Samuel Augustus Fuller

Samuel Augustus Fuller Sr. (August 8, 1837 - October 23, 1891) was an American steel industry executive during the Gilded Age in the United States. A resident of Cleveland, Ohio, he founded the Union Iron Works and Condit-Fuller & Co., which later became the Bourne-Fuller Company. Cyrus S. Eaton combined this company with two others to form the Republic Steel Company which became the third largest steel company in the U.S., trailing only U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel in size.

Early life On August 8, 1837, in Vienna, Ohio, Samuel Augustus Fuller was one of five children born to Augustus and Mary Ann ( Hutchins) Fuller. He was a direct descendant of Edward Fuller, a passenger on the Mayflower, the ship that transported the first English Puritans (known today as Pilgrims) from Plymouth, England, to the New World in 1620. His father, Augustus Fuller, had been born in August 1805 in Burlington, Connecticut, and emigrated to Trumbull County, Ohio in 1830. His mother, Mary Fuller, was born in Vienna in August 1806. She was the sister of Representative John Hutchins, The completion in 1856 of the Cleveland and Mahoning Valley Railroad through the city provided the impetus for the establishment of the iron and steel industry in Cleveland by linking the mills to sources for raw materials, opening up regional markets for iron and steel, and for allowing Cleveland to serve as a transshipment center for high-quality hematite ore from the Marquette Iron Range to inland areas. The establishment of what would become the Cleveland Rolling Mill in 1856 proved to be the starting point of the emergence of a vast steel industry in Cleveland. That same year, Fuller founded the Union Iron Works at what is now the northeast corner of the intersection of Union Avenue and E. 78th Street in Cleveland to reroll worn railway rails. Henry Chisholm purchased the company in 1871 and combined it with the Aetna Iron and Nail Company. Chisholm built the massive Emma Furnace at the Union Iron site in 1872.

In 1878, Canada imposed a steep tariff on imported iron and steel. Fuller transplanted his family to Hamilton, Ontario, that same year, where he founded an iron mill to meet the sudden increase in demand for domestic Canadian metals.

Paul P. Condit died in February 1886, forcing Fuller to take on additional duties at the firm. To ease the workload, he brought his son, Horace A. Fuller, into the firm as a partner.

Death

Samuel Augustus Fuller died on October 23, 1891. He had complained of feeling unwell the night before, and went to bed at about 11 P.M. He was discovered dead in his sleep from an apparent heart attack at 1:30 A.M. the following morning. He left an estate worth about $40,000 ($ in dollars). Efn|Fuller had already settled much of his property on his older children at the time of his death. His will provided that his three younger daughters each receive $3,000 ($ in dollars) in stock; that $10,000 ($ in dollars) be set aside in trust, and the income on this money to be provided to his eldest son, Albert; and that $20,000 ($ in dollars) be set aside in trust, and the income on this money to be provided to his wife, Louise. Each trust would expire upon their respective deaths, with the principal going to their heirs (if any). His will provided for the erection of a $1,000 ($35,400 in dollars) funerary monument at the gravesite.

Fuller was a Republican, and a lifelong Presbyterian. three days after giving birth to her daughter, Emily.

On August 18, 1881, Fuller married Louise Allen Wood. She was the daughter of John W. Allen, the fourth mayor of Cleveland (1841). She married Dr. George Kip Wood, a United States Army surgeon who had been widowed about 1873. She died at her home at the Hotel Roosevelt in Washington, D.C., on May 8, 1928.

Legacy Condit, Fuller & Co. became the Bourne-Fuller Co. in 1896 with the elevation of Herbert C. Bourne to partner. Bourne-Fuller purchased the Upson Nut Company and the Union Rolling Mill in November 1911. This marked the beginning of a number of acquisitions by Bourne-Fuller, and by 1929 it had merged with or purchased 18 companies.

On December 17, 1929, the Bourne-Fuller Co., Central Alloy Steel, Donner Steel, and Republic Iron and Steel merged into a new company, Republic Steel Corporation.