Mary King Fulford was a childhood sweetheart of U.S. Grant in Georgetown, Ohio. After her marriage to John D. Fulford, they moved to Memphis, then in 1845 to Thibodaux. She cared for seven children, of whom several died in childhood, and played a strong role in the Thibodaux Presbyterian Church. John Fulford lost his property and work after the Civil War. When he died in 1870, President Grant offered the position of Postmistress in the Thibodaux Post Office to his friend of thirty years' acquaintance. After Mary held the post for five months, she resigned saying that it was inappropriate for a woman. Mary Fulford died in 1903.