Fulton, James A. - Dr.

DR. JAMES A. FULTON.— The Fulton family, of Scotch-Irish extraction, of which Abraham Fulton was the ancestor, resided near Londonderry, Ireland. His children were James, Abraham, Robert, Joseph, Margaret (married to a Mr. Irvine), and Polly (married to a Mr. Boyd), who all came to America about 1780, and all settled in Westmoreland County except Joseph, who located in Ohio after remaining a few years in this State. James, who settled in Derry township, married a Miss Laughrey, by which union were born the following children: James, Abraham, Robert, Cochran, Benjamin, and Sarah (never married). Of these, Benjamin was born in 1791, and married in 1834 Jane Ayres, also of Scotch-Irish birth. He was a reputable farmer, and died in 1859, and his wife in 1872. Their children were Dr. James Ayres Fulton; Nancy E., married to Maj. A.P. Davis, of Pittsburgh; and Violet E., unmarried.

Dr. James A. Fulton was born in Derry township, Jan. 8, 1835. He attended the common schools in his neighborhood, and afterwards Allegheny College, at Meadville. He then taught school seven years in his native township, during which time he read medicine with Dr. J.W. Blackburn, of Derry. He attended his first course of lectures at Cleveland (Ohio) Medical College, and his second at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. He then located in New Salem, in 1858, in the practice of his profession, in which he has been eminently successful, securing the confidence of the people and the respect of the medical profession. On July 30, 1861, he was mustered into the United States service as first lieutenant of Company H, Fortieth Regiment (Eleventh Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps), and was discharged Oct. 3, 1863, on account of severe wounds received July 2, 1863, at the battle of Gettysburg. He was wounded by a Minie-ball, which went into and through his right leg and lodged in the left, where it was cut out the February following by Dr. Pancoast, of Philadelphia. When wounded the doctor was commanding his company at Round Top. Previous to this, in 1862, during the McClellan campaign and "Seven Days’ fighting" before Richmond, he, with all his regiment save Company B, was captured at Gaines’ Mill and taken prisoner to Libby Prison, where at the expiration of forty days they were released on parole. After returning from the army he again resumed his practice, now one of the largest in the county, and in which as a successful practitioner he hardly has a superior in Westmoreland. He was married by Rev. James C. Carson, Dec. 26, 1865, to Nancy Sterritt, daughter of Robert and Mary (Borland) Shields, by which union were born the following children:. Robert Henry, Wilbur Wilson, Mary Elizabeth, Anna Louise, Jane Helen, and James Guthrie. Together with his wife, he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which for many years he has been a leading trustee, and is assistant superintendent of the Union Sunday-school. The doctor has ever been greatly interested in all moral and educational measures for the advancement of society, and which find in him a zealous supporter. In politics he is a stanch Republican, devoted to the principles of his party, but is not a politician in a partisan or machine sense. As a souvenir of his services to his country when imperiled by a rebellion, he keeps and cherishes the rebel Minie-ball extracted from his person and received at the great battle that decided the destinies of the late civil war. He is a member of the County Medical Society, organized in 1859. His residence is on Pittsburgh Street, where, surrounded with a neat home and pleasant family, he assiduously devotes his time and well-known ability to the practice of his honored profession.