Oggie Jane Fulton Baker

Oggie Jane Fulton was the daughter of John Fulton and Rosa B. "Rosie" Adams. Rosie would ride sidesaddle over the mountain to sell milk, eggs and farm produce.


This is Rosie on her horse.

Oggie married James Walter Baker. She continued this work as is shown by her picture.

Here is an article that was written by Mabel Kiser and printed in the Mountain Eagle about Oggie and her life and work:

Mrs. Baker is a good old-fashioned mother

This is Odgie Fulton Baker, in a photo made around 35 or 40 years ago, in
front of her home on the Right Fork of Millstone Creek. Mrs. Baker, widow Jime (sic) Baker, rode this horse on side saddle across the hill and down Goose Creek to
Neon where she sold milk and butter and eggs. Sweet milk was 25 cents a gallon
and butter milk was 20 cents per gallon. Eggs she sold for 30 cents per
dozen.

She and Jim had 12 children. Still living are Opal of Charleston, W. Va.;
Tilda Craft and Ottie Reynolds, both of Millstone, Nettie Coleman of Pikeville,
Jesse Baker of Deane, Bill Baker of Knoxville, Bradley Baker of Irvine, Henry
Baker of McRoberts. Elijah Baker, Herbert Baker and Maybelle Meade and an infant are dead.

The horse, Old Dock, belonged to son, Bill, who was in the Army when this
picture was made. It was later sold to Dr. Skaggs (the old doctor) of Fleming
and taken to Florida. Mrs. Baker was always a jolly and active lady and we all
loved her.

Mrs. Baker is still jolly and tried to work like our mothers always had a
way of doing, but time has slowed somewhat her footsteps. But she is still a
beautiful lady and young at heart. She had a heart condition and has been in the
hospital for several days now. Get well wishes go to this grand lady. She is a
roommate of my mother in the Whitesburg Hospital this week.

Mrs. Baker is one of our good old fashioned mothers, who believed in keeping the home fires burning, stayed home with her children, until they were all grown and gone into homes of their own. She still keeps the home fires burning in the old home place. Her husband, Jim, has been gone a long time; she has had many storms in her life, but has weathered them well. Her children still adhere to the
teachings of thier father and mother, and all are honest, upright men and women,
children she can be proud of, and she is. this family is a close-knit family,
the grandchildren all are close to their grandmother and to each other. Solomon
of old described mothers like Mrs Baker in Proverbs 31 verses 10 thru 20
"Strength and honor are her clothing: and she shall rejoice in time to
come."

Fleming Class of 1942 part 2

I just got a new picture which is a better one of Fleming High School's  Class of 1942.  Johnny Fulton's daughter, Sharon, sent it to me.  Thank you so much, Sharon!  In case you are saving this picture, I wanted the better shot to be available.

Also, I found out that Mr. Fulton was class president. Roy Reasor, Jr. was Vice President of the class.

Look at the earlier post for who's who.

Fleming High School Class of 1942

Class Colors:  Red and White

 

Class Flower:   Red Rose

 

Class Motto:  The door to success is labeled "Push".

 

This is the Fleming High School Class of 1942. 

 

 

Row 1: Vernon D. Gooch, Irene Kincer, Lois Marie White, Gladies Lee Sexton, Alberta Baker, Mildred Hope Tolliver, Graydon Vester “G. V.” Olive, Jr.

 

Row 2: Anna Elizabeth Goodson, Johnny Fulton, Jr., Lena Ellen Trinkle, Oscar Townson Watson Jr., Matthew Richardson

 

Row 3: Roy Tyler Reasor, Jr., Freddy Isaac Hazen, Etta Roberta Adkins, Mary Catherine Belt, Linnia Arlena Knox.

 

Row 4: Cora Bentley, Anna Parsons, Neldleen Dale, Virginia Ruth Blankenship

 

Row 5: Victoria Araco, Martha Stapleton, Archie Garrett, Pearl McMillan, Dalna Earline Wampler.

 

Those classmates not in the picture were: Marie Bartley, Bonnie Bentley, Nerva Gibson, Lenora Holbrook, Jack W. Jenkins, Thomas Wheeler Justice, Elmo Everett Parrish, Jimmie Pigg, George Winfred Sisk, Pauline Stapleton, Samuel Clinton Webb, and Helen Marie Yonts.

 

They took their senior trip by going to Cumberland Falls on a day trip.

