To lovers of biography and history this biographical sketch of Ambrose C. Fulton will be indeed a treat. Very few of even the most active men have passed through such active events; probably few men in the United States have lived lives so full of interesting events, and the life's history herein related not only merits careful reading, but study as well . In preparing this sketch liberal use has been made of matter published by Mr. Charles Eldridge, an Iowa editor, and much of what follows is copied verbatim from what he wrote of Mr. Fulton.
Ambrose C. Fulton is a descendant of one of the Fulton brothers who came to this country from Ireland in 1747, one of whom was the father of Robert Fulton who was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1765, and invented and set afloat on the Hudson, in 1807, the steamboat “Clermont,” the first successful steamboat ever launched. The ancestors of his mother, Esther Cowperthwaite, came from England to the new world in 1684.
The subject of our sketch was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1811; he worked on the farm of his parents until 1827, when he went to Philadelphia and acted as errand boy and assistant for an extensive builder. In 1830, with a small capital earned by himself, he sailed for a cruise on the coast of the Atlantic. While on this cruise, Mr. Fulton, during what he supposed to be a dead calm, threw himself from the deck of a brig into the Gulf Stream to test its velocity by swimming against the current with sufficient force to hold himself stationary while the brig would drift with the flow. In less than one minute she drifted several lengths from him and it was only by great exertion that he gained the deck of the brig almost exhausted, and added nothing to the cause of science, but ran a great risk , as the brig in the calm could not move one inch toward him. The boats were lashed down; it would have required time to launch them and, besides, the gulf is as well stocked with sharks as a village with dogs.
In 1831 he settled in New Orleans and embarked in the commerce of Jamaica, Sicily and Cuba for two years, in which he was very successful. After this he entered the building business and erected a large number of public and private edifices now in New Orleans.
During his minority he was on the stage for a period in Philadelphia and New Orleans, and some years thereafter was one of the proprietors of the Arch Street Theater of Philadelphia. He prospered in all his undertakings and was able to purchase and pay eleven thousand dollars for New Orleans City property in 1836 and had a reserve of several thousand dollars on hand which, at that period, was considered a large sum of money.
During 1835 Santa Anna, Dictator of Mexico, imprisoned within the dungeons of the capital the representatives of the then Mexican State of Texas and issued his pronunciamento requiring all Americans to leave Texas under pain of death. He increased his army and marched forth to enforce his decree. Mr. Fulton, although quite a young man at the time, called upon his friends of Texas through the press to join him and march to the rescue; the immediate result was that a volunteer corps of over three hundred and eighty young men was formed, which was the main force at the victorious battle of the Mission and the storming and capture of the fortified town of San Antonio, which caused the withdrawal of all Mexican troops from the State and ended the campaign of 1835 ; this act eventually gave us Texas and California and changed the destiny of the Union.
Previous to 1840 Mr. Fulton, though but a youth, became dissatisfied with what he termed foreign dictation and oppression in America; he consulted with a few kindred spirits and established a journal called the “True American” and gave it a home on Magazine Street, New Orleans. This journal in its day wrought a good work for America and her institutions, but had to combat with the majority of the journals of the globe; this venture cost Mr. Fulton miany thousands of dollars.
In July, 1842, Mr. Fulton removed to Davenport, Iowa, bringing with him a large stock of goods, and a few years thereafter opened a branch store at Galena, Illinois, with dry goods that he had removed from a store he had owned several years in Philadelphia. In October, 1842, he built and freighted with agricultural products for the New Orleans market the first flatboat that ever cleared from the port of Davenport. This year (1842) Messrs. Fulton, Bennet and Lambert dammed the Wapsipinecon river in Buchanan County and erected a flour-mill.
In the winter of 1842 and spring of 1843 he made a preliminary survey between Davenport and the Cedar river, near Rochester, with a view of working up a railroad, and also made a survey of the Mississippi river above Davenport; took soundings to ascertain the depth of the water, the formation of the bottom and banks and the practicability of erecting a bridge. He laid the facts before a meeting of the citizens of Davenport in 1813 and published a report of his survey in a Philadelphia journal in 1845. In 1842 he conceived the practicability of leading the waters of the Mississippi along the Iowa shore and creating a water power; he purchased several miles of canal ground and one of the islands of the river, took levels and made surveys at a cost of several thousand dollars; the work was then abandoned as too heavy for a single individual.
