Mary Whiteside Fulkerson History

THE HISTORY OF MARY WHITESIDE FULKERSON

COMPILED AND EDITED BY Mary N. Crook Bursik, a great granddaughter

**Comments by Mary N. Bursik

 Mary Whiteside Fulkerson was born at Eddyville, Pope, Illinois on 30 May 1840 to John Barnett Whiteside and Margaret Shufflebarger. The Whiteside Family had made their way into southern Illinois by way of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. They were a prominent family and quite wealthy for the times. John B.’s father was a slave owner and owned many slaves. Illinois was a free state so he set his slaves free, gave them land to settle and hired them to work for him.¹ (I will write a separate history of this remarkable man and his relationship with his former slaves). The Whiteside family was respected and was well represented in local and state politics. People started moving into Illinois about 1808 and there are records of land, marriages and tax lists of the Whiteside family by 1810. The Shufflebarger’s were a prominent family in Montgomery, Virginia. In about 1817 three brothers and a cousin decided to move to southern Illinois. They were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who were brothers and the cousin was Simon. Abraham is our direct ancestor and Mary Whiteside’s grandfather. They brought with them the means to buy large parcels of land in Pope Co. and became quite prosperous.

John Barnet Whiteside and Margaret Shufflebarger were the parents of six children, the last two children were twins born 30 Jan 1852 and Margaret died 16 Feb 1852, the girl twin also named Margaret died in Jul 1852 and John B. remarried in Sep to Mary Nicholson. John and Mary Nicholson were the parents 8 children. Our Mary was the eldest of all these children. How much formal education Mary had is not known but she reported she could read and write and was probably as well educated as any young lady was at the time.

Mary was married to William Brown Fulkerson in 1857 at age 17. He was a farmer and became quite a successful one, there were several land records of William Brown buying and selling land. The main Fulkerson farm, that was the original land grant of William Brown’s grandfather was a large holding. Our families in that part of Illinois (Fulkerson, Whiteside, Floyd, and Shufflebarger) owned several hundred acres of land, were justice of the peace, served on juries, helped build roads, donated land for schools, ²churches, and cemeteries. William and Mary were doing quite well there raising their family and farming the land. It is not known why William Brown decided to move to Kansas. He left Illinois after the birth of their sixth child. His father and mother both died after he left Pope County. It is not known whether he ever returned to visit, although Uncle Jim seems to remember that William Brown did go back for a visit. His mother did not die until 1893 so it is very possible he went to visit her. His father died three years after he left Illinois. Mary’s father did not die until 1887 and most of her brothers and sisters and half brothers and sisters lived until the 1920’s and most of them lived and died in Pope Co. Mary’s step mother died in 1913. How much communication her family had with their Whiteside connection is not known, especially after her death.

The children remember her as a good homemaker, keeping a clean house (which must have been difficult on the Kansas prairie) and cooking good meals. She followed her husband to Kansas which was very much a frontier in the 1870’s. She lived the life of a pioneer the last 5 or 6 years of her life. Uncle Dick was eighteen when she died. He remembers living in Illinois where they lived in a large home and had lots of cousins to play with. William and Mary lived in the same area as his parents in Golconda/Lusk and Mary’s parents lived in Eddyville about 25 miles away. Uncle Dick remembers his Fulkerson grandparents and his Whiteside relatives so there must have been good communication between the families. Uncle Dick never liked Kansas. He said it was a very hard life but his father loved it. He thought it was hard on his mother to leave Illinois for Kansas. She evidently loved flowers and tried very hard to grow flowers in Kansas. It is interesting how many of Nora’s brothers and sisters moved away from Kansas although they kept in touch with family there.

According to family Mary never recovered after the birth of her last child. A widow neighbor, Mary E. Brockman, helped to take care of her and the children. Family say it was Mary’s desire to have William remarry if she were to die and she hoped he would marry Mary E., whether that is true or not that is what happened.

In the Xerox photo I have of Mary, she looks very feminine and ladylike. I believe she was that in life, trying hard to make a home for her family and be a help to her husband. As I said earlier I love this lady and hope to meet her and sit down and talk with her.

1 Article in Outdoor Illinois

2 Census history of Pope co. Land records, tax records, marriage and cemetery records plus County histories.