Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/228

 FULTON

FULTON

navigation in 1701 and in 1799, with Nicholas Roosevelt and liohert K. Livingston, had obtained from the legislatui-es of New York and New Jersey exclusive right to navigate the waters of the state. Fulton made the specitications and plans for an engine, which were submitted to Watt, and an engine was built by Watt and Boulton to be transported to the United States, but without giving the Englishman any inkling as to its destined use. The engine reached New York in 1806. In August, 1807, it was in place on the deck of the Clermont, and on Aug. 11, 1807, the first steamboat on the Hud- son river left New York city and made the l^assage of 150 '-i"-^— — -— -"^ ~ "' miles to Al-

bany, N.Y., in thirty-two hours, after which regular trijjs were made between New York and Albany during the season and hundreds of pas- sengers were transported between the two cities and to points on the river. In the winter of 1807-08 the boat was fitted for passenger traffic and after a ne%v boiler was substituted steam navigation was regularly established and main- tained. Fulton was beset with opposition and the right to navigate the waters of New Y'ork, granted by the legislature, was questioned and caused him to expend large sums of money. Other inventors also questioned his right to the invention of the steamboat, and claimed priority in the use of .steam for the purpose. He estab- lished steam ferries between New York and Brooklyn, also between New York and New Jersey; and before he died five steamboats were navigating the waters of the Hudson. He was married in the spring of 1808 to Harriet, daughter of Walter Livingston of Clermont-on-the-Hudson, and at the time of his death he was engaged in ex- lierimeuting with a submarine boat, the yaiitilus, similar in construction to the one so successfully operated by him in France. He had built for the U.S. navy a steam-ship-of-war, the FiiUon, the pioneer vessel of its class in the world. See Life of Fulton by Reigart (1856), and by Golden (1817). He received a place in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in 1900. His published works include: Improvement of Canal A\tt'igatioii (1796); Letters on Submarine Navigation (1806); Torpedo War (1810); Letter to the Secretai-y of the Navy on the Pi-actieal Use of (lie Torpedo {ISW) \ Report on the Practieabilitij of Narigatingirith. Steamboats the Sontliern Waters of the United States (\%\2)\ Memo- rial of Robert Fulton and Edward P. Livingston in Regard to Steamboats (\H\i); a,n<X Advantages of the Proposed Canal from Lake Erie to the Hudso7i River {Itili). He died in New York city, Feb. 24, 1815.

FULTON, Robert Burwell, educator, was born in Sumter county, Ala., April 8, 1849; son of William F. and Elizabeth (Frierson) Fulton. This branch of the Fulton family intermarried in 1754 with the Osgoods, who came from Dorches- ter, England, to Dorchester, Mass., early in the seventeenth century and thence to Dorchester, S.C., in 1695. The Osgoods removed to Liberty county, Ga., in 1753. The Friersons and Fultous came from the North of Ireland to South Carolina in the early part of the eighteenth century. The father of William F. was born in Liberty county, Ga., moving to Maui-y county, Tenn., in 1805 and to Greene county, Ala., in 1831. William F. settled in Sumter county, Ala., in 1845. Robert Burwell was prepared tor college at Archibald "s school, Greene comity, and under the Rev. C. M. Hutton in Sumter county, Ala. He was grad- uated at the University of Mississipiii, A.B. in. 1869, first of the three honor men of the class. He was a teacher in the high school. Pleasant Ridge, Ala., 1869-70; in the Presbyterian paro- chial high school. New Orleans, La, 1870-71; tutor in the university, 1871-73; adjunct professor of physics, 1872-75; professor of analytical physics and astronomy from 1875, and chancellor of the university from 1891. He received the post-graduate degree of A.M. on examination from the University of Mississippi in 1874; was. elected a fellow of the American association for the advancement of science in 1880; and an active member of the University extension asso- ciation. He was elected president of the Na- tional association of state universities, 1897, 1898' and 1899, was in 1897 president of the Southern association of colleges and preparatory scliools. and in 1899 was president of the department ol higher education of the National educational association. He received the honorary degree of LL.D. by the University of Nashville in 1894. On Dec. 20, 1871, he was married to Annie Rose,, daughter of Landon C. and Louisa (Garland) Giirland.

FULTON, William S., senator, was born in Cecil county, Md., June 2, 1795. He was gradu- ated at Baltimore college in 1813; studied law;. served in defence of Fort McHenry, 1813-13; re- moved with his father to Tennessee in 1814. and was military secretary to General Jackson in the Florida campaign of 1818. He then settled in Alabama where he practised law and in 1829 was appointed by President Jackson secretary of the territory of Arkansas and in 1835 its governor. When the state government was formed in 1836 he was elected a U.S. senator and drew the long term which expired March 3. 1841. He was re- elected in 1841 for a second term, serving until March 3, 1847. He died at "Rosewood,"' near Xittle Rock, Ark,, Aug. 15, 1844.