Previous to 1848 Davenport had no flour-mill. A meeting was called to devise ways and means to secure one; Mr. Fulton proposed to furnish one-half of the capital to build and operate a first-class merchant flouring-mill, providing the citizens would furnish the other half; they declined, as they considered the undertaking too great and hazardous. He resolved alone to put a mill in operation and immediately purchased the ground and erected a large brick structure; after all was ready for the machinery he sold the mill, to be completed by the purchasers. The citizens and farmers expressed great sorrow because he had sold the mill and called on him by a committee to express their feelings. He replied: “Get the owner of the adjacent ground to sell to me at a fair value and I will erect another steam mill and operate it.” “When shall we say to the owner you will commence work?” “Tell him I will commence to-morrow morning.” The ground was purchased and foundation work commenced the next morning, and a fourteen-thousand-dollar mill was erected and put in operation three days before the first mill was running. The citizens assembled on that day, January 15, 1848, and gave within the mill a complimentary dinner to Mr. Fulton and his employés, accompanied with toasts and well wishes.
At this period in the forties steam milling business was very hazardous. No railroads then existed in the far West and the winter's product had to be rushed to market in early spring. At that day there was no market even at low figures for bran, shorts, ship stuff, middlings and screenings, except to the whisky distillers of Alton and St. Louis, who sent steamboats and barges to the upper river mills and paid fair prices for all kinds of mill offal that they could procure, but Mr. Fulton, although solicited, refused to sell at any price to be used for what he termed an unrighteous purpose, and there was no home market for one fourth of the vast quantity produced, as the white clover and blue grass upon the vast, open prairies and upon the open out-lots and commons of Davenport were so luxuriant that a great number of cattle gorged themselves to death annually. The consequence was, while the next door Albion mill of J. M. D. Burrows received thousands of dollars for this product, Mr. Fulton's Aetna mill sold at one cent per bushel, provided the purchaser would measure and remove it and pay when he thought proper. A vast quantity in a moldy condition was cast into the Mississippi river. At a later date Mr. Fulton refused to rent for saloon purposes a storeroom, No. 315 Perry Street, Davenport, when vacant, at a rent of sixty-five dollars per month , payable in advance, but rented it for commercial purposes at twenty dollars per month; and he frequently refused large rents for buildings to be used for that purpose. He has ever declared that he would have no hand in producing or distributing death - dealing and poverty - creating firewater.
In 1849 he called a meeting of the citizens of Davenport to take action toward the construction of a railroad between Rock Island and La Salle, Illinois; subscriptions were opened and he not only subscribed to the stock to the extent of his ability, but at the onset, alone and unaided, held meetings in the towns, villages, and country school-houses of Iowa and Illinois. Finally the masses of the people embarked in the under taking of its completion to Chicago. The citizens of Iowa desired to have the railroad line extended west through the State; to accomplish this it was proposed to memorialize Congress for a grant of land. To work up a line and circulate those memorials in a sparsely settled country required time and money, but Mr. Fulton, as ever, came to the rescue and spent many months holding meetings throughout the State and visiting farmers at their homes. He paid his own expenses and, in due time, his exertions were crowned with success, for, instead of a grant for one railroad, three obtained a like favor, "many reaping who had not sown,” and the bridge that he called the attention of his neighbors to in 1813, and the world in 1845, was erected.
In 1849 and 1850 Mr. Fulton wrote for an eastern journal a series of articles on Iowa, respecting her climate, soil and products, which attracted the eastern people and were instrumental in bringing into Iowa a large number of thrifty settlers who are now residing there.
Previous to 1854 the City of Davenport did not possess a suitable cemetery; Mr. Fulton proposed to a few of the citizens to unite and purchase a tract of land for cemetery purposes; the proposition was sanctioned and he was appointed to select a site and enter into contracts, which he did; at this point the others declined the risk. He individu ally fulfilled his contracts, paid for seventy-two acres of land, fenced and laid it out with three miles of carriage drives and nine miles of walks, planted five hundred evergreen and other trees, and many costly tombs now mark the place of the departed. He still conducts Pine Hill.
