BIOGRAPHIES BEGINNING WITH "F"
WABASHA COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Timothy Fuller

TIMOTHY FULLER was born in 1832 in Amherst NH. He married Scholastica (Mary Josephine) Calista Cratte on 10 Oct 1854 in Wabasha MN. Scholastica was a daughter of Oliver Cratte and Sara Marie Graham, a daughter of fur trader Duncan Graham and Suzanne Pennishon or Hazahotawin, a descendant of the Mdewakanton Sioux chief Penichon. Timothy and his wife "Calista" (aka Scholastica) first appear on the MN census with their children in 1860 living near Traverse des Sioux, at Ottawa, where Timothy is noted as a farmer, and his family is listed as Indian.

Timothy enlisted with the 5th MN Infantry Company G on 30 Jan 1862, entering the Union Army as a PVT. Initially assigned to garrison duty at Fort Snelling near St Paul MN, Timothy was sent to MS in mid-May. On the 24th, his unit fought the Battle of Corinth, and on the 28th, the Battle of Farmington. They next engaged in forced marches, pursuing retreating Confederates. The rest of the summer they were stationed at Camp Clear Creek, where they guarded rail lines providing supplies to Union-occupied Memphis. Timothy Fuller, since promoted to SGT, was medically discharged on 6 August 1862. On his later pension form (#190254) Timothy describes his injury as resulting from "exertions" related to having carried his unit's colors at the Siege of Corinth.

Twelve days after Timothy was discharged in MS, the Sioux Uprising erupted back home in MN. It is not known whether Timothy or his immediate family members were in the area then, although in-laws and neighbors on the 1860 census were present and involved. Over 500 individuals died in the Uprising, and thousands fled the state. Most Indians and many mixed-bloods were then removed to reservations in NE and SD. Some "Citizen Indians" were allowed to stay, mainly farmers who had adopted Christian ways. A related 1889 census includes Scholastica's relatives. Timothy's descendants appear on the Flandreau Papers in 1897 and on BIA censuses in 1914 and 1930, and they were still enrolled with the Prairie Island MN Sioux community in 1982.

Timothy's family had returned to Wabasha by the 1870 census. From then on Timothy worked as a carpenter. On an earlier census, living in the home of his lumberman father in 1850 NH, Timothy, then 18, had been listed as a joiner, usually meaning someone who makes window frames and doors.

After Timothy's first wife died, he married Catherine E. Drew nee Gerber, with whom he had one child. They appear on the 1880 Beadle County census for Dakota Territory, with Timothy working as a carpenter in Huron, a railroad boom-town. They later lived in Eau Claire WI near her family for about ten years. The 1890 WI Veterans Schedule census shows Timothy residing at Pepin, also in Albany County WI.

Timothy died in his sleep on 30 Mar 1901 in Wabasha MN, and he was buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Eau Claire WI. Timothy's obituary stated "he was about the city on crutches just a few days preceding his death." Seven of Timothy's 10 children survived him, and all but one, who lived in a distant state, attended his funeral, held in the home of his oldest son, Henry T. Fuller. Timothy's obituary refers to him as a "fairly educated" man that would be remembered as "one of the town's peculiar characters," perceived as "naturally gifted with a ready repartee, almost up to the moment of death." "It is said that never was Tim Fuller lost for an answer. For a friend he would do anything in his power, but on to whom he took a dislike he could roast to a turn."

Timothy Fuller was the son of Israel Fuller Jr and Susannah Carleton. Israel was born 28 Feb 1806 in Merrimack NH, and he died after 1880, probably in Nicollet County MN. Susannah was born 2 Oct 1809 in Merrimack NH, and she died 13 June 1852; she is buried in Meadowview Cemetery in Amherst NH.

On the 1850 Bedford NH census Israel Fuller Jr is listed as a lumberman with assets of $6000. After his wife Susannah died, Israel moved to Traverse des Sioux MN sometime before 11 October 1853, when he was elected the first county surveyor for Nicollet MN.

This biography was submitted by Kathy Brady
Source: Family Research

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