 

When Johnny Fulton was looking for this picture, he got to thinking about his classmates and asked me how my mom got to school since there was no bus service and he knew she didn't have a car.  I told him she had walked.  I told him what I knew of her route and he wrote out this remembrance:

 

 

• Off and on over the years I have thought of a classmate of mine in the 1942 class at Fleming High School. The classmates name was Cora Bentley.
• She lived at the head of Millstone. What I have been wondering all these years is “how did Cora get to school?” I mean you would be amazed at how many students in those days did not have access to an automobile. There were zero student driven cars parked at the school. There was no school bus service to Millstone. Without a car or a school bus, how did Cora get to and from school?
• Through a series of coincidences and Will Buntin's help, I have gotten in touch with Cora’s daughter, and we have been corresponding. One of the things she has told me is how her mom, Cora, got to school.
• She walked.
• She walked several miles on unpaved roads. She walked over a mountain. She walked a mile or so through a worked-out, dark as a dungeon coal mine shaft, and she made that trip twice a day while school was in session for four years. Alone. To the best of my knowledge she was very seldom late or absent and she managed to look beautiful and fresh as a daisy all the darn time.
• Count your blessings, all you school kids.

Joshua & Rosie Mullins at Millstone

I have learned about my great grandfather, Joshua Mullins, and his third wife, Rosie Adams Fulton since I met Johnny Fulton, Rosie's grandson by her first marriage to the first John Fulton.

Joshua had a number of children with his first wife, Annie Houston. After she died the children lived for a time with Annie's parents, Nathaniel and Elizabeth "Betsy" Fleming Houston. He next married Jesse Wright's sister, Susan. In 1912 after Susan had died, Rosie and Joshua married. I don't believe he was actually still with Susan because Rosie was pregnant with Ada Mullins before they were married. This was whispered to me even 96 years later.

Joshua's children who were not grown lived with them. The same person who whispered to me about Ada learned from me that the other children were not Rosie's. He said he never saw a difference in the way Rosie treated the children and thought all of them were whole brothers and sisters. In 1914 there was a second daughter, Ida.

Joshua and Rosie lived up the right fork of Millstone on the left hand side across from where Lucky Fulton's property is today. They had a farm and made their living from it. I printed the picture of Rosie on the mule which she rode to Hemphill selling butter and other farm products.

Johnny Fulton told me that he used to visit with the family and would move from home to home spending a few nights with each family on his visits. Here are the things that I learned from Johnny's emails:

• In the 1930s the high point of my summers was to spend a week or so on Millstone. Most of the people who lived there then were related to the Fulton family in some way or other. So what I did was spend a day or so at one home and then move on to another. By the time I got to Aunt Oggie's my summer vacation was about over.




• The first home I would visit was Rosie and Joshua's. They had no children near my age, but they welcomed me and tried to make me feel 'at home'. Which I did. They lived in a log cabin style home which was built in two sections connected by an outside walkway. The first section had a living room- bedroom, kitchen, and dining area.




• There was a music instrument against a wall called an organ which resembled a piano which Rosie could play though she seldom did. Dad could play the organ and that was the instrument he learned to play on in the long ago.




• The second section was a large bedroom with two beds. Rosie and Joshua, like the other Millstone folks, had no electricity, so at dusk they lit up the kerosene lanterns. Since they did not own a radio and TV had not come along, early dark was also bedtime. Rosie would take one of her lanterns and escort me to the second section and wait for me to get in bed. She said goodnight and took the lantern and left me alone. My bedroom then became the quietest, darkest, place on earth. I made every effort to get to sleep as soon as possible.
  
  
  

1942 Graduation Trip

While I am thinking about Johnny Fulton and Mom going to school, I thought I would share what he wrote about their senior trip.



As I grew up and spent time at my grandmother's home, I always saw that picture of the capitol building in Washington, DC. with the class standing in front of it. I think it was Can and Jimmy's class. I was always a bit miffed that this eastern Kentucky school got to take a trip to Washington, DC. At my school in Ohio the fourth grade class got to take a train ride until I got to the fourth grade. No trip. I don't believe any of our senior classes had class trips. I always looked at that picture and thought what a great thing those kids had to go somewhere together before they went their separate ways. I also thought it was so appropriate for a school class to go to DC because they would have the opportunity to see so many things that they had studied about in school. I always wonder about the kids going to Aruba and what the meaning of that is other than drinking and partying, but maybe I am getting too old and set in my ways to think that something sponsored by the schools should have some educational value to it.

