Page 16 - Fulton Mansion

FULTON MANSION
In 1846, George Fulton received a patent for an Improvement in Propelling Vessels, his hydraulic propeller. (Courtesy of US Patent and Trademark Office)
George and Harriet married in 1840. They set up housekeeping in a small house on the Live Oak Peninsula
and had three children: Henry Smith Fulton, George Ware Fulton, Jr., and Anna (or Nannie) Ware Fulton. Between 1840 and 1846, George divided his time between Brazoria and Aransas City and worked on various business projects with his father-in-law. By 1846, Aransas City had dwindled rapidly
in population, and George’s and Henry’s hopes to make the fledgling town a major port were unrealized.
Life in the East and Midwest
In 1846, George and Harriet took their three Texas-born children to the East Coast, where George had traveled ahead and succeeded in patenting an invention “for the improvement in propelling vessels.” The Fultons elected to remain on the East Coast, most likely for the benefit of a proper education for the children and also for greater job opportunities
for George. Having seen little chance of
While in Washington, D.C., George wrote to Harriet, “I am getting my business before the Patent Office but it requires some time to get it through. . . . There
is an average of five applications per day.” (Courtesy of The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
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