Fuller, William Nelson

William Nelson Fuller was a prominent Michigan-born builder, contractor, and agricultural pioneer who became one of the foundational developers of the Arizona Colony in Fresno County. After completing high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he mastered the carpentry and plastering trades, eventually operating as a successful contractor in Bismarck, North Dakota, during its railway boom. Attracted by California’s expanding real estate market, Fuller moved to Los Angeles in 1887 to pursue horticulture, later relocating north to successfully homestead a 160-acre tract near Raymond.

In 1897, Fuller became one of the very first settlers in the Montpellier Colony, where he transformed twenty-five acres of raw land on Thorn Avenue into a highly productive estate. Alongside a partner, he pioneered regional commercial strawberry cultivation before shifting his entire acreage into a specialized peach orchard producing high-yielding Muir, Lovell, and Elberta varieties. A dedicated member of regional grower cooperatives and the Presbyterian Church, Fuller managed his prosperous estate alongside his Swiss-born wife, Lucy Mohr, cementing their legacy as the oldest remaining settlers on the Montpellier tract.