Suffolk County Historical Society Explores an Unsung LI Woman

The Suffolk County’s Historical Society’s exhibit on Edith Loring Fullerton, capped with a lecture by Dr. Natalie Naylor, sheds some light on the accomplishments of a woman who helped shape the face of Long Island, though was often viewed only in the shadow of her husband, Hal Fullerton.

“Edith Fullerton was the oft-forgotten partner—full partner—of her husband,” said Naylor, Professor Emerita, Hofstra University.

In the 1890s the Long Island Rail Road was trying to increase its business, promoting various activities to draw people east of the city. Hal Fullerton was hired as a Special Agent for the LIRR, a sort of publicist. He took photographs of Long Island life that filled the booklets LIRR distributed to induce ridership.

But it was as Director of Agriculture, LIRR, a position he took on in 1905, that Fullerton and his wife Edith really had an impact on the Long Island of their day.

And even Hal Fullerton said it himself, likely referencing his wife: “A seldom mentioned, but most important member of an agricultural partnership is the woman.”

If he was the railroad’s Director of Agriculture, Edith Fullerton actually then seemed the more accomplished in drawing things up from the soil. She had already published How to Make a Vegetable Garden (with her husband’s photographs) in 1902.

The north and south forks had been farmed since the 1600s, though in the early 1900s the land west of the forks was considered “a vast barren plain,” said Naylor, unsuitable for agriculture. If the railroad could encourage agriculture on Long Island it would be a big boost for business.

Fullerton was ordered to find a tract of land that allegedly could not be farmed, and make it into a farm. In 1905, the two established Peace and Plenty Farm in Wading River—18 acres which, Naylor said, had been described by the locals as “the no-goodest piece of land” around.

Together the Fullertons worked and oversaw Peace and Plenty Farm, which was in operation until 1914, and Prosperity Farm in Medford, from 1907-1928. If Fullerton referred to his wife as the “Junior Partner,” it was, as Naylor stressed, an equal partnership. And the “junior” might have been a reference point of age; Harry was 19 years older than Edith.

In fact, when Hal was forced to retire from the railroad because he had turned 70 in 1927, Edith took on the title of Director of Agriculture, which she held until she died four years later, in 1931. Naylor said that after Edith’s death the railroad discontinued the office. Perhaps it was no longer necessary. Their farms had become so well known, written about, and visited by experts and such outdoor enthusiasts as Teddy Roosevelt.

The work to which the Fullertons had devoted themselves, along with Harry’s many photographs (the society has 2,200 in its collection) contributed to giving people another vision of Long Island. Fullerton’s photographs at the exhibit, of Edith in the garden, with their children, and by their house, "Mira Flores" (means “see the flowers”) in Huntington, attests to a life happy with the earth and each other.

The exhibit on Edith Fullerton runs through April. On April 7, 7 p.m., the society's Director Wally Broege, will present a slide program: "The Blessed Isle: Hal B. Fullerton and His Image of Long Island."