Thomas Wafer Fuller

Thomas Wafer Fuller​
Louisiana State Senator for Bienville, Bossier and Webster parishes​
In office 1896​ – 1900​
Preceded by	G. L. P. Wren (1836-1901)​ W. L. Stroud​
Succeeded by	Elam Sparks "E.S." Dortch
Superintendent of Webster Parish Schools​
In office 1908​ – 1920​
Preceded by	John M. Davies​
Succeeded by	E. S. Richardson​
Born	May 28, 1867​ Minden, Webster Parish​
Died	December 20, 1920 (aged 53)​ Minden, Louisiana​
Political party	Democrat​
Spouse(s)	Alma Bright Fuller (married 1891–1920, his death)​
Children	Lee Aura Fuller Griffin​ Xenia Doyle Fuller Ruffin ​ Miriam Rupert Fuller White​ Parents: Thomas Walker Fuller ​ Margaret Wafer Fuller​
Alma mater	Minden High School (then Minden Male Academy)​ Centenary College of Louisiana
Occupation	Educator; Newspaperman​
Religion	Methodist Episcopal

Thomas Wafer Fuller (May 28, 1867 – December 20, 1920) was an educator and newspaperman from Minden, Louisiana, who served as a Democrat in the Louisiana State Senate from 1896 to 1900.​

Fuller's Senate colleague from Bossier Parish was John Augustus Way Lowry, Jr. (1848-1899); the two represented Bienville, Bossier, Claiborne, and Webster parishes. Thereafter, a single-member district was created for Bossier and Webster parishes with Elam Sparks "E.S." Dortch of Haughton in southeastern Bossier Parish as the senator from 1900 to 1908. One of the Senate colleagues of Fuller and Lowry was Samuel Lawrason, who represented East and West Feliciana parishes, the author of the Lawrason Act, which defines the scope of municipal government in Louisiana.​

Background

Fuller was the fifth of six children born to a planter, attorney, Confederate captain, and district attorney, Thomas Walker Fuller (1828–1896), a native of Houston County, Georgia. His mother was the former Margaret A. Wafer (1832–1880) of then Claiborne Parish, from which Webster Parish was severed in 1871. Margaret Fuller was a graduate of the former Minden Female College. Thomas Walker and Margaret Wafer Fuller are interred in the former Fuller Memorial Shrine Cemetery behind West Union Street in Minden.​

Fuller attended the former Minden Male Academy, a forerunner to Minden (Louisiana) High School. In 1890, he graduated at the age of twenty-three from the Methodist-affiliated Centenary College, then in Jackson in East Feliciana Parish and subsequently relocated to Shreveport, where one of his classmates was future Governor Oramel Hinckley Simpson (1870-1032). For a time, Fuller taught school in Sibley, a rural community south of Minden.​

Superintendent and publisher

In 1908, upon the death of John M. Davies (1844-1907), Fuller became only the second school superintendent for Webster Parish, a position that he retained for the last twelve years of his life. At the time the superintendent ran in a parishwide plebiscite, from which the school board members made the final selection. Fuller narrowly led in the election with 35 percent of the vote and was chosen by the board after it was deemed that his principal opponent lacked the educational credentials to be superintendent. Fuller was succeeded as superintendent by E. S. Richardson, a Webster Parish native and a former superintendent in neighboring Bienville Parish, who later became the president of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston.​ He had just been elected to another four-year term as superintendent at the time of his death.

In 1915, Fuller attended the convention of the National Education Association in Cincinnati, Ohio, at which he became acquainted with the agricultural extension and home demonstration agent programs. He soon named, with school board approval, Mrs. Julia Cookey as the first home demonstration agent in Webster Parish. Fuller was still serving as the superintendent of Webster Parish schools at the time of his death.

From 1891 to 1894 and again from 1917 until his death, Fuller published the former Webster Signal, a weekly newspaper founded in 1864 and one of the numerous forerunners of what in 1966 became the daily Minden Press-Herald. The Signal competitor at the time was the Minden Democrat, and the two publications contested for legal advertising revenues from the various governmental entities. Fuller sold The Signal in 1894 to James Peter Kent, Sr. (1866-1937) and then re-purchased it in 1917. In 1926, Mrs. Fuller merged The Signal with The Minden Tribune to become The Webster Signal-Tribune, which operated under that name until 1937.​

Death and family

​ Fuller died suddenly at the age of fifty-three after consuming a family meal at his Minden home. He had had returned from a trip to New Orleans to attend the statewide meeting of all school superintendents. Death came by a stroke of apoplexy. Several months earlier, he had undergone surgery after an attack of appendicitis but was thought to have regained his health. He was survived by his wife, the former Mary Alma Bright (November 16, 1871 – June 3, 1949), a daughter of Edward Clarence Bright (1840–1893) of Tennessee and the former Texana Phillips (1845–1893), though born in Alabama was reared in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana.

Thomas and Alma Fuller had three daughters, Lee Aura Fuller Griffin (1895-1956), Xenia Doyle Fuller Ruffin (c. 1898-1977), and Miriam Rupert Fuller White (1900–1983), and sons-in-law, Robert Mays Griffin (1896-1939), a native of Henderson, Texas, Trueheart Hugh Ruffin (1895-1974), a native of DeSoto Parish, and Russell Lanier White (1898–1967) of Minden. A subsequent granddaughter, Miriam White King, was born in 1929. Thomas and Alma Fuller are interred at the Fuller-White plot in the old Section A at the historic Minden Cemetery.​ ​

The Fuller-White House (built 1905) at 229 West Union Street in Minden, is located down a hill from the front campus of Minden High School. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house has five upstairs bedrooms, with parlors, a study, and kitchen on the bottom floor. It is not open for public touring, but the caretaker may conduct individual tours when he is on the property. Fuller lived there for at least the last five years of his life. After his death, Alma Fuller resided there as she continued publishing The Webster Signal.