eorge Washington Fuller, born April 29, 1837, died June 5, 1927. The "Indianapolis News" called him the "Father of Bicknell." Mr. Fuller funded and named the town in 1869, the same year that the "News" began publication.

He bought one acre of John Bicknell's farm. He built a combination general store and home in a clearing near the area where the new Vincennes-Indianapolis Railroad was being built. His small store bought and sold nearly everything from molasses, coal oil, and candles to hogs apples and sheep. It was the trading center for the farmers in the densely wooded area. It was known as "Fullerton" and Fuller established the post office and became the first Postmaster of the post office. Fuller gave the settlement the name of "Bicknell" for his long-time friend (he had bought the land from John Bicknell). So he called it Bicknell, Indiana. When Fuller was 16 years old he married Josephine Hall of Oak Station (Oaktown). They had 14 children.

Fuller was in the War Between the States. He was sworn into the Union Army, December 11, 1861, and assigned to Company K, of the 51st Indiana Infantry Regiment under the command of Colonel Abel D. Streight of Indianapolis (Knox County). Besides Fuller, his friend Mumfod Bicknell in Company G, four Captains from Bruceville in Company H: C. Willis, Thomas F. Chambers, Alred Gude, Wm. P. McClure and Regimental Chaplain was Gaskins were in the famed "Streight's Raid" in 1863. The Brigade Major General was Rosecrans in a drive south to capture the Confederate stronghold of Chattanooga.

It was now that fuller wanted to build another store and trading center along the railroad. Halfway between Bruceville and Edwardsport. Fame John Bicknell owned 240 acres, at $13 per acre. They laid out 20 lots. This included that part of town lying between the railroad and Third Street between Miami Street and Franklin Street. Two squares each side of Main Street Fuller paid $40 per acre. These two city blocks are now bounded by Washington, Second, Railroad and Franklin streets. George Fuller's general store was on what was later known as Railroad Street. People called this "Fullertown," and it was surrounded by thick woods which were cut down as the area expanded leaving so many stumps it got nicknamed "Stumptown."

Fuller's store was a frame one-and-a-half story 20' x 40' built from lumber hauled from Vincennes. The family lived in the back. Fuller brought and shipped out on the new railroad many of the products of grain, hogs, cattle, sheep, apples, wild game and blackberries. Fuller had a rail "switch" put in to accommodate his growing grain and stock business. Fuller's post office was a "4th Class Office" and he got sixty percent on all stamps sold and twelve dollars per year salary (he was Postmaster for seven years).

Fuller sold his store and built a second, a two-story brick building not far from the first. The bricks were "Laid by Henry Heithecker of Freelandville." Fuller's business grew - he expanded into the coal and elevator business. Dick Freeman and Joe Freeman sunk the first mine in Bicknell, the old Freeman. Fuller also took a hand in starting a cheese factory and a brick kiln. Fuller organized the Bicknell Methodist Church, where he taught a Sunday school for many years. He was a charter member of the Bicknell Odd Fellow.

George W. Fuller died in Indianapolis on June 5, 1827 at the age of 90 and was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery. He was first a commissioned merchant at the Union Stock Yards and later with the Indianapolis Coal Company.

Mr. Fuller's oldest son, Charles Grant Fuller (named for General U. S. Grant) was the only one of the fuller's fourteen children to remain in Bicknell and live his life there. Charley was the unofficial historian of the family and it is his collection of records, clippings and diaries, later compiled and put in chronological by his daughter Kathryn Fuller McNeill, that was used for this article.

Charlie and his brother Albert, who married Julia Ritterskamp of Freelandville, started Fuller Brother's shoe store. When Albert moved to Colorado, the brothers sold the store to Mr. J. F. Byrne.

Julia and Albert were my Grandparents. Some of the other names are: Guy K. Fuller, a 1911 graduate from Bicknell High School, he having married Esther Laper, Mrs. Mary Joan (Robert) Jones. Flora (Mrs. Alvin Barbour); Georgia (Mrs. Walter Stedtfeld); and Frances (Mrs. Hugh Green) who lived in the north of Indiana.

There is more to this article, I am so grateful to Charley for sending a copy to my Grandmother Julia, who sent a copy to my mother, Esther Fuller Lancashire Holley.

Source - "Personalities From Out of the Past," Bicknell News Centennial, Bicknell, Indiana. Transcribed and edited by Julie Lancashire-Mihiar. -- Robert Winston Fuller, was the author of the original article and it was published in April of 1969. Now 80 years old, Mr. Fuller is living in Mentor, Ohio. His sister Joanne died a few years ago; she was still residing in Freelandville at the time.