FROM THE ARCHIVES

(By Stephen Kelley from the People’s Defender 1984)

In last week’s column we printed the sketch of Sharondale Farm, at one time the property of Titus and Eliza Higgins Fulton. Mr Fulton was born across the Ohio River in Mason County, Kentucky, but while still quite young moved with his parents to Brown County, Ohio. His father, Joseph Fulton, was a native of Maryland but had been raised in Kentucky.

Joseph Fulton learned the milling trade and following that profession for several years in Kentucky. In 1831, with his wife, Elizabeth Bennet, Joseph moved to near Ripley where he built and operated a grist mill. It was in this mill that his son, Titus, leared the business and assumed the same occupation as his father.

In 1844, at age thirty one, Titus, with his bride of less than one year, moved to the farm we pictured last week. Dr. Thomas Moore had just bought the old Boone mill from William Carpenter and renamed it in the Sharondale Mill. He had heard of Fulton’s talents as a miller and hired him to oversee the mill’s operation. For the next thirteen years Titus worked at the Sharondale Mill, first as a tenant and later, as a partner with Dr. Moore.

In 1857 the Fultons had accumulated enough resources to buy the farm and mill from Dr. Moore. About three year later, they erected a fine brick home on a terrace overlooking the Three Mile Creek Valley and the nearby Sharondale Mill. The home was understandably large since the Fultons raised a family of eleven children.

After running the mill for thirty years, Fulton sold the business in 1874. Retirement was not in his plans, however, and in the fall of 1881 he built the Ohio Valley Mill in partnership with his brother in law, Elijah Davis. The big three story frame mill was located on Market Street in Aberdeen. It was steam powered and cost the two mean thirteen thousand dollars to erect and equip. The mill prospered and was a familiar sight in Aberdeen for many years.

Fulton’s partner, Elijah Davis, was a native of Franklin County, Indiana. He learned the Carpenter’s trade and became a mill wright. He moved to Aberdeen in 1856 where he met his future wife, Jacoline Fulton, sister of Titus. They were married that same year and raised a family of seven children. It was Elijah, using his talents as millwright, who designed and superintended the construction of the Ohio Valley Mill.