Fulton

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passing it right along to you. Sit back, because this one's got salt air in it. Out on Aransas Bay, where the water does what it pleases and a man's livelihood tends to smell like whatever he pulled out of it that morning, there sits the city of Fulton.

And the story of Fulton is, at its heart, the story of a bay and the people stubborn enough to build a life beside it. The town was founded in 1867 by a man named George Ware Fulton, and his mansion still stands there today as an important local landmark. Now, when a man founds a town and his mansion becomes a landmark, you can bet folks took notice of him pretty early on.

Schools went up. Churches followed. Businesses came in behind them.

The kind of quick establishment that tells you people weren't just passing through. They were planting. One of the finer details the marker hands us is a one-room schoolhouse, built in 1886.

That little building didn't get torn down when its days as a schoolhouse were done. No, it got relocated and adapted for use as a city hall. Same walls, new purpose.

There's a Texas sensibility in that if ever I heard one. The city's most important economic pursuits in recent years have been tourism and commercial fishing and shrimping, carrying forward that long, close association with the fishing and shipping industry that stretches all the way back to the beginning. And in 1978, Fulton was incorporated as a city.

From a founder's vision in 1867, to a one-room schoolhouse in 1886, to a city in 1978, Fulton didn't rush its story. It just kept building it, right there on the edge of Aransas Bay.

What the marker says

Located on Aransas Bay, the city of Fulton has a history closely associated with the fishing and shipping industry. The town was founded in 1867 by George Ware Fulton, whose mansion is an important local landmark. Schools, churches, and businesses were quickly established in the town. A one-room schoolhouse, built in 1886, was relocated and adapted for use as a city hall. In recent years tourism and commercial fishing and shrimping have become the city's most important economic pursuits. The city of Fulton was incorporated in 1978. (1988)