Ida May Fuller

{{Short description|American schoolteacher and legal secretary}}

{{for|the co-founder of the Sigma Kappa sorority|Ida Fuller}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Ida May Fuller

|image =

|birth_date = {{birth date|1874|09|06|mf=y}}

|birth_place = Ludlow Town, Vermont, U.S.

|death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1975|01|31|1874|09|06}}

|death_place = Brattleboro, Vermont

|restingplace = Pleasant View Cemetery, Ludlow Village, Vermont

|education = {{plainlist|

|occupation = {{plainlist|

  • Schoolteacher
  • Legal secretary
  • Bookkeeper}}

|known_for = First recipient of regular Social Security benefits

}}

Ida May Fuller (September 6, 1874 – January 31, 1975) was a Vermont schoolteacher and legal secretary. She was most notable as the first beneficiary of recurring monthly Social Security payments.

Early life

Fuller was born at her family's Jewell Brook Road farm in Ludlow, Vermont, on September 6, 1874, the daughter of Henry W. Fuller and Laura (Haven) Fuller.{{cite news |date=January 27, 1975 |title=First Social Security Beneficiary: Miss Ida Fuller Dead at 100 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99190203/ida-fuller-dead/ |work=Brattleboro Reformer |location=Brattleboro, VT |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}} Fuller's family traced its American roots to Mayflower passengers Samuel and Edward Fuller, and to Peregrine White, the first child born in America to English parents. She attended school in Ludlow and graduated from Black River Academy, where her contemporaries at the academy included Calvin Coolidge.{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Richard B. |date=2020 |title=Vermont Firsts and Other Claims to Fame |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R0__DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA199 |location=Charleston, SC |publisher=The History Press |pages=199–200 |isbn=978-1-4671-4619-7 |via=Google Books}} After her graduation, Fuller became a schoolteacher in Ludlow.{{cite news |date=August 7, 1897 |title=Summer School at Putney |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99186675/summer-school/ |work=Bellows Falls Times |location=Bellows Falls, VT |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |date=February 6, 1900 |title=The Barton School |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99186839/barton-school/ |work=The Vermont Tribune |location=Ludlow, VT |page=8 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1903 and 1904, Fuller was a student in the business college course at the Pernin Institute of Shorthand and Bookkeeping in Boston.{{cite news |date=July 22, 1904 |title=Personals: Miss Ida Fuller |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99192947/personals/ |work=The Vermont Tribune |location=Ludlow, VT |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{efn|The Pernin method was a shorthand style developed by Helen M. Pernin (d. 1905) of Detroit.{{cite news |date=September 28, 1905 |title=Shorthand Woman Dead |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99193532/shorthand-woman/ |work=Detroit, MI |location=Detroit, MI |page=12 |via=Newspapers.com}} Schools that taught Pernin shorthand and other business courses were established in many American cities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.{{cite book |editor-last=Myers |editor-first=Harry J. |date=1909 |title=American College and Private School Directory |volume=III |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ooY-AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA158 |location=Chicago, IL |publisher=Educational Aid Society |pages=158–159, 164 |via=Google Books}}}}

Career

In 1905, Fuller became a stenographer, legal secretary, and bookkeeper at the Ludlow law firm of John G. Sargent, William W. Stickney, and Paul A. Chase.{{cite news |date=September 20, 1906 |title=Personals: Miss Ida M. Fuller |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99187190/personals/ |work=The Vermont Tribune |location=Ludlow, VT |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}} During Sargent's service as Vermont Attorney General from 1908 to 1912, Fuller was his legal secretary and stenographer as he traveled throughout the state to carry out the duties of his office.{{cite news |date=December 10, 1908 |title=Personals: Miss Ida M. Fuller |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99187388/personals/ |work=The Vermont Tribune |location=Ludlow, VT |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite news |date=September 13, 1944 |title=Ludlow Firm Closes Down |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99189511/ludlow-firm/ |work=Rutland Herald |location=Rutland, VT |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}

In addition to her career as a legal secretary, Fuller was active in Ludlow's Baptist church, including terms as treasurer for missionary activities and church auditor.{{cite news |date=January 7, 1915 |title=Town Talk |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99187577/town-talk/ |work=The Vermont Tribune |location=Ludlow, VT |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}} Fuller was also involved in civic causes, including serving as treasurer for Ludlow residents who pledged funds to pay for Chautauqua lecturers to visit the town each summer.{{cite news |date=April 2, 1926 |title=Chautauqua Funds Not So Bad |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99188441/chautauqua-funds/ |work=The Vermont Tribune |location=Ludlow, VT |page=8 |via=Newspapers.com}} She also took part in local business ventures, including the Ludlow Insurance Agency, of which she was an original incorporator.{{cite news |date=April 6, 1932 |title=State House Notes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99188725/state-house-notes/ |work=Montpelier Evening Argus |location=Montpelier, VT |page=6 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Fuller worked under Social Security just shy of three years from the spring of 1937 to November 1939 and paid a total of $24.75 ({{Inflation|US|22.54|1939|fmt=eq}}) in Social Security taxes.{{cite web|url=http://www.ssa.gov/history/idapayroll.html|title=Ida May Fuller's Payroll Tax Contributions|publisher=Social Security Administration}} She filed her retirement claim on November 4, 1939, aged 65; while visiting Rutland, she stopped at the regional Social Security office to ask about benefits.{{cite web|url=https://www.ssa.gov/history/imf.html|title=The First Social Security Beneficiary|publisher=Social Security Administration}} She later observed: "It wasn't that I expected anything, mind you, but I knew I'd been paying for something called Social Security and I wanted to ask the people in Rutland about it." Her application was transmitted to the Claims Division in Washington for adjudication. After approval, it was sent to the Treasury Department. Claims were grouped in batches of 1,000, and a certification list for each batch was sent to Treasury. Fuller's claim was the first one on the first certification list, so the first Social Security check (check number 00-000-001), dated January 31, 1940, was issued to Fuller in the amount of $22.54 ({{Inflation|US|22.54|1940|fmt=eq}}).

Later life

During her retirement, Fuller collected a total of $22,888.92 ({{Inflation|US|22,888.92|1940|fmt=eq}}) in Social Security benefits. As monthly payments increased in the 1950s and 1960s, Fuller typically received the first check issued for the new amount, which was usually the subject of news reports.{{cite news |date=October 7, 1950 |title=First to get Social Security 'Raise' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99189337/social-security-raise/ |work=Bennington Banner |location=Bennington, VT |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}} When she received the first check following a September 1965 increase in monthly benefits, it arrived with a letter from President Lyndon Johnson, who also called Fuller to extend good wishes on her birthday.{{cite news |agency=United Press International |date=September 7, 1965 |title=LBJ Send Mrs. Fuller Greetings |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/99189151/fuller-johnson/ |work=Bennington Banner |location=Bennington, VT |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Fuller never married and had no children. She lived most of her life in Ludlow and spent the last eight years of her life living with her niece, Hazel Perkins, in Brattleboro. Fuller died in Brattleboro on January 27, 1975, and was buried at Pleasant View Cemetery in Ludlow.{{cite book |last=Tucker |first=Rebecca Woodbury |date=2000 |title=Cemetery Inscriptions in Ludlow, Vermont |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8mwjAQAAMAAJ&q=%226.6%22+%22fuller,+ida+m.%22 |location=Ludlow, VT |publisher=R. W. Tucker |page=5 |via=Google Books}}

Notes

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References

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