Fulton

Fulton, city, seat (1825) of Callaway county, central Missouri, U.S. It lies 26 miles (42 km) northeast of Jefferson City. Laid out in 1825 and named Volney, it was renamed shortly thereafter for Robert Fulton, steamboat engineer and inventor. Fulton is the seat of Westminster College (1851) and William Woods University (1870). At Westminster College, Sir Winston Churchill delivered his “Iron Curtain” speech on March 5, 1946. To commemorate the occasion, the college brought from London and reconstructed on its campus the 12th-century Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, redesigned by Sir Christopher Wren in the 17th century. A document signed by President John F. Kennedy making Churchill an honorary U.S. citizen is among the college’s memorabilia. Fulton is the site of a state hospital and a school for the deaf. The city is also a service centre for an agricultural area producing corn [maize], soybeans, sorghum, wheat, hay, and livestock. Fulton’s manufactures include firebrick made from local clay deposits, farm machinery, electrical equipment, precast concrete products, and fabricated steel beams. There is also a recycling plant. Sprinter Helen Stephens, a gold medalist at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, was a Fulton native. Inc. 1859. Pop. (2000) 12,128; (2010) 12,790.