The Fultzes

John Henry Fultz was born in Wyatt, Elliott County, Kentucky on July 23, 1890. Lillie Belle McDaniel was born on March 24, 1895 in Kentucky. They married on December 18, 1918 and lived in Hogtown, Rowan County, Kentucky for 10 years with their four children, Etta Marie, Lloyd, Ivan and Leona before moving to a 40-acre farm in White Lake, Wisconsin. Daughter Darlene was born there in 1932 and their 16-year-old son, Ivan, died there in 1937 from a gunshot wound. After the lumber mill burned down where John Henry worked, relatives advised them go west – and that they did.

The family moved into a home with several acres in the Forest Hill area of Port Ludlow (now called Swansonville) in 1942. John Henry and Lillie Belle had chickens, a vegetable garden, a rooster in later years that chased their grandkids, and many beautiful flower beds around the property. Lillie Belle enjoyed embroidering and crocheting, but her first love was gardening. Their home had two very large hydrangea bushes by the entrance that are still remembered. Both John Henry and Lillie Belle attended church regularly and it was a big part of their lives. Daughters Leona and Darlene often sang at church.

John Henry worked for a year in a sawmill, then went to work at the Indian Island Annex for 13 years, and retired in 1956.

Fultz family in 1949: Lloyd with Marie, Joanne, Darlene, Leona, Lillie Belle, John Henry.

About Their Children

Lillie Belle’s oldest daughter Etta Marie Hesler Nemeth Haley (John Henry’s stepdaughter) was an adult on her own when the rest of the family moved to Swansonville in 1942. She died at age 90 on December 17, 2007.

Lloyd married Joanne Steele from Port Ludlow and they had five children – Marie Fultz, Linda Roylston, Robert Fultz, Jim Fultz and Patricia Carla Fultz. Marie died at age 67 on May 22, 2015. Patricia died at age 13 on October 31, 1970. Lloyd died at age 69 on August 21, 1995, and his wife, Joanne, died in 1997.

Leona married Walt Klockers from the homestead across the field in Swansonville. They moved from Swansonville to Port Townsend in 1953. They had three children: Janet, Karen, and Walter Brandon. Leona died at age 83 on May 19, 2012, and her husband, Walt, died in 2018.

Darlene married Dennis Lindsey from Port Townsend and had two children: Michael and Denise. She married James E. Halliday after Denny’s death in 1987. James passed away in 2009. Darlene died at age 83 on September 12, 2015.

John Henry died of cancer a few months after he retired in 1956. Lillie Belle moved to Port Townsend in her later years to be close to her daughters and died in 1986.