Mr. Fulton was elected and served as County commissioner for Scott County, and when the Democrats were in ascending power he was twice nominated and ran as a Whig for the Lower House of the General Assembly of Iowa and was defeated by a small majority.
In 1854 he was elected to the Iowa Senate by the Anti-slavery Whigs, by a large majority; he took the responsibility and organized that body, after over two weeks' deadlock, by voting for a Democrat as president of the Senate; he also disobeyed the almost unanimous petition and request of his constituents by being instrumental in sending Hon. James Harlan to the United States Senate. In 1857 he was elected a life member of the Northwestern Freedmen's Aid Commission. He has also been a member of the Davenport City Council.
During the Rebellion he furnished the War Department with military maps of New Orleans and adjacent country, embracing Fort Jackson, the Mississippi river, lakes, canals, timber and swamp lands, depth of water and nature of the bottom, public roads and bridges, for which he received the personal thanks of Simon Cameron, then Secretary of War. As an interesting relic of the days that tried men's souls, we here give verbatim the document:
War Department, December 30, 1861.
A. C. Fulton , Davenport, Iowa.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of the map of the City of New Orleans and vicinity, forwarded by you to this department. The thanks of the Government are due to you for this practical manifesta tion of your devotion to the cause of our country in this unprecedented trial of the strength of our institutions.
With much respect, your obedient servant,
SIMON CAMERON, Secretary of War.
Mr. Fulton also furnished the then Mount Ida College building in Davenport as a barracks for an Iowa regiment and afterward as a hospital, through which the property sustained great damage and he received no compensation; he is, without doubt, the only man in Iowa, and perhaps in the Union, who quartered a regiment at his own individual cost. The patriotic instinct was inherent in the family, and even in the breast of his son, a youth of but seventeen years, the desire to serve his country overcame all other feelings ; to use Mr. Fulton's expression, he accompanied this seventeen-year-old boy to the volunteer camp and signed him over “like a bullock at a stock yard," to be the target for rebel bullets and wrecked and shattered for life at the siege of Vicksburg and other fields of battle. "
The journals before us witness that Mr. Fulton has not lived for self alone. In one good act he gave city lots for four churches; in another instance, on the tenth of October, 1849, when the delegates from various States and cities assembled at Davenport in convention, to take action in respect to the improvement of the rapids of the Mississippi, he furnished the entire delegation with a splendid dinner at the Le Claire House, at his own cost. He built, without any compensation, the first wagon bridge over Duck creek, west of the Dubuque road, and elevated the roadways to connect with the bridge, and also the first bridge of note and roadways in Cleona Township.
In 1865 he was in the grain commission business in Chicago and a member of the Board of Trade. In 1867 he, through the press, advocated building a horse railway, visited Philadelphia at his own expense to obtain facts and consult contractors, organized a home company, solicited stock and was instrumental in the construction of a street-car line east and west through the city. During the same year (1867) he proposed to a neighbor, Mr. L. F. Parker, to join him and view the country northward for railroad line to connect Davenport with St. Paul; the view was taken and considered favorably. In 1868 he drew up a stock subscription list, which he headed with five thousand dollars, and also drew up the articles of incorporation, went upon the street, and, after much labor, obtained many thousands more to the stock. All action then ceased until 1869, when the mass of the people came forward and carried the work to completion. He was one of the original workers and stock holders of both the New Orleans and Davenport gas works. He erected for himself in New Orleans eleven buildings, and thirty -seven in Iowa, all above the average class, and put two thousand acres of land under cultivation. Local statistics witness that during one winter he gave employment to more workmen than the entire balance of the citizens.
His advantages for obtaining an early education were quite limited; it embraced but a few winters at a country school. But to use his expression, he picked up some useful knowledge during the evenings of five years in the sky chamber of a kitchen in New Orleans where he alternately read law, medical works (both allopathic and homeopathic), attended a few medical lectures and studied engineering. That he gained some knowledge his published reports and estimates made under appointment of the citizens' association to bring the St. Paul railroad into the city bear witness, and the court records and reports of New Orleans and Iowa show that he, to no limited extent, has been a very successful practitioner.
