Ancestors of Ora Jeraldine Cullen Rhea
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(Brainard, Cullen, Fuller, Griswold, Houseman, Russ)
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       Patrick is listed in the 1850 census of Franklin County, Florida, as being 40 years old and a City Marshal.  In this census, there is also listed living in this household #86 a "William Cullen, 22-y.o. male, occup. 'clerk', born in Ireland."  I presume this is probably Patrick's brother.  Patrick married Sarah in Apalachicola on August 24, 1843.  They had several children, one of which was my great grandfather William White Cullen, born April 1, 1849.

       William met and married Miss Hester Resus Fuller July 2, about 1876 in Apalachicola.  William was a Lighthouse Keeper, listed in the "Keepers of Florida Lighthouses 1820-1939" by Neil Hurley. He was a  Keeper in Apalachicola Bay Range Rear from Jan. 16, 1888 until 1910, when the Station was discontinued, and was paid $400 a year.  William died June 30, 1910.  Hester (born about 1849, died June 11, 1923) was the daughter of Frederick Nathaniel Fuller, originally from England, and a 1st Lieutenant of Company A2 with the Florida Cavalry of the Confederate States Army, and Mary A. Russ of England.  Frederick was born about 1820 in England and died about 1862.  He is believed to have died at a Confederate military base.  He is buried in Chestnut Street Cemetery in Apalachicola, Florida with a Confederate marker on his gravesite.

       William and Hester had four children, one of which was my grandfather, Brainard Fuller Cullen.  Brainard was born Sept. 29, 1877 in Apalachicola and married four times but only had children by my Grandmother, Ora Bertha Houseman (born March 16, 1892).  They married on October 24, 1911 in Mobile, Alabama.  Ora was the daughter of Asbury Houseman and Mary Williams Collinsworth.  Asbury was the son of George Oliver Houseman, a Confederate soldier, and Catherine Wilkinson Rosson.

       Brainard and Ora had five children, one of which was my mother, Ora Jeraldine Cullen.  Granddaddy Brainard was a carpenter and a ship builder and I always thought he looked like President Abraham Lincoln..."the one on the penny."  He died March 16, 1951 in Pensacola, Florida and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Panama City, Florida.  Grandmother Ora died young at the age of 39 on February 1931 in St. Andrews, Florida.  She was buried in Greenwood Cemetery beside Grandaddy.

       My mother was born in Apalachicola on December 5, 1912 as Ora Geraldine Cullen, but later changed her name to 'Jeraldine,' although everyone called her 'Jerry' or 'Teady.'   She met my father, Lysle Edward Rhea, in Apalachicola where his sister, Gwendolyn Preston Rhea Kirvin, lived.  My mother and father were married in Bay County, Florida on July 21, 1930 and I arrived on the scene much later ...