During Christmas week when my children, parents and sibling's family were visiting us in Jackson we went on the Historic Prison Tour. Michigan's first state prison was constructed in 1842 on approximately 20 acres. Overcrowding was almost always an issue until two new Michigan prisons were built in 1876. By 1926, the massive structure, Southern Michigan State Prison, was builtand quickly became the largest walled prison in the world, holding 6,000 inmates.
Michigan's first state prison in Jackson.
At this point you are probably wondering how this prison is significant to the content of this blog and website. John H. Fuller, my third great-grandfather on the Hiller side (see Pedigree Charts), was inmate #823 from October 1875 through September 30, 1880. He was also a murderer. First, I will explore the incident that led up to the murder then in subsequent months, the murder itself, as well as the details of John H. Fuller's life-The Beginning-before it went off the rails, pun intended (you'll understand as you read on) and The End.
On June 14, 1871, John Fuller a family man and farmer, along with his son Melvin, made the fateful decision to seek their own justice on the Michigan Lake Shore Railroad for two of their cattle killed on the railroad tracks. Father and son were charged with "having on the 14th day of June 1871 at the Township of Holland in said county with force and arms felonious and maliciously by then and there loosened and displaced two rails of the Michigan Lake Shore Railroad with intent to endanger the life and safety of the persons traveling and upon said railroad" as the charges are listed in the official Ottawa County court document dated May 4, 1875. According to testimony by John Fuller's father-in-law, Walter Trobridge, the two cattle were killed in April or May of 1871 and Mr. Fuller's attempts at compensation from the railroad were unsuccessful and "swore that he would rip up the railroad tracks and learn the railroad not to run over his cattle".
The court papers assert that indeed, on June 15, 1871, a 60 passenger coach with passengers, baggage car, engine and tender ran off the railroad tracks which were located on Mr. Wilson Pound's property. Nelson Jordan, conductor at the time, stated in his testimony "As soon as we came to a stop I went off the train and forward to the engine. I saw that the engine, baggage car and coaches were all off and the rails torn up. I gave orders to the engineer to put his fires out and we go back and ascertain the course of the accident. I went back and found the straps had been taken off the joints of the rails and that the rails had been wedged apart with a wooden wedge and spread apart of which the train ran off and tore up about 250 feet of rails and left us a wreck".
Mr. Wilson Pound, whose property was adjoining the John Fuller property, apparently had considerable knowledge of the act perpetrated by the Fullers and became a lead witness during the intial court inquiry on May 11, 1875. He happened to be visiting the Fuller house the night before the destruction of the track and heard the Fuller's concocting their plan right down to being asked if he had any iron wedges or had knowledge of any trees on his property near the tracks that could be felled onto the tracks. As I was reading his complete testimony from this initial court inquiry as well as a number of accounts of other witnesses who recalled John Fuller saying he would tear up the tracks, I was a bit perplexed why Mr. Pound was labeled as the lead witness. Then I found a newspaper write-up in the Holland City News dated June 26, 1875. Wilson Pound knew more about he case than he revealed in his initial testimony, quoting the newspaper-"Unnoticed by the Fullers at the time he had witnessed the entire transaction and had seen them engaged in removing the rail and wedging it in watching them at a short distance from behind a stump". Certainly explains how Mr. Pound became the lead witness.Unfortunately for Wilson Pound, "this fact had reached their (Fullers) ears" and soon became motivation for the murder.
Even Miss Mary Fuller, John Fuller's daughter and Melvin Fuller's sister, and only 16 at the time, was required to testify. Mary testified that her father had "a yoke of oxen killed by the railroad in 1871" and that her father was in Holland until supper time the day before the derailment and then burning brush in the "fallow" until 10:00 pm. that evening. After washing dishes, Mary, her mother, Melvin and Melvin's wife went into the fallow as well. She further testifies that she had no idea what Melvin was doing all day but did see him at supper and when he joined them in the fallow. Regardless, it is with certainty that John and Melvin Fuller, together, found time to destroy the tracks the day before the derailment. And this brings us to the next crime-the murder of Wilson Pound.
Mr. Wilson Pound was described as an "eccentric old bachelor residing in North Holland in a little cabin "(Migenweb.org). On June 18, 1875 the Jackson Citizen Patriot newspaper contained this report: Man Missing: Wilson Pound, living four miles north of Holland, has been missing since June 5th. he was a bachelor, aged about 50, and reported rich living entirely alone. He is said to have gone fishing with certain parties, and was also a witness in an important criminal prosecution now pending in the Circuit Court. From the circumstances, foul play is suspected". Foul play to be sure and it was on June 5, 1875, that John Fuller, Melvin Fuller and a neighbor, John S. Watson, plotted, planned and then lured Mr. Pound to Pine Creek Bay, hit him about his head with the head part of an axe, then staked his body to the bottom of the creek where it remained for 18 days before being found. The Holland City News on June 26, 1875 writes: "The suspicions indirectly set forth in our last, relative the sudden sad mysterious disappearance of Wilson Pound, have been verified by a revelation of facts and circumstances which will place the murder of Wilson Pound among the most atrocious and diabolical crimes ever perpetrated in this part of the State. John H. Fuller and Melvin C. Fuller, father and son, today stand indicted by the public among whom they have lived for several years, as cold-blooded murderers and villains of the deepest dye".
Next month: The Infamous John H. Fuller: The Murder