Johnny Fulton has given me permission to run his recollections that he had put down for his family and some that he wrote because we met and started corresponding. Some of these I have run in earlier blogs, but I wanted to run them even if they are duplicated so that they are in chronological order as I edited them for Johnny. He has an amazing memory, writes well and shares freely. I am glad to have met Johnny and listened to his recollections.
Recollections of Johnny Fulton
Johnny Fulton was born on August 16, 1924 in Letcher County, Kentucky. His parents were Johnny Fulton and Verdie McFall. His grandparents were John Fulton and Rosie Adams. I came to know him when I was doing some research on some part of the family and came across Will Buntin’s family tree on ancestry.com. I wrote to Will about something or the other and we exchanged a few emails. One day I got an email which began
“My name is Johnny Fulton Jr. My father is the the son of Rosie Adams Fulton and
John Fulton. I attended school with your father whom we called J. D. He was a
playmate and friend for many years. Your mother, Cora and I graduated from
Fleming H.S. as classmates in 1942. I knew J.D.s siblings, Vera and Jessie, but
they were a tad older than me. [I will be 84 in august.] …
… I had not heard
from J. D. and Cora for years and years, but in 1991 when dad died the family
received a beautiful flower spray from them for which we were thankful
Johnny”
We began corresponding. Johnny had written several recollections
over the years that he had shared with his family. These are the recollections
that he wrote and shared with me.
John “Pa”Fulton 1869 – 1946
John Fulton & Rosie Adams
From what I knew and from what Carmen has discovered it appears John Fulton was married three times and divorced at least once by the time he was nineteen and one half years old which was probably a bit unusual for that time
He was a good- looking man who wore a neat handlebar mustache. He wore mostly black and dark colored clothing and always a black hat. He traveled mostly by horseback, and he wore leather leggings to facilitate horseback riding.
At least for the early years I knew him, he was always armed with a sidearm. It was just second nature with him.
He made a good living farming and timbering, mostly timber. With his crew and work horses they harvested trees which for the most part were used by the coal industry to, hopefully, hold the mountain off the miners. Quite often it was not enough.
Pa was very good at handling teams of work horses pulling a wagon loaded with logs or simply dragging the logs on the ground down a steep grade. Dad was pretty good himself but he was in awe of Pa's abilities.
Once, Pa decided to give himself a treat. I guess it was 1931-1932 when he bought a new Dodge automobile. Of course, he could not drive, and he had no intention of learning so he was driven wherever he wanted to go by one of his crew named Erman Bentley. Pa sat in back. I guess today Erman would be called a chauffeur but Pa was not that pretentious.
About this time I spent a night at Pa's house at Haymond. At that time they lived on Ramey's Fork. Ralph remembers them living at Bear Hollow, but that was probably later. Then there were still edible fish in deep spots of the creek, and I wanted to fish. "Aunt" Laura took what she called her last safety pin in the house and made me a fishing outfit. Don't recall if I caught any fish -- probably not. Funny thing to remember.
Johnny
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