(This is one of the families included in the new book, Early Hamilton Settlers, by John Wilson)
William Douglas Fulton had an illustrious career that included a tenure in Chattanooga. He was cashier of the Bank of Chattanooga and was the city's mayor in 1857.
Fulton was born at Athens, Ga., Nov. 17, 1820, the son of James and Mary Espey Fulton. He received “a common school education” and was a clerk in the Athens post office when he was 15. He soon became a clerk in the bank at Athens, then was elevated to teller by the time he was 17. When he was 20, he began studying law under a prominent Athens attorney. He later practiced at Summerville and Trenton. The parents, who were originally both from South Carolina, followed him to Dade County.
W.D. Fulton in 1844 married Sarah Mary J. Henderson. She was the daughter of James and Jane Beavers Henderson of Campbell County, Ga. On Aug. 30, 1847, Fulton enlisted for the Mexican War. He was captain in the Mounted Battalion of Georgia Volunteers. After returning from the Mexican fighting, Fulton decided to tie his fortunes to Atlanta, which was then constructing a railroad connecting it with the Tennessee River at Chattanooga. Fulton was given a position as superintendent of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, which sent its first locomotive into Chattanooga in December 1849.
Fulton was drawn to the promising town on the river, and he moved his family there in 1852. The Fultons resided in a beautiful residential section near Montgomery Avenue (Main Street) east of Market Street. A son, James Henderson Fulton, was born at Trenton in 1846. A second son, Benjamin Easley Fulton, died July 27, 1854, when he was four. His younger brother, William D. Jr., died a week later. Mary died in 1858 when she was three. A second child named William D. Jr. died in 1860 just before his third birthday. The Fultons also lost a baby son, John, in 1861.
Fulton joined with William and James Williams in setting up the Bank of Chattanooga soon after his arrival. It occupied a building at the corner of Market and Third streets. William Fulton was also involved in the effort to start a waterworks for Chattanooga. In 1857, Fulton was elected mayor. His alderman board included Reese Brabson, John P. Hodges, John Lowry, Dr. William S. Bell, William F. Ragsdale, Peter E. Lewis, A.D. Taylor and John W. White. The salary for the mayor at that time was $150 per year. Fulton was among the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church when the church “became incorporated for religious purposes” on March 25, 1861. This agreement of 50 years' duration was “for the purpose of advancing our interest as a church and for the easier management and control of our church property.” Fulton invested in Chattanooga real estate, including lots on High, Walnut and Chestnut streets and acreage at Ridgedale. His total holdings exceeded $32,000 in 1860.
When the Civil War broke out, Fulton remained at his post at the bank as long as possible. But as the armies converged in 1863, the Bank of Chattanooga was closed forever and the Fultons fled. Just after the battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, the Fulton home was destroyed since it was outside the line of fortifications. The eldest son, James Henderson Fulton, was an ardent secessionist. He left his studies at the University of Georgia to join the Confederate forces. He later married Mary Morrow, daughter of John and Sarah J. Gilliam Morrow.
With his home and bank ruined, W.D. Fulton moved to Nashville after the war. He superintended the completion of the Maxwell House Hotel that had been started in 1859. The Maxwell House for many decades was the center of Nashville's social and political life. The Fultons settled in nearby Williamson County, and W.D. Fulton was representative for it and Maury County in the Tennessee Senate in 1877-79. He was a Democrat. The family acquired the two-story, porticoed mansion “Grassland,” whose
main house was originally two log rooms and a dog trot built about 1802. The house on Hillsboro Pike had been used as an inn and as a mustering ground for Confederate recruiters. There was a fine gum spring on the property. Grassland first belonged to James H. Fulton and a business partner, then the W.D. Fultons acquired it in 1874. Mrs. Fulton operated a post office in the large back room of the house a number of years. A son, Charles, born in 1862, helped manage the family farm of over 1,000 acres. A bachelor, he died at Union City in 1924. Another son, Espey, had been born at the war's
end. He married Ann Lee Bragg of Dresden in 1894. The W.D. Fultons had a daughter, Sarah, born in Nashville in 1869. She died in 1874 when she was five. Their youngest son was William Douglas Fulton Jr. - the third of the same name. This one survived and married Mary Kirkland of Franklin, Tenn., in 1893. W.D. Fulton died in Williamson County Nov. 15, 1882.