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Bill Thayer

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[image ALT: A head-and‑shoulders photograph, three-quarters left, of a man of about 45 with a rectangular face, a drooping moustache and a narrow goatee; he wears a plain 19c U. S. Army uniform tunic with a low‑rising collar on which can be read 'U. S.' followed by a pair of crossed rifles. He is Alfred Meason Fuller, a West Point graduate whose career is detailed on this webpage.]

Captain Alfred M. Fuller.

The preceding image, and the text that follows, are reproduced from (the report of the) Thirty-Fourth Annual Reunion of the Association of the Graduates of the United States Military Academy, June 10th, 1903.

 p97  Alfred Meason Fuller
No. 2639. Class of 1876.
Died, October 4, 1902, at Chicago, Ill., aged 50.

Alfred Meason Fuller was the only surviving child of Jane Ewing and Amzi Smith Fuller, and was born at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, July 10th, 1852.

He was descended on the maternal side from the Ewings of York County, a widely known family of ability and influence, planted in Eastern Pennsylvania prior to the war of the Revolution; and from Dr. Alfred Meason a physician of acknowledged capability and skill in Pennsylvania.

 p98  His father, Amzi Smith Fuller, was a lawyer, and, during his active career, was ranked with the leading barristers of Pennsylvania. He entered the civil war as a Captain, Pennsylvania Volunteers, U. S. A., and attained the rank of Colonel and Judge Advocate. At the close of the war, he settled in Greenbrier County, W. Va., where he died November 2, 1900. He is buried at Arlington. He was the son of John Fuller, a prominent member of the Pennsylvania Legislature for a number of years, and a descendant of Dr. Bela Smith, an esteemed physician of English birth, and one of the first to locate west of the Allegheny mountains.

Lieutenant Alfred Meason Fuller visited Europe soon after entering the army, and was aide to the Commanding General at the review of the French troops, in Paris, in honor of President Grant.​a

While on duty for four years in Washington, he entered the Law School of the Columbianº University, Washington, D. C., graduated in 1894 with degree L. L. B.; re‑entered and graduated in 1895 with the degree L. L. M.

In 1887 he married Minnie Jones, a daughter of John Jones, a retired banker, of Sewickley, Pennsylvania.

The names and dates of birth of children were as follows: Alfred Meason Fuller, born May 14th, 1889; Walter Jones Fuller, born March 22nd, 1894; and Lawrence Appleton Fuller, born September 20th, 1899.

In September last he had just returned from New York to his station, Fort Sheridan, Ill., after placing his son Alfred in school, not feeling well, but not considered in a dangerous condition, until Dr. Gilmore of Chicago, an old time friend, visited him at the fort and pronounced him critically ill.

Captain Fuller was then removed to a hospital in Chicago, dying soon after, of Typhoid festival, October 4th, 1902. Death was so unexpected, that his mother, after notification by telegraph, as soon as danger to life became manifest, coming from  p99 Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, as quickly as possible, reached the bedside of her son an hour after all was over.

He was buried in Arlington with his father.

From regimental orders dated October 5th, 1902, we quote as follows:

"After twenty‑six years of service in the Second Cavalry, Captain Fuller became its senior captain shortly before his death."

"His service was zealous, faithful and distinguished."

"He bore the brevet of First Lieutenant for gallant services as Second Lieutenant of Troop F, against Indians on the Rosebud, Montana, May 7, 1877, where he was wounded."

"As an officer of unswerving devotion to duty, and as a man of unimpeachable honor, his comrades will ever bear him in honored remembrance."

From long personal contact with Captain Fuller, the writer gladly pays his sincerest tribute to the warm-hearted, courageous, ever hospitable, generous, accomplished comrade, the subject of this sketch, and now so sadly lamented.

Indicates a West Point graduate and gives his Class.D. C. Pearson.


Thayer's Note:

a Not mentioned in Cullum's Register. Lt. Fuller's trip was in the summer of 1876, during his graduation leave.


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Page updated: 26 Dec 14