Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Thomas Alonzo Hull Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

THOMAS ALONZO HULL

(Transcribed by Peggy Luce)

Thomas Alonzo Hull, retired farmer, a resident of Butler County for more than a half century and of El Dorado for more than twenty years, owner of Hull Addition and a good and substantial citizen, was born at Knottsville, West Virginia (then Virginia) January 14, 1851. He came to Kansas by way of Iowa and Missouri in 1877. His death occurred in El Dorado, December 10, 1933.

He received his early education in subscription and public schools of Knottsville, quitting, when a young man to help with the usual work on a farm. In October, 1875, then twenty-four years of age, he determined to “try his luck” in the West and went to Iowa, where he farmed until 1877 when he went to Memphis, in the extreme northeast section of Missouri. He remained in Memphis about two months when he started with a covered wagon caravancy for Kansas, arriving in Newton, July 20, 1877. He came direct from Newton to Butler County, settling in Plum Grove Township.

Until his marriage, in 1882, he worked for others on a farm, or for himself upon leased land. Eventually, he purchased a tract, near what now is Four-Mile school house, east of Potwin and by reason of the hardest work and sacrifices, he added another quarter section to his original purchase about five years later. It is of interest that, in 1920, he sold the original, or home place for which he had paid $800, receiving $65 an acre, one of the highest considerations ever paid for an upland Butler County farm. In 1908, the family moved to Winfield to enroll the older children in Southwestern College, and two years later, traded the Winfield property to S. T. McIntosh for the farm, immediately north of El Dorado – what now is Hull Addition, a part of which, directly opposite Forest Park, is thickly populated with modest but modern homes. The family still retains the old residence on the hill with its adjoining 14-acres. In religion, Mr. Hull was a Methodist, having been a steward of the Potwin church for many years. Politically, he was a Republican.

Mr. Hull was of English descent and traced his ancestral line, paternal and maternal, back to earliest America, or to the Virginia and Maryland colonies of the Seventeenth century. He was the son of Samuel B. and Elvira Ann (Jones) Hull, the former born in Virginia, in 1825, and who died in 1861. Samuel A. Hull’s father, (grandfather of T. A. Hull) also was a native of Virginia, and was born July 4, 1776, the date of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of this Republic. He married Frances Snyder, native of Virginia, and died in 1872 at the age of ninety-seven years. He was the son of Jacob Hull, born in Virginia in 1729. The line then continues: Jacob was the son of Daniel (Great-great-great grandfather of T. A. Hull, born in Virginia about 1700, lived in Maryland and married Mary Quincy; Daniel was the son of