Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/703

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

1043

four years after the death of his first wife, Nancy Esterbrook, Captain John G. Meem married Aurelia Halsey, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Seth Halsey, of Lynchburg, Vir- ginia. There children were : Erna Rus- sell, who died at the age of five years ; Julia Halsey, who married Randolph Harrison, of Lynchburg, Virginia, and who has three children living: Randolph, Aurelia and Ju- lia ; Stephen Halsey, who married Edna Hutter, of Lynchburg, and has three chil- dren: Stephen, Edna and Gilbert; J. Law- rence, who married Phyllis Deadrick, of Jonesboro, Tennessee, and has a daughter, Phyllis.

James Cowan Meem was born in Knox- ville, Tennessee, April 5, 1866. Earnest and studious from his earliest years, he made the best use of the fine educational advantages placed at his disposal. Becoming a student at the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexing- ton, Virginia, he was graduated from it with the post-graduate degree of Civil Engineer, and commenced his field work in Virginia and Tennessee. He was engaged in survey work for the United States government in 1888; in professional works of varied char- acter in Wilmington, Delaware, from 1893 to 1895, and in the past mentioned year was called to Brooklyn, New York, where he remained in the municipal civil engineering service until 1902. Since then he has been engaged in various kinds of professional work as chief engineer for contracting firms who are engaged in the construction of sub- ways and tunnels. In political matters Mr. Meem is an Independent Democrat, and he is connected with the following organiza- tions: President of the Virginia Military Institute Alumni Society of New York ; member of the Engineers' Club, of New York City ; Engineers' Club, of Brooklyn ; Machinery Club, of New York ; of American Society of Civil Engineers; National Geo- graphical Society ; Crescent Athletic Club, of New York ; Municipal Club, of Brooklyn, New York ; Robert E. Lee Camp, New York City; Associated Sons of Confederate Vet- erans; and ex-president of Brooklyn's Engi- neers' Club. He is also a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

Mr. Meem married, June 2, 1896, Kather- ine Russell Dimick born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 18, 1867, a daughter of J. G. and Levian f Russell) Dimick. The)- have no children. As a writer on technical

subjects Mr. Meem has attracted consider- able attention. He has developed methods of tunnelling and of building other large works such as subways which have been widely used and has also written treatises on engineering subjects which have been published in various journals and magazines which make it a feature to print professional articles of this nature.

Thomas Staples Fuller. Thomas Staples Fuller, a lawyer of New York City, bears in his veins the blood of many worthy ancestors who were located in difterent states of the Union. The first known on his direct paternal line was Jones Fuller, who resided in Franklin county, North Carolina, where he purchased one hundred and six acres of land, December 3, 1789, for eighty pounds. In 1771 he was en- sign in the North Carolina militia, and was subsequently a soldier of the revolu- tionary war. He died about March, 1815, at which time his will was probated. His wife's name was Ann, and they were the parents of fourteen children.

The eldest of these, Bartholomew Fuller, was born April 28, 1769, and resided in Franklin county. North Carolina, where he was a Baptist minister, and was at one time moderator of the Raleigh Baptist Associa- tion. He took deed to fifty acres of land in I'Vanklin county, January 18, 1829. His wife, Sarah (Cook) Fuller, was a daughter of Thomas and Amy Belle (Conyers) Cook, a native of Bermuda, who had seven broth- ers that were American soldiers. Sarah (Cook) F'uller survived her husband many years, making a will, January 20, 1845.

Of their nine children, Thomas Fuller was born December 27, 1800, near Louisburg, in Franklin county. North Carolina, and was a merchant, conducting an extensive busi- ness at Fayetteville, North Carolina. He died July 29, 1832, in his thirty-second year. He married Catherine Eleanor Raboteau, born November 18, 1807, daughter of John Samuel and Susannah (Graeff) Raboteau. John S. Raboteau was a son of Charles Cornelius Raboteau, who belonged to a French family that had been long estab- lished in England, where he was born. He is supposed to have been the grandson of a Huguenot refugee, who removed to Eng- land about the close of the seventeenth cen- tury. Charles C. Raboteau was a teacher at