Cora Bentley Graduation Picture

Anyway, Johnny told me about their class trip - which wasn't to Washington either. Here is what he wrote:

• I visited Cumberland Falls the first time in 1942, 65 years ago. Thanks to Johnny Mac Sharon and Russell I was there again last week. I went there in 1942 because this was the Fleming H.S. Senior trip celebrating our more or less successfully completing 4 years of high school. We got on the bus early that morning, lunched on the way, saw the Falls and rode the Bus back to Fleming all on the same day. And for most of us our school days were over. Nowadays Seniors go to Washington D.C. or the Bahamas or some other far-away place but the Class of "42 thought they were very fortunate to see such a beautiful, peaceful part of Kentucky.
• I did sort of visit the Falls maybe forty years ago because I saw a movie with Burt Lancaster which was filmed in part there. I forget the name of that movie but maybe some body can help me out there.I asked the attendant at the mandatory gift shop if they had any literature on the movie but I don't think she ever heard of it. For those of you who have not been to Cumberland Falls I would recommend you do so if possible. It is located about 15 miles from Corbin via a scenic but typically crooked country road. Route 90.

I agree with Johnny about it being a beautiful place. I went there the first time when Kris Bentley returned from Germany and was being sent to Del Rio, Texas as his next Airforce assignment. He flew in and we took a flight to Detroit. It was the first time I had ever flown on a plane. We went to Detroit for him to pick up his brand new car -- a gremlin. We drove from there to Florida and over to Texas. Our agreement was that we would stop anywhere we wanted to along the way.

One of those stops was Cumberland Falls. We took pictures, got in the water and were awed by how beautiful it was. That was 1975 as I recall it.

I took a friend there on the way to Knoxville, Tennesse for a Jackson Five concert. She thought those were narrow, winding roads. I always threatened to take her to Letcher county and drive over to Dean by turning left out of Granny's place. Now that was drive that put fear in me.

The last time I was at Cumberland Falls was about 1993 or 94. I was suprised at the changes. I thought it was very different than the trips I had made before.

It is still a place every Kentuckian should see.

Grandma Rosie Part 2

When I published that picture of Grandma Rosie on August 20th, I also sent it to Johnny Fulton, her grandson. He is retired and lives in Memphis, Tennesse. I met him through emails with another of Rosie's relatives, Will Buntin, as they prepared for the Fulton Family reunion.

Johnny and his family were neighbors and friends of my grandparents family. He called my grandmother Aunt Cora. There has always been a connection between the families. Johnny was in my mother's class in high school.

Johnny and I  have been corresponding since that chance meeting with Will online. He has been sending me stories about his life and his family -- some of which I hope he will allow me to share on this blog.

He told me a little bit about Grandma Rosie after receiving the picture of her on the horse. Here is what he wrote about the picture:

• GRANDMA ROSIE ON A HORSE IS ANOTHER STORY. THAT PICTURE WAS PROBABLY MADE IN 1930 SOME TIME DURING THE DEPRESSION. ROSIE LIVED ON MILLSTONE AND SHE AND JOSHUA WERE FARMERS. THEY HAD NO OTHER INCOME THAN WHAT THEIR FARM PROVIDED AND ROSIE MADE A WEEKLY TRIP TO HEMPHILL, ON HER HORSE, PEDDLING MILK AND BUTTER AND SOME PRODUCE. THAT LITTLE EXTRA CASH GOT HER AND HER FAMILY THRU THE DEPRESSION. I REMEMBER VERY DISTINCTLY SHE STOPPING AT OUR HOUSE ON HER TRIPS. THE MONEY SHE HAD COLLECTED WAS TIED IN A KNOTTED HANDKERCHIEF [NO HANDBAG] AND IF SHE NEEDED SOME CASH SHE HAD TO UNDO THE KNOT.THE BULKY ITEMS YOU SEE ON HER HORSE ARE THOSE FARM PRODUCTS.
• AS LADIES DID IN THOSE DAYS ROSIE RODE HER HORSE SIDE-SADDLE. HER RIGHT FOOT WAS IN A STIRRUP AND HER LEFT LEG WAS DRAPED OVER A PROJECTION IN THE SADDLE SO THAT BOTH HER LEGS WERE ON THE SAME SIDE OF THE HORSE. THOSE BRAVE WOMEN DID NOT RIDE ASTRIDE A HORSE AS THEY DO IN THE OLYMPICS. I THINK YOU CAN SEE WHAT I AM TRYING TO SAY FROM THE PHOTO.

I am so glad that I met Johnny even if we have only talked electronically. He feels like family to me. I don't think anyone will mind if I publish that picture again.



This is Rosie with her first husband, Johnny Fulton. She late married Joshua Mullins, my great grandfather.

Grandma Rosie

I got another picture of "Grandma Rosie".  She was the daughter of Jesse & Margaret Jenkins Adams.  She first married Johnny Fulton.  Her second husband was Joshua Mullins, my great grandfather.