The man who founded the company that became famous selling brushes door to door was Alfred Fuller of Nova Scotia. Although Fuller described himself as something of "a country bumpkin" when he went into business, he eventually built a company that now boasts millions of dollars in annual sales.

Fuller was born Jan. 13, 1885 in Welsford, Nova Scotia, in the Annapolis Valley, one of 12 children. The Fullers lived on a 75 acre farm and Alfred, nicknamed "Uppie" as child, worked there until he left home at 18. He moved to the Boston area where some of his brothers and sisters lived. The only advice from his father was to be thrifty, save money, and live cleanly.

Fuller worked as a trolley conductor, got fired, and then held other jobs from which he was fired, including one time by his brother. He eventually went to work selling brushes door to door for a company and after about a year decided he could do better on his own. His parents were initially against the idea, but when he returned to Nova Scotia to tell them about it a second time, they supported him.

Fuller started his company in the basement of his sister's house with $375 in savings and some ideas for brushes that his previous employers had rejected. After four months, he moved his operations in April 1906 to Hartford, Connecticut and initially called the enterprise the Capitol Brush Company after seeing the state capitol building there. As the company grew, he began expanding it to other states and eventually into Canada.

In 1913, he hadn't registered the company name so he took the opportunity to rename the firm the Fuller Brush Company. By 1919, the company recorded its first $1 million in annual sales. Today, the company's large manufacturing plant in Kansas offers more than 2000 different home and personal care products. Fuller died in December, 1973.