From the Book:
A History of Ohio County, Indiana
Transcript:
Greetings, this episode notes the location of Rising Sun’s first settlers, the Fulton Family in 1798, which is included in my newest book release, A History of Ohio County, Indiana.
Revolutionary War Veteran John Fulton and his son Thomas became the first permanent settlers on the site that would become Rising Sun when the family migrated to the site in 1798.
John Fulton’s parents had brought him to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania from Kilkenny, Ireland when he was young. Apprenticed to a blacksmith, John learned the trade that would later save his life. John and Jane Dills married in 1758. The couple would have seven children. When the conflict with Britain began, John enlisted in the Continental Army and fought at the December 26, 1776 Battle of Trenton. After he mustered out of the Army in 1778 the Fulton family moved to Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, which was on the frontier.
A band of Indian warriors attacked their home, capturing the family. While traveling through the heavy forest, two of the children could not keep up. The warriors picked them up by their feet and dashed their heads against a tree, killing them in full view of their parents. After reaching the British, John’s blacksmithing skills saved his life, as the British wanted him to work for them. They also spared his wife so she could cook for them and perform other duties. Their captors compelled one of the girls to run the gauntlet between two rows of natives who whipped her with lashes while she ran. They gave her a whip to use while she sprinted. She did use the whip effectively, surviving the ordeal while gaining their respect in the process. The family was exchanged near the end of the war and moved to Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
In 1796 they began the journey down the Monongahela River to Pittsburg and from there down the Ohio River by flatboat to Newport, Kentucky. They had intended to travel on to Lexington, Kentucky however they remained in Newport until 1798, when they once again embarked on a voyage down the Ohio River and settled at the current site of Rising Sun in the Northwest Territory.
Thomas moved, with his brother Samuel and father John, to a site near the current city of Rising Sun in 1798 and built a log cabin on or near the banks of the Ohio River between the homes of Samuel and Christopher Huston. In 1802 Thomas moved to a site along Arnold’s Creek. Fulton enlisted in the local militia as an ensign in 1803. After his death Thomas was interred in the Fulton Burying Ground near Rising Sun, in Ohio County, Indiana.
An historical marker oat the intersection of State Road 56 N and Belview Lane marks the Fulton family cemetery.
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