Advertisement

Martha Ann “Mattie” <I>Golden</I> Fullingim

Advertisement

Martha Ann “Mattie” Golden Fullingim

Birth
Tallapoosa County, Alabama, USA
Death
24 Apr 1897 (aged 28–29)
Marietta, Love County, Oklahoma, USA
Burial
Love County, Oklahoma, USA GPS-Latitude: 33.9010582, Longitude: -97.169426
Memorial ID
View Source
"Notice of Death"
The Marietta Monitor (Indian Territory)
Thursday, 29 April 1897, Vol. 2, No. 33.

+++++
"The Monitor is pained to record the death of Mrs. I. M. [sic] Fullingim which occurred last Saturday from a long and painful illness from gastric fever. The deceased was born in Alabama and was 29 years of age; she was married in Wise Co., Texas, eleven years ago and except three years [they] had made their home in this county. She was the mother of eight children, seven of whom, the youngest a babe less than a week old, survive her. The remains were laid to rest in the Arnoldville Cemetery Sunday. Our sympathy for the bereaved father and orphans."
+++++

Martha Ann "Mattie" (Golden) Fullingim was my great grandmother. She was the first of ten children born to James Marion and Frances Catherine (Hornsby) Golden in 1869 in Tallapoosa Co., Alabama. Like many pioneer families, her parents migrated westward and ended up in Decatur, Wise Co., Texas, long enough at least for their oldest daughter to meet and marry Isaac Foster (I. F.) Fullingim in 1886. As her husband was fifteen years her senior, they began having children very soon, a son, John Wade Fullingim (15 Jun 1887), and within eleven years of marriage, Mattie had given birth to eight children. In June 1893 she and her husband experienced a serious tragedy when they lost their three-year old son, Horris Lee, who died from burns and smoke inhalation when his night clothes accidentally caught on fire.

The week before Mattie's death, the Monitor newspaper had previously reported the birth of "a bouncing baby boy at I. M. [sic] Fullingim's on the Greene farm" (The Marietta Monitor, I.T., Thursday, 22 April 1897, Vol.2, No. 32), probably born on the 18th or 19th of April 1897, but before even a week had gone by, this young mother died on Saturday, April 24, 1897, leaving her husband behind with seven children from age nine down to one-week old! Mattie was buried next to one of her younger brothers, Henry H. Golden, who himself had died at age fifteen and a half back in June 1888. No permanent marker was ever erected for Mattie, however.

Over fifty years later, my grandfather, John Wade Fullingim, who was only nine years old when his mother died, was anxious to identify and memorialize his mother's grave. It was in the early 1950s that Wade convinced one of his sons-in-law, E.L. "Cotton" Leatherwood to take him to the then long abandoned Arnoldville Cemetery. On locating the site, he and my Uncle Cotton mixed cement and poured a small block, and then inscribed the date on which my grandfather remembered his mother had died, April 26, 1897. Apparently, his memory had settled on a very near date—perhaps the date on which she was buried. However, based on the newspaper notice cited above, Mattie had indeed died on Saturday, April 24th.

SEQUEL:
This small, flat cement marker became completely covered by undergrowth and fallen debris during the next forty plus years. It was my Uncle Cotton who informed me of this grave site, and his one attempt to help me locate the site in the Summer of 1992 was unsuccessful. In May 1993 my second cousin, Jesse M. Fullingim, and I, J. Michael Fullingim, located her small marker under several inches of organic material. We cleaned the site around the marker and took photos of the grave marker.

Eighteen years later a more permanent granite monument was made and set in place on Wednesday, 20 July 2011—114 years after her death. The sixty-year old, small cement marker has been preserved as well on site by placing it underneath a flat, native stone at the top of the new headstone.
(Bio by a great grandson, J.Michael Fullingim, Ph.D.)
"Notice of Death"
The Marietta Monitor (Indian Territory)
Thursday, 29 April 1897, Vol. 2, No. 33.

+++++
"The Monitor is pained to record the death of Mrs. I. M. [sic] Fullingim which occurred last Saturday from a long and painful illness from gastric fever. The deceased was born in Alabama and was 29 years of age; she was married in Wise Co., Texas, eleven years ago and except three years [they] had made their home in this county. She was the mother of eight children, seven of whom, the youngest a babe less than a week old, survive her. The remains were laid to rest in the Arnoldville Cemetery Sunday. Our sympathy for the bereaved father and orphans."
+++++

Martha Ann "Mattie" (Golden) Fullingim was my great grandmother. She was the first of ten children born to James Marion and Frances Catherine (Hornsby) Golden in 1869 in Tallapoosa Co., Alabama. Like many pioneer families, her parents migrated westward and ended up in Decatur, Wise Co., Texas, long enough at least for their oldest daughter to meet and marry Isaac Foster (I. F.) Fullingim in 1886. As her husband was fifteen years her senior, they began having children very soon, a son, John Wade Fullingim (15 Jun 1887), and within eleven years of marriage, Mattie had given birth to eight children. In June 1893 she and her husband experienced a serious tragedy when they lost their three-year old son, Horris Lee, who died from burns and smoke inhalation when his night clothes accidentally caught on fire.

The week before Mattie's death, the Monitor newspaper had previously reported the birth of "a bouncing baby boy at I. M. [sic] Fullingim's on the Greene farm" (The Marietta Monitor, I.T., Thursday, 22 April 1897, Vol.2, No. 32), probably born on the 18th or 19th of April 1897, but before even a week had gone by, this young mother died on Saturday, April 24, 1897, leaving her husband behind with seven children from age nine down to one-week old! Mattie was buried next to one of her younger brothers, Henry H. Golden, who himself had died at age fifteen and a half back in June 1888. No permanent marker was ever erected for Mattie, however.

Over fifty years later, my grandfather, John Wade Fullingim, who was only nine years old when his mother died, was anxious to identify and memorialize his mother's grave. It was in the early 1950s that Wade convinced one of his sons-in-law, E.L. "Cotton" Leatherwood to take him to the then long abandoned Arnoldville Cemetery. On locating the site, he and my Uncle Cotton mixed cement and poured a small block, and then inscribed the date on which my grandfather remembered his mother had died, April 26, 1897. Apparently, his memory had settled on a very near date—perhaps the date on which she was buried. However, based on the newspaper notice cited above, Mattie had indeed died on Saturday, April 24th.

SEQUEL:
This small, flat cement marker became completely covered by undergrowth and fallen debris during the next forty plus years. It was my Uncle Cotton who informed me of this grave site, and his one attempt to help me locate the site in the Summer of 1992 was unsuccessful. In May 1993 my second cousin, Jesse M. Fullingim, and I, J. Michael Fullingim, located her small marker under several inches of organic material. We cleaned the site around the marker and took photos of the grave marker.

Eighteen years later a more permanent granite monument was made and set in place on Wednesday, 20 July 2011—114 years after her death. The sixty-year old, small cement marker has been preserved as well on site by placing it underneath a flat, native stone at the top of the new headstone.
(Bio by a great grandson, J.Michael Fullingim, Ph.D.)


Advertisement

Advertisement