James Jefferson Fulton

NANCY ANN RAMSEY, youngest daughter of Hugh and Jane (Thompson) Ramsey, born at Ramsey's Corner, East Nottingham, Chester county, Pennsylvania, August 22, 1802, married June 7, 1827, James Jefferson Fulton, son of James and Margaret (Miller) Fulton and grandson of John and Eleanor Fulton who came from Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1753, and settled on the Big Elk in New Castle county, now Delaware. James Fulton, born in Lanarkshire, in 1751, was a captain in the Revolutionary war serving under General Mifflin in the regiment commanded by Colonel Evan Evans. He was with Washington at the battle of Trenton and served in many other notable engagements.

James Jefferson Fulton was born on his father's farm, on the Big Elk in New Castle county, February 18, 1801. He received a common school education at local subscription schools and learned the trade of a paper maker. In partnership with his brother. Miller Fulton, he operated a paper mill and fulling mill on the Big Elk, 1823-1827, when the partnership was dissolved, James J. continuing to operate the mill until 1831. In that year he removed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the manufacture of wall paper with the old style hand presses, in connection with Samuel Bustil, he and his life being admitted as members of the Presbyterian Church at Lancaster September 30, 1831. His manufacturing plant was located in an old frame building on Duke street where the court house now stands. He saw the first locomotive at Lancaster station in 1835.

In 1832, he removed to and took charge of Eshelman's Mill on the west branch of the Octarora creek in Bart Township, Lancaster County. In the spring of 1835 he removed to a mill in West Nottingham township, Chester County, where he continued to reside until his death on April 28, 1861. He was an elder and trustee of the Nottingham Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Fulton survived him nearly six years, dying January 7, 1870.