Representative Elmer Lincoln Fulton

Elmer Lincoln Fulton (April 22, 1865 – October 4, 1939) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician who served one term as a U.S. Representative from Oklahoma from 1907 to 1909. He was born in Magnolia, Harrison County, Iowa, on April 22, 1865, the son of Jacob and Eliza Ann McAllester Fulton. In 1870 he moved with his parents to Nebraska, where the family settled in Pawnee City. Growing up on the Great Plains during a period of westward expansion and settlement, he attended the public schools of Pawnee City and later pursued higher education at Tabor College in Tabor, Iowa.

After completing his studies, Fulton read law and prepared for a legal career. He was admitted to the bar in 1895 and commenced the practice of law in Pawnee City, Nebraska. During these years he established himself as a practicing attorney in a small but developing Midwestern community, gaining experience that would later underpin his political career. His family was politically prominent; his brother, Charles W. Fulton, would become a United States Senator from Oregon, underscoring the family’s broader engagement in public affairs.

In 1901 Fulton moved from Nebraska to Stillwater in the Territory of Oklahoma, where he continued the practice of law. His relocation coincided with a period of rapid growth and political change in the territory, as residents moved toward statehood and the creation of new political institutions. In Stillwater he built a legal practice and became involved in Democratic Party politics, positioning himself to play a role in the territory’s transition to statehood and representation in the national government.

Fulton was elected as a Democrat to the Sixtieth Congress on September 17, 1907, and, following Oklahoma’s admission as a state, he served as a U.S. Representative from November 16, 1907, until March 4, 1909. His single term in the House of Representatives coincided with a significant period in American history, marked by the Progressive Era’s early reforms and the integration of new states into the Union. As a member of the House of Representatives, Elmer Lincoln Fulton participated in the democratic process, contributed to the legislative work of the Sixtieth Congress, and represented the interests of his Oklahoma constituents during the state’s formative years. A member of the Democratic Party, he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1908 to the Sixty-first Congress, thereby concluding his brief but notable period of congressional service.

Following his departure from Congress, Fulton resumed the practice of law, this time in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He continued to build his legal career in the state’s principal urban center, remaining active in public life through his professional work. On March 7, 1906, prior to his congressional service, he had married Mabel Rinehart, and his family life in Oklahoma City paralleled his ongoing engagement in the legal and civic affairs of the state.

In 1919 Fulton returned to public office when he was appointed assistant attorney general of Oklahoma. He served in that capacity until 1922, when he resigned and again resumed the private practice of law. His work in the attorney general’s office placed him at the center of state legal affairs during a period of continued growth and institutional development in Oklahoma, and it reflected the confidence placed in him as an experienced attorney and former member of Congress.

Elmer Lincoln Fulton died in Oklahoma City on October 4, 1939, at the age of 74. He was interred at Valhalla Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. His career spanned the transition from territorial to state government in Oklahoma and included service as a lawyer, congressman, and state legal official, marking him as a participant in the political and legal development of both Nebraska and Oklahoma in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.