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History · Fulton

Fulton’s post office opened in 1840

Most of Fulton was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1978. Below: maps from 1913 on and the census since 1880.

1840first post office
0on the National Register
7%homes built before 1940
2famous people
Quick answers

How Fulton began

When was Fulton founded?

1840

The Fulton post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 374 in 18802020 census: 115186 years
Founding year: the first Fulton post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Fulton’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Fulton’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Fulton’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
People over time

Fulton, census by census

010020030040050060070018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 647

Peaked at 647 in 1910; 115 people lived here in 2020.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Fulton’s Wikipedia page.

Timeline

Fulton, 1840 to 1951

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1840Post officeThe Fulton post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1910CensusPopulation peaks at 647
  5. 1937Born hereWilliam Shaw is born here
  6. 1937Born hereRobert Shaw is born here
  7. 1951On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
The story

How Fulton came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Fulton.

Read it all →

Located on the Southwest Trail, just north of the Great Bend of the Red River of the South at a convenient river crossing, Fulton became the gateway to Mexico, and later the Southwestern United States, as most of the pioneers who settled Mexican Texas passed through here.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Fulton, decade by decade

On the map

Fulton on the map, 1951 to 1970

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fulton. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Fulton on the 1951 USGS mapFulton on the 1970 USGS map1951Fulton sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Fulton.

Every building

Fulton, building by building, 1913–1919

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.

Fulton fire insurance map, 1913, sheet 11913Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Famous people

2 famous people were born in Fulton

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →

Questions about Fulton’s history

What year was Fulton founded?

The Fulton post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.