Newell Joseph Fuller was born in 1844 in Valley City, Ohio, to Joseph D. Fuller and Wealthy Deming. His father was a farmer who owned $3,300 of real estate and $800 of personal property in 1860. The family lived in Grafton, Ohio, and Fuller attended school there. They moved to Brunswick, Ohio, sometime in the 1850s, and by 1860, he was working as a farmhand. He was drafted into the Union army on October 16, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company G of the 42nd Ohio Infantry. The regiment took part in the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou and the siege of Vicksburg. Fuller mustered out on July 6, 1863, two days after Vicksburg surrendered.
Fuller returned to Ohio after leaving the army, and he married Caroline Adelia Fuller in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, on March 20, 1870. They had at least four children: Eliza, born around 1873; Albert, born around 1875; Cordelia, born around 1877; and Laura, born around 1881. They settled in Berea, Ohio, and Fuller worked as an engineer. He owned $100 of real estate in 1870. He applied for a federal pension in March 1890 and eventually secured one.
In 1900, three of their adult children remained in their household, including their daughter Eliza and their three grandchildren. By 1910, Fuller was working as a carpenter, and by 1930, the couple’s house was valued at $5,000. They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on March 20, 1930, and newspapers throughout Ohio recognized the occasion. In 1931, he took part in Berea’s Memorial Day parade. Although he was 87 years old, he “insisted that he could walk as well as anybody else, a thing he has been doing for years and years.” He was reportedly the last surviving member of the 42nd Ohio Infantry. He died of “Bronchial Pneumonia” in Berea on August 1, 1937.