Frank F. FULLER has gained place as one of the distinctly able and representative members of the Iowa bar and has been established in the successful practice of his profession at Mount Ayr, judicial center of Ringgold County, during a period of more than forty years, so that he now ranks as one of the veteran members of his profession in this section of the state.

Mr. FULLER claims the historic old Western Reserve of the Buckeye State as the place of his nativity, for he was born at Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, January 7, 1859 (sic, should be 1868). He is a son of Leroy and Elizabeth (MAHANY) FULLER, both likewise natives of Ohio, where the respective families were established in the pioneer days. Leroy FULLER was reared and educated in Ohio and represented that state as a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war [Company C of the 125th Ohio Voluntary Infantry], his service having continued during virtually the entire period of that conflict and later years having found him affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. He was a descendant of a family that was founded in New England in the Colonial days and from Massachusetts went forth the original members of the family in Ohio. Mr. FULLER gave the greater part of his life to farm industry, came to Iowa about the year 1885, and here his death occurred in 1919, his wife having passed away in 1905, and both having been earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In the public schools of his native county Frank F. FULLER continued his studies until his graduation in the Warren High School, and thereafter he was a student in Kinsman Academy. He gave about seven years of effective service as a teacher in the Ohio public schools, and was for some time superintendent of the public schools in the City of Kinsman. He had initiated the study of law prior to his coming to Iowa, and in 1883 he was graduated in the law department of the University of Iowa, his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws having been followed by his admission to practice in the various courts of the state, including its Federal courts. He was thereafter in his native state of Ohio for a time, but in 1888 he returned to Iowa and engaged in the practice of his profession at Mount Ayr, which fine little city has continued the central stage of his successful law practice during the long intervening years. His law business has long been one of broad scope and representative order. He served ten years as city attorney and six years as prosecuting attorney of the county, he having refused further candidacy for office in order to give full attention to his private law business.

Mr. FULLER has never deviated from the line of loyal allegiance to the Republican party and has been influential in its councils and campaigns in his home county. In the World war period he served as Government appeal agent for Ringgold County, besides giving staunch support to the various patriotic activities of the county, including the drives for sale of Government war bonds, etc. Mr. FULLER was one of the organizers and for twenty years was vice president of the Iowa State Bank of Mount Ayr, and since its recent merging with the Mount Ayr State Bank he has continued a stockholder of the latter institution, besides which he is a stockholder of the Kellerton State Bank, at Kellerton, this county. As boy and youth Mr. FULLER gained thorough experience in connection with farm industry, and that he has not lost interest in that basic enterprise is indicated in his ownership of about 400 acres of valuable farm land in Ringgold County. He is one of the interested principals in the Ringgold County Abstract Company. He has membership in the Ringgold County Bar Association and the Iowa State Bar Association. He has passed the various official chairs in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in the Masonic, fraternity he is a Knight Templar and a worthy patron of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. He and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in their home city and in the same he is chairman of its board of trustees. Mr. FULLER has always stood forward as a liberal and public-spirited citizen, has loyally supported measures and enterprises that have been projected for the general good of the community, and his wife has been a gracious factor in church, social, club and civic circles at Mount Ayr for many years.

On the 3d of April, 1883, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. FULLER to Miss Hattie ASHLEY, daughter of Francis M. and Mary Jane (FULLER) ASHLEY, of Medina, Ohio. Mrs. FULLER was born and reared in the old Buckeye State and there received the advantages of Wooster University. To Mr. and Mrs. FULLER were born four children, the first of who, Josephine, is deceased. Francis M. was graduated in the University of Iowa with the degree of Bachelor of Arts and later was graduated in its law department, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He has gained the rank of captain in the United States regular army, he having been graduated in the Technical Army Officers School at Benning, Georgia, and having been in active service in the World war period. On account of impaired health Captain FULLER has been retired from active military service, and he and his wife, with their daughter, Dorothy, are now residing in the old home city of Mount Ayr, where the Captain was born and reared. Harry F., the younger son, was graduated in the College of Liberal Arts and lacked six months of graduating from the law department of the University of Iowa, and at the time of his death, in 1920, he held rank as colonel of the Cadet Corps at the university. Clare, youngest of the children, died in infancy.

NOTE: Frank F. FULLER died Wednesday, January 4, 1931, at Mount Ayr. Hattie E. (ASHLEY) FULLER was born in 1860, and died in 1946. Josephine May "Josie" FULLER, Frank and Hattie's oldest child, was born in Medina County, Ohio, on July 12, 1884, and died in Mount Ayr, Iowa, on March 18, 1898, from appendicitis. Francis M. FULLER, Frank and Hattie's second child, was born in 1887, and died in 1937. Harry Frank FULLER, Frank and Hattie's youngest son, was born in 1890, and died in 1920. Clare D. FULLER was born in 1897, and died in 1899. All interments at Rose Hill Cemetery, Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa.

SOURCE: HARLAN, Edgar Rubey. A Narrative History of the People of Iowa Vol. IV. American Historical Society. Chicago. 1931.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, April of 2009