William Fuller’s (1810) story continued to get more interesting. The previous article discussed his service with the United States Postal Service and Abraham Lincoln. After that event, he was accused of forgery. Records for William Fuller (1810) are scarce or non-existent so it is thought William served time in jail and may have died there.

More Post Office Evidence

FamilySearch has added many more collections to its Full Text AI image search since releasing the beta a year ago. A search for William Fuller in Washington D. C. returned many results for newspaper mentions.

The Washington D. C. newspaper would publish Congressional actions. The earliest mention from the Senate on 3 July 1838, for William says:

The bill for the relief of William Fuller was rejected.¹

William Fuller’s original contract went from 1 January 1835 to 31 December 1838.² This simple mention tells us that William sought financial relief before completing his contract. The original petition indicated William Fuller and Orlando Saltmarsh were doing work and not being paid. The men bought the contract from the original holders and the contract promised $1300-$1500 per year for three years. This was a significant amount of money for the time!

The majority of the mentions in the newspaper show that William petitioned Congress many, many times. Some petitions were submitted with Orlando Saltmarsh and other petitions were individual submissions. William Fuller (1810) worked very hard to get paid, only succeeding until Abraham Lincoln helped in 1849. All of these attempts would have created records. These records could contain more details about his work and maybe more. They would be well worth finding at the National Archives.

More evidence for Augusta Root

The newspaper also included an interesting mention of William’s marriage to Augusta Root in 1838.³ The wedding of William and Augusta took place in Delhi County, New York on 10 October 1838.⁴ William would have had many connections in Washington, D.C., for his marriage to be announced in the newspaper. William was living in Augusta, Georgia because he was working for the Post Office, but he traveled to New York for his marriage. He traveled a lot in 1838! Sadly, Augusta died just a few months after her marriage on 12 December 1838 in Montgomery County, Alabama.⁵

William Fuller (1810) and Forgery

According to the research suggestion, William was accused of forgery:

William Fuller went to trial against the United States, he was accused of forgery. The trial started on June 28th 1858. Last date listed Dec 14th 1866. I’m not sure if the trial continued after that.

The first type of source to look for information on something potentially scandalous is newspapers. The FamilySearch Research Wiki for New York has a lot of newspaper resources. Each of these collections should be searched. Some newspaper collections require a subscription but a public library or FamilySearch center may have access to some of them.

A search of the New York Times did find a newspaper article for a William Fuller who was arrested for forgery and theft in 1860. The article details seem to fit, but the date is a few years later than expected.

If William Fuller had been convicted of forgery and theft, then there would have been a trial. Court records for New York City can be found at the NYC Department of Records. The New York City Municipal Archives also has resources for those doing family history research. A conviction would have resulted in prison records. Prison records could include his birth date.

Sources

1. “District of Columbia, United States records,” entry for William Fuller, Daily National Intelligencer, volume XXVI, no. 7920, 2 July 1838; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 26 March 2025), image 612 of 830, film number 008918306. ↩︎
2. Report on the Petition of William Fuller and Orlando Saltmarsh. [1848-01-19]. /documents/D200446. The Papers of Abraham Lincoln Digital Library. ↩︎
3. “District of Columbia, United States records,” entry for William Fuller, Daily National Intelligencer, volume XXVI, no. 8024, 1 November 1838; digital images, FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed 27 March 2025), image 211 of 825, film number 008918307. ↩︎
4. “U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930,” entry for William Fuller – Augusta Root, page 1409, 7 November 1838, Delhi County, New York; digital images, Ancestry (https://ancestry.com : accessed 27 March 2025); image 531 of 944. ↩︎
5. Find A Grave, database with images (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 27 March 2025), memorial 206212565, Augusta Root Fuller, (1816-1838), gravestone photographed by EB, member 49885483. ↩︎