the Muscatine County Medical Society and also belongs to the State Medical Society.
On the 2d of April, 1890, Dr. Fulliam married Miss Lavine A. Wabnitz, a daughter of Charles F. and Mary ( Wagner ) Wabnitz. Mrs. Fulliam was born near Grandview, Louisa county, Iowa. Her paternal grandfather, Carl F. Wabnitz, came from Rhine Bishofheim, Baden, Germany, and in 1852 settled in Louisa county, where he resided until a few years prior to his death, which occurred in Lettsville, Iowa, in 1899, when he reached an advanced age. His wife also came from Rhine Bishof, Germany. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Fulliam was Philip Wagner, for many years an undertaker at Grandview, Iowa. His wife bore the maiden name of Mary Stroh. Charles F. Wabnitz, the father of Mrs. Fulliam, was a native of Ohio, while his wife was born in Pennsylvania. They became early settlers of Louisa county, Iowa, where they arrived in 1852. Later they removed to Washington, Iowa, where Mrs. Wabnitz passed away in the summer of 1909, being still surived by her husband. They were the parents of a family of nine children, two sons and seven daughters, of whom seven are yet living. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Fulliam has been blessed with only one son, Charles.
Dr. Fulliam is a well known member of the Muscatine Lodge No.5, I. O. O. F., and his wife holds membership in the Methodist church. His political allegiance is unfalteringly given to the democratic party and aside from the offices he has held in the line of his profession he has served as a member of the board of education for nine years and in the spring of 1910 was reelected for an additional term of three years. His public-spirited devotion to the general good is manifested in many ways, including a loyal support of all the projects and measures which are promulgated for the upbuilding and welfare of the city.
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