Abraham Fulford was born about 1670 in Stratford, Connecticut. His descendants lived in Connecticut until shortly after the American Revolution when they embarked for Canada. Abraham's grandson, Jonathan and his family came up the St. Lawrence River in 1784 to Elizabethtown, Upper Canada near present day Brockville, Ontario. Jonathan was born in 1737 in Wallingford and married Thankful Doolittle of Waterford in 1764. He settled on Lots 27 & 28 in Concession 1 in Elizabethtown and died there in 1829.
During the early 1850s, settlers began arriving in large numbers to the newly established Huron District along Lake Huron. By 1854, when Crown land became officially available, settlers had already arrived in Culross Township, Bruce County. One of these early settlers was Ira Fulford, who settled near the present day village of Teeswater. Ira, born in Brockville in 1830, was a great-grandson of Jonathan Fulford and was soon joined by his family including his brother John.
After the Civil War Michigan underwent a lumbering boom which lasted several decades that saw a tremendous influx of settlers. Perhaps looking for a better life, John's son, Charles, left Bruce County in 1884 with his wife and young daughter for the woods of northern Michigan. By this time there was little keeping Charles in Bruce County. His father had died in 1866 and his mother, who had re-married, sold the family farm in 1874.
Not much is known what Charles did or where he lived when he first came to Michigan but in 1889 he was in Kent City when his daughter Mary Ethel was born. By 1891 he was in Elk Rapids where his son Morley was born. In 1900 he was farming in Whitewater Township in Grand Traverse County and later in 1910 he was farming in Wilson Township in adjacent Kalkaska County. In 1912, he abandoned farming and moved to Jackson, Michigan where he worked as a car repairman for the Michigan Central Railroad until his death in 1921.
I had much help in putting together the Fulford family history and would like to especially thank Durward Barnes (deceased) of Lansing, Michigan; Gwen Fulford of Spring Arbor, Michigan; and Rick Fulford of Brighton, Ontario for their help.