Toponymie | Canton de Potton | Place Names

Fullerton Pond Road begins at an intersection with Westhill Road and leads to the Pond itself.  Fullerton Pond was named for the family of the same name who presumably once owned land in the vicinity of the pond.  “It is now two centuries since Henry Ruiter started clearing land in the Dunkin area.  Descendants of that family are still numerous and many families of the old surnames of Barnett, Aiken, Sargent and Fullerton can claim this distinction^[1]“.  Ruiter Brook flows from this body of water.  In the mid 1900's, winter lumbering operations on the flank of the Sutton Mountain Range were important commerce of the region; however transporting logs to the lower land was labour intensive, for both man and beast.  A dam of considerable dimension was built on the Pond to retain and control the flow of the headwaters of Ruiter Brook.  Logs would be amassed near and on the pond ice.  In the spring runoff, when water was abundant, the dam would be opened and the softwood logs were driven, carried by the water, crashing and rolling, down the Brook to Dunkin.  From there they would be sorted, graded and transported to various mills to our south, primarily in Vermont.  Hardwood logs were pulled from the woods by horse and sled to a landing. Being denser wood, they do not float well.

Several members of the Fullerton family are interred in the Ruiter's Settlement, Chapel Hill and Mansonville cemeteries.  David Fullerton (1767-1864) and his wife, Sarah (1772-1842), the first of the Fullerton family in Potton, are buried in the Chapel Hill cemetery.  More information is written about Fullerton Pond later herein.