In 1839 the city of New Orleans instituted a suit against him, growing out of the condemning of private property for public purposes. He felt that an unjust burden was sought to be placed upon him, that equity and a proper interpretation of the laws would support his views of the case. Under the purchase of Louisiana from France it was stipulated by the treaty, that all laws then in force were to remain unchanged until 1833, consequently the Code Napoleon was virtually in force. The laws favoring the empire or State, not the people and individual rights and interests, were ignored by the courts. He applied to several eminent attorneys to engage them to enter on his defense; they, after fully investigating the subject at issue in all its bearings, unanimously declared it would be time and money thrown away, that they would defend, but were satisfied from experience that no relief could be obtained. Mr. Fulton resolved to personally enter the courts and test his rights. He filed his answer to the suit, hunted up all decisions that supported or bore on the case, compiled his documentary evidence and, to the astonishment of the bar, and especially of his opponent, one of the most eminent attorneys of the State, obtained a decree in his favor as prayed for. And the published reports of the upper courts of Iowa exhibit the fact that he continues to possess the ability of defending himself at the bar.
He was one of the incorporators of the Homeopathic Medical College of Philadelphia, and in January, 1850, in connection with Drs. Sanford and Richards, who with others were then conducting the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Davenport, undertook to establish an allopathic medical college in Davenport. With this view Mr. Fulton negotiated with the Bishop of Dubuque for the purchase of the grounds and building then known as the "Nunnery; " Mr. Fulton had drawn plans for remodeling this building and posted them at the postoffice, when an indignant people declared that a medical college should not be established in Davenport. The plans were destroyed , and even a grave in the city cemetery was opened to see if the corpse was removed; the medical faculty abandoned Davenport and located at Keokuk.
The geographical and historical description of Texas and account of the Texan Revolution, issued by Hon. R. T. Pease in 1844, was, after much time and labor, furnished in part to Mr. Pease and the world by Mr. Fulton. This publication was the first authentic sketch ever published of Texas and her revolution, and without it a blank would exist in the history of North America.
He wrote many articles on the gulf, the Atlantic ocean and her islands for Story's Chicago "Times” and the Davenport "Democrat” that had a wide circulation, and very few men possess a better knowledge of the commerce and political history of Mexico.
Mr. Fulton is a born orator and has made some very forcible and eloquent addresses before the people in the interests of various worthy objects. In 1851 the talent of Central and Western Iowa met at Iowa City, then the capital of the State, to locate the railroad between the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers; it was conceded by the press of the State and the individuals present that the best address was delivered by him.
In 1865 the members of a Davenport Episcopal Church, with a few outsiders (mostly females), with a worthy intention at the outset, pur chased a large structure in East Davenport, to be used as a home for destitute women and children, which was styled Iowa Christian Home. Mr. Fulton donated two hundred dollars to aid the institution; for a brief period kind heaven smiled on the lauable act, but the female supporters and supervisors became dissatisfied with the management and the frequent calls on their purses; they therefore in session decreed to close the institution, which contained many destitute women and children. Starvation was resolved on as the most efficient means of eviction, and the institution was at that time destitute of food even for the morrow. The resolve reached Mr. Fulton, and he declared that the women and children should never be evicted through starvation, and before the echo of the unrighteous act ceased to vibrate through heaven's firm arches, he called upon Mr. J. Lyter and other provision dealers and dispatched a bountiful supply of food, and continued the supply until homes were procured for all the inmates.
During the depression of 1857 Mr. Fulton, although borne down to the verge of bankruptcy, was appealed to for leniency by others; the court records witness that he, in consideration of "love and affection,” blotted out all obligations.
In 1881, and previous, many Cubans desired to throw off the Spanish yoke of oppression. One, a companion of Mr. Fulton in his sailor days, wrote and requested him to unite in the undertaking. Within four hours Mr. Fulton was on his way to Key West. He found the patriots unacquainted with their own homes-military strength, resources, and even distances. His own knowledge was of a half-century passed; but, to use his expression, it was indelibly stamped on the tablet of his memory. He then, in March, 1881, set sail for Cuba and through great danger prepared military maps embracing bays, streams, distances, and especially the topography of the Morro and the Blanco castles, which have been written impregnable. This, Mr. Fulton says, is an error. His Spanish passport now before us shows that he got official consent to depart from Cuba. Time and talk took place up to 1884, when Mr. Fulton conceived the idea of enlisting Mexicans to combat their ancient oppressors. He visited Mexico and found no difficulty in procuring thousands of soldiers. Etiquette required him to consult the national officials. A City of Mexico journal before us, and dated April 29, 1984, states that A. C. Fulton of Davenport, Iowa, has come to see President Gonzalez about some personal matters. He called on the United States Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary, Philip H. Morgan, who with energy advised him to return to the United States and escape being shot for making war against a friendly nation.
The Davenport “Tribune” of August 9, 1894, contained the following interesting reference to Mr. Fulton:
“With the memory so fresh of the late Pullman sympathetic strikes, with the horrors of human life lost, immense destruction of property and disastrous effects on business and commerce, many seem to forget that we have ever before suffered from strikes anything so terrible and probably equally unjustifiable in their origin. The "Tribune" recently awakened the memory of some of its older readers to the strikes of 1875, which far surpassed those of this year in the loss of life, over one hundred persons in a single night, and immeasurably greater destruc tion of property. In 1883 there were strikes of coal miners, railroad employés, telegraph operators, etc., more disturbing to great business interests than those of to-day. They were so serious and widespread as to call the attention of Congress, and resulted in the appointment of a Senate Committee to investigate the cause and, if possible, to recommend such legislation as might prevent the recurrence of such calamities. This committee was composed of nine Senators, representing as many States, but Iowa was not one of them. In the same way, at the practical close of the strikes of 1894, has the attention of Congress been given to these disturbances and the President authorized to appoint, which has been done, a committee to thoroughly investigate the strikes, the causes of them, the accompaniments of violence, etc., and finally to make its recommendations or suggestions for legislative action, to provide for such security in the future as may be obtained, by arbitration or otherwise.
“The Senate Committee of 1883 called before it Jay Gould, railroad president. Powderly, the head of the Knights of Labor, and lesser lights in labor organizations, with a multitude of others, and received hundreds of communications by mail from both the invited and uninvited. In 1885 the committee published, and it was one of the most elaborate and exhausting reports ever made to the United States Senate. It was in five large volumes, containing altogether over five thousand pages. The report comprised a full discussion of the labor and capital question then, just as it is now, attracting so much attention, with many facts bearing on the subject. The present committee would do well to examine this report with its facts and figures before proceed ing to collate their own. They can obtain both information and useful suggestions for their own work.
“But this voluminous report gave singular credit or paid a high compliment to a citizen of Davenport, Mr. A. C. Fulton. August 1, 1883, in the midst of the strike excitement, the old "Gazette," a paper probably unknown to any member of the committee, opened a “parliament' in its columns, where every citizen who had anything to write on the strikes, or labor and capital questions in connection, should be free to express his opinions, and the communications in response were numerous, and some of them peppery. At that time Mr. Fulton was confined to bed from the effects of an old wound, and his physician was canvassing the necessity of amputating a limb, and even solicitous about saving his patient's life. Mr. Fulton, however, was so interested in the parliament discussion that he determined to take a hand in it. In his diversified and really remarkable life he had worked for sixteen dollars a month and cut wood at fifty cents a cord, and, to use his own expression, had made money out of it, so he probably thought he could write from his own hard experience with some intelligence on the labor and capital question, although short on the capital end. At all events, lying on his back, he wrote two letters for the "Gazette," covering this question. llere comes in the singular fact that, in all the huge volumes of the Senate Committee report, these two letters were the only ones extracted from newspapers and given in full from among the thousands of letters and articles that were published by the press on the capital and labor question. They can be found in Vol. 2, pp. 399-402. It is strange and complimentary to Mr. Fulton that his letters should thus have been selected from all others, written by a very sick man, and published in a little Iowa paper, comparatively obscure from its influence and location in a small city so far away from the Nation's capital. Yet they are plain , practical articles, written from a man's own experience in part, and with no rhetorical flourish, but the gist, the boiled -down substance, of what a more fluent writer might have occupied columns in saying, with less effect. They were, perhaps, precisely what the committee wanted as materially assisting their work in solving the capital and labor problem.
"In giving these facts relating to Mr. Fulton's receiving a distin guished honor in its way, we only give significance at this late day to what has not been published before, yet is well known as a tribute to a citizen of Davenport who yet lives with us.
”From the Rock Island “Union” of February 24, 1894, the following extensively published account of an occurrence which attracted much attention is taken:
"Mr. A. C. Fulton, a well-known citizen of Davenport, has not only been violating the neutrality laws by sending munitions of war to the President of Hawaii, but has had the temerity to avow it, in utter contempt of President Cleveland's policy spleen. In a letter to the Davenport "Tribune" Mr. Fulton sets forth his sympathy for the cause of the republic erected on the ruins of a depraved and rotten monarchy and how he was prompted to intervene to the best of his limited ability by sending a box of guns and ammunition to President Dole, and paying the freight, eight dollars and five cents more! His letter to President Dole was as follows:
“Good Sir: I ship you by Adams Express Company one box, con taining one Springfield rifle, 45-70 caliber, long range, good at five hundred yards; one Winchester rifle, a twelve-shooter, 45-60 cartridge; one best quality double-barreled Damascus steel shot-gun, long range (can carry shot, ball or slug ), and two packages of ammunition to defend life, property and the Hawaiian Republic. I retain No. 4 and ammuni tion to carry personally if necessary. Respectfully,
“A. C. FULTON, Davenport, Iowa.
“P. S.--Please, please never surrender or capitulate.
"This was in December. A few days ago Mr. Fulton received the following acknowledgment:
“Department of Foreign Affairs,
“Honolulu, January 30, 1894.
“Dear Sir: It is my pleasant duty to inform you that the arms and ammunition you mention in your letter of December 11 last have arrived. I accept with pleasure your gift, which, aside from its intrinsic worth, I esteem and value as evidence that Hawaii possesses a brave and loyal friend.
“Of our intention to maintain our present position and to build up a staple and enlightened government in these islands you may rest assured. We have, I think, enough supporters here to oppose attacks by any faction or clique against constituted authority and therefore would not recommend you to come out here, believing that you could aid us quite as efficiently at home by disseminating correct ideas in regard to our country.
“For your information I send you the following books in regard to the history, products and commerce of the islands, which I know will be of interest to you: " Alexander's History," Thrums Annual “ Alex ander's Monarchy. ”
“Thanking you for your generous gift and sympathy, I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
SANFORD B. DOLE, “ 'President and Minister of Foreign Affairs.'
Mr. Fulton was a sailor, a second mate, first mate and captain, in rapid succession, all previous to 1835. And he passed through remark able and thrilling experiences, which would require a volume to recite.
Lack of space forces us to give but a brief outline of this most active life. To do justice to the subject a volume should be written. By old journals and documents that were loaned to the writer it is proved that Mr. Fulton did more for the City of Davenport than any other man . He took an active part in making the history of our country. His was the first appeal that sounded the key-note of the Texas Rebellion, which gave us California and prosperity; he has always been most observing, a profound thinker and a most logical writer; he is classed as one of Iowa's writers and authors, and some of his articles on vital subjects of the day have been copied broadcast and circulated throughout the world.
He has passed through many dangers and stirring scenes; he carries wounds upon his body obtained fighting for the Texan. Many of his experiences would be considered by an average man as imaginary, but Mr. Fulton has never made an assertion in his life, unless he had the documentary evidence of the truth of his statement.
His has been a most active life; he has made several fortunes and has always been charitable, ever giving to all deserving objects. No man is or has been more public-spirited than he, nor more active in business. Now, although more than four-score in years, his name appears on the County records as either grantee or grantor oftener than that of any other man. Such men as he build up communities and make prosperous States; such men as he become leaders intuitively, and doubtless had Mr. Fulton devoted his energies to statesmanship or the science of war he would have attained the bighest honors that a people could bestow.
For over fifty years he has been a resident of Davenport, and during that time he has ever conducted his affairs, whether public or private, in such a manner as to merit the esteem of the community, and he is honored and respected as an honorable, upright man by all who know him. Although he has had business transactions all over the new world, and although some of his ventures have not been successful, he has always paid every dollar of his indebtedness; one of his favorite expressions is: “Send me a man to whom I owe one dollar, and he shall have it with compound interest.” We trust we may find many who, like him, declared: “Resolution is omnipotent."
BIOGRAPHIES