Biography

1818 - 1892

The son of John and Harriet (Smith) Fuller of Connelsville, Dr. Fuller was born in 1818.  His father was a three-term member of the state House of Representatives and a member of the 1838 Constitutional Convention.  The senator attended common schools, Washington College (Washington and Jefferson); and graduated in 1836.  He studied medicine with Dr. John Hasson of West Newton; attended lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia; located in Uniontown where he opened private practice; returned to Jefferson, graduating in 1847; and developed interests in agriculture and business.  The senator married first, Miss Markle, 1839, (died in 1848); and second, Jane Beggs.  Originally a Democrat, he opposed slavery, supported a high tariff, and left the party as a charter member of the state GOP, 1856.  He was a Delegate to the 1860 Chicago Republican National Convention, casting his vote for Lincoln; elected to the state Senate in October of the same year, and was defeated by 16 votes in his 1864 bid for Congress.  Fuller, a Cameron factionist, contested the election but was refused a chance to win by Gov. Curtin, who was an intra-party enemy of Cameron’s. After a 50-year medical practice and achieving rank as a cornerstone in Uniontown, he died on March 14, 1892.  
Uniontown Democrat, March 15, 1892; Portrait: Hist. of Fayette County