Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-10-16

where his young boyhood was spent in the
village schools When thirteen years of
age he LEFT Bellows Falls. with the con-
sent of his parents, to seek employment
ssISon learn the printers trade. He came to
Brattiebor,J IN 1854 and entered the employ
of Mr.. James II. Capen, who owned a
printing office and was~ehployed as tele-
graph operator in the building>,SS on hlgh
street, now occupied by Retting Br6sps ~ ?
furniture store. He remained with Mr..
Capen for several years, but his tastes did
not lie in the direction of the printer
trade, though he attained considerable
skill therein, and was the first person to do
"color job" in Mr.. Capen's office, this
feat being accomplished when the proprie-
tor was away for short time. He also
carved with his jackknife rude cuts from
designs of his own, illustrating current To-
cal events, in a paper published by Mr..
Capen. Mr.. Capen recalls him as boy of
great mental and physical activity He
had no bad tendencies, but "knew what
was going on" among the boys, and was a
leader in the boyish sports and boyish
pranks of his time. He and Larkin G.
Mead were boyhood friends, and young
Fuller was one of Mead's helpers on the
winters night when the ''Snow Angel'
was created at the point of the ''flatiron"
between Asylum and North Main streets.
The young man left Brattleboro in 1857,
or thereabouts, having secured a position
as telegrapher in Burlington where he re-
mained for year. The tendency of his
mind was plainly toward mechanical pur-
suits, however, and while still in his teens
he constructed a steam engine operated by
new valve movem mt, for which he re-
ceived premium at the Windham County
Agricultural society's fair. During all the
years of his life he kept a photograph Of
this first steam engine built by him as an
amateur machinist
Leaving Burlington he secured employ
ment with Messrs. Chubbock & Campbell
of Roxbury, Mass, manufacturers of
steam engines and boilers. He entered
their employ as an apprentice to learn the
machinists trade. During his residence
in Roxbury he took a scientific course at
the evening schools in Boston, thus early
developing habits of study and self-im-
provement which followed him all through
his life.
Returning to Brattleboro in 1860, he
started machine shop for the manufac-
ture of wood planning machines, and with
in a short time he began also the manufac-
ture of sewing machines, a business, then
in its infancy, which proved to be a sue
cessful financial venture.
In April, 1866, having in the meantime
married Miss Abby Estey, he and Julius j.
Estey, were received by Jacob Estey, the
father, as partners in the firm of j. Estev &
Co. Mr.. Fuller becoming the superintendent
of the manufacturing department. The in
ventive genius which was characteristic of
his whole business life was early developed
as has been indicated, and, it may be well
supposed, was of great benefit in the man
ufacture of the Estey organs which have
become known throughout the civilized
world. Probably more than a hundred
different inventions of Mr.. Fuller have
been patented, and many of them proved
to be of great value. His inventive genius,
however, was not confined to the field of
reed organs, but was continually showing
itself in many different ways. In the rec
ords in the United States patent office his
name appears as having invented railway
recorders for registering the condition of
the road bed; for important improvements
IN rotary engines; improvements in venti-
lators and dust arresters, especially with
reference to their application to cars; i'm
provements in hydraulic engines; also for
car couplings, and inventions for exclud-
series of inventions relating to the artih-
cial drying of Epmber, and construction of
drying apparatus in connection Herewith
His connection with the firm of j. Estey
& Co. (more recently the Estey Organ
company, covers pretty nearly the whole
period of the manufacture of reed organs
While instruments of this kind were man
ufactured in the fol ties, the business did
not attain large proportions in any locality
until the sixties. The war of 1961-65 gave
an impetus to business in many ways, and
as a result the organ business came rapid
ly to the front. During all this period, un-
til within the past few years, Gov. Fuller
was active in all the details of the man
agement of the business. His early me-
chanical education, his inventive genius
an d his broad scope as . man of affairs,
rendering him a prominent factor in the
development of the business.