Luther Fuller

Last updated

Augustus Fuller
Bornc. 1818
Died1841
On Lake Erie, near Buffalo, New York
Occupation helmsman
Known forheroic death

Augustus Fuller, also known as Luther Fuller and John Maynard, was the helmsman of the steamboat Erie . He died on August 9, 1841, at 23 years of age, at the wheel of the ship which was destroyed by fire. He was praised for his heroism for remaining at his post.

Contents

Report and first namer

On the evening of August 9, 1841, the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser and Journal reported the death of the wheelsman "Luther Fuller", one of many who died during the conflagration of Erie on August 9, 1841. [1] Fuller was at the wheel when the fire broke out at 8:10 pm. He was praised by Capt. T. J. Titus (one of the few survivors) when he testified before the Coroner's Inquest at Buffalo, New York. He stated: "I think Fuller remained at the wheel and never left it until burned to death; he was always a resolute man in obeying orders".

In his testimony, Titus did not specify what Fuller's first name was. When Fuller's body was recovered, the Erie Gazette called him "Luther Fuller" instead of his real name, Augustus Fuller. It was later established that the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser had previously incorrectly written his name. [2] [3]

John Maynard

The anonymous prose sketch entitled The Helmsman of Lake Erie did not appear until four years after the loss of the Erie. Many researchers have stated that the sketch referred to Fuller, probably due to the magnitude of the tragedy, which up to 1841 was the worst steamer conflagration on Lake Erie. Nonetheless, it is claimed the helmsman in the sketch is not Fuller, but "Old John Maynard". [4]

19th century cultural references

The 1845 sketch first appeared on July 19 in the Poughkeepsie Journal & Eagle. [5] The August 30, 1845, issue of the Baltimore Sun led to the creation of a ballad by Benjamin Brown French, submitted to the same newspaper and printed on September 5 of that year. [6] [7] A reworked and shortened prose sketch from 1860 was the subject of numerous temperance lectures by John Bartholomew Gough. [8] Horatio Alger Jr., inspired by Gough's sketch, composed his own popular ballad in the summer of 1866 titled "John Maynard, A Ballad of Lake Erie". [9] Already in November 1863, The British Workman (London, England) put out an untitled "John Maynard" ballad by the anonymous poet "Josephine", [10] which accompanied the shortened sketch by J. B. Gough. Epes Sargent continued the "Maynard" tradition with his own "Helmsman of Lake Erie", composed c. 1873. [11]

In Germany, the first Lake Erie ballad was published in 1871 by Emil Rittershaus in the popular Gartenlaube, to which he regularly contributed. The ballad's name was "Ein deutsches Herz" ("A German Heart"). Although not a "John Maynard" ballad, Rittershaus created a moving depiction of the problems of German immigration to the United States and emigration from the United States to Germany. Encouraged by Rittershaus, other poets composed their own Lake Erie ballads in the tradition of "John Maynard": Ada Linden (Luise Förster) around 1882, and Theodor Fontane in 1886. The steamer's name in Rittershaus's, Linden's and Fontane's ballads is the "Schwalbe" (in German "Swallow"). Fontane's "John Maynard" was hugely popular and still is compulsory reading in German classes and thus the City of Buffalo was urged by enthusiastic German tourists to install a commemorative plate (explaining the legend and the man) at the lake in 1998. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buffalo, New York</span> City in New York, United States

Buffalo is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the seat of Erie County. It lies in Western New York, at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, on the United States border with Canada. With a population of 278,349 according to the 2020 census, Buffalo is the 2nd-largest city in New York state and the 78th-largest city in the United States. Buffalo and the city of Niagara Falls together make up the two-county Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which had an estimated population of 1.2 million in 2020, making it the 49th largest MSA in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erie Canal</span> Waterway in New York, U.S.

The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east–west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing the costs of transporting people and goods across the Appalachians. In effect, the canal accelerated the settlement of the Great Lakes region, the westward expansion of the United States, and the economic ascendancy of New York State. It has been called "The Nation's First Superhighway."

<i>Der fliegende Holländer</i> Opera by Richard Wagner

Der fliegende Holländer, WWV 63, is a German-language opera, with libretto and music by Richard Wagner. The central theme is redemption through love. Wagner conducted the premiere at the Königliches Hoftheater Dresden in 1843.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Loewe</span> German composer and conductor

Johann Carl Gottfried Loewe, usually called Carl Loewe, was a German composer, tenor singer and conductor. In his lifetime, his songs ("Balladen") were well enough known for some to call him the "Schubert of North Germany", and Hugo Wolf came to admire his work. He is less known today, but his ballads and songs, which number over 400, are occasionally performed.

Transcendentalism is a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the New England region of the United States. A core belief is in the inherent goodness of people and nature, and while society and its institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual, people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent. Transcendentalists saw divine experience inherent in the everyday, rather than believing in a distant heaven. Transcendentalists saw physical and spiritual phenomena as part of dynamic processes rather than discrete entities.

The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Northeastern United States, originally connecting Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, with Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. The railroad expanded west to Chicago following its 1865 merger with the former Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, also known as the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad. Its mainline route proved influential in the development and economic growth of the Southern Tier of New York state, including the cities of Binghamton, Elmira, and Hornell. The Erie Railroad repair shops were located in Hornell and was Hornell's largest employer. Hornell was also where Erie's mainline split into two routes with one proceeding northwest to Buffalo and the other west to Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Duer (U.S. Congressman)</span> American politician

William Duer was an American lawyer and politician. In addition to serving in local offices in both California and New York, he represented New York in the United States House of Representatives from 1847 to 1851.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bartholomew Gough</span>

John Bartholomew Gough was a United States temperance orator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Buffalo, New York</span>

Buffalo is the county seat of Erie County, and the second most populous city in the U.S. state of New York, after New York City. Originating around 1789 as a small trading community inhabited by the Neutral Nation near the mouth of Buffalo Creek, the city, then a town, grew quickly after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, with the city at its western terminus. Its position at the eastern end of Lake Erie strengthened the economy, based on grain milling and steel production along the southern shores and in nearby Lackawanna.

The New Hampshire Democratic Party (NHDP) is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. Its chair is Raymond Buckley, and its vice chairs are Martha Fuller Clark and Bette Lasky. The most recent Democratic governor was Maggie Hassan, who served from 2013 to 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Provincial Marine</span> North American inland coastal protection service 1796–1910

Provincial Marine was a coastal protection service in charge of the waters in the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River and parts of Lake Champlain under British control. While ships of the Provincial Marine were designated HMS, they were operated in more of a coast guard manner than as a full-fledged navy. Operations were maintained and staffed by the Royal Navy. Most ships of the Provincial Marine were built on the Great Lakes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1898 New York state election</span> Election

The 1898 New York state election was held on November 8, 1898, to elect the governor, the lieutenant governor, the Secretary of State, the state comptroller, the attorney general, the state treasurer and the state engineer, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate. This election is the most recent election to feature a candidate for governor of New York who eventually became both Vice President of the United States and President of the United States after serving as Governor of New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lafayette Square (Buffalo, New York)</span> Public square in Buffalo, New York, USA

Lafayette Square is a park in the center of downtown Buffalo, Erie County, New York, United States, that hosts a Civil War monument. The block, which was once square, is lined by many of the city's tallest buildings. The square was named for General Lafayette, who visited Buffalo in 1825.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Dobbins</span>

Daniel Dobbins was a sailing master in the United States Navy and captain in the United States Revenue Cutter Service. He fought in the War of 1812 and was in charge of the building of the ships at Erie, Pennsylvania, that Oliver Hazard Perry commanded in the Battle of Lake Erie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angola Horror</span> 1867 train wreck in New York State

The Angola Horror train wreck occurred on December 18, 1867, just after 3 p.m. when the last coach of the Buffalo-bound New York Express of the Lake Shore Railway derailed at a bridge in Angola, New York, United States, slid down into a gorge and caught fire, killing approximately 49 people. At the time, it was one of the deadliest train wrecks in American history.

John Maynard may refer to:

Alexander Dick Gough was an English architect who practised in London, where much of his work may be found. He was a pupil of Benjamin Dean Wyatt, and worked in partnership with Robert Lewis Roumieu between 1837 and 1848.

SS <i>G. P. Griffith</i> Passenger steamer that burned and sank on Lake Erie

The SS G. P. Griffith was a passenger steamer that burned and sank on Lake Erie on 17 June 1850, resulting in the loss of between 241 and 289 lives. The destruction of the G. P. Griffith was the greatest loss of life on the Great Lakes up to that point, and remains the third-greatest today, after the SS Eastland in 1915 and the Lady Elgin in 1860.

<i>Erie</i> (steamship, sank 1841) Passenger ship which caught fire and sunk in Lake Erie in August 1841.

The Erie was a steamship that operated as a passenger freighter on the Great Lakes. It caught fire and sank on August 9, 1841, resulting in the loss of an estimated 254 lives, making it one of the deadliest disasters in the history of the Great Lakes.

References

  1. ↑ Luther Fuller, wheelsman johnmaynard.net
  2. ↑ "John Maynard Home Page". johnmaynard.net.
  3. ↑ Norman Barry, "Why Luther?"
  4. ↑ For the distribution of the 1845 sketch, cf. The Two Basic Textual Variations of "The Helmsman of Lake Erie" of the Poughkeepsie Journal & Eagle, the Maine Cultivator & Gazette, and the Mohawk Courier, an essay by Norman Barry.
  5. ↑ Pough keeps johnmaynard.net
  6. ↑ Helmsman johnmaynard.net
  7. ↑ French Balt johnmaynard.net
  8. ↑ Albany Gough johnmaynard.net
  9. ↑ Alger johnmaynard.net
  10. ↑ Josephine johnmaynard.net
  11. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved September 18, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ↑ "Plaque". www.johnmaynard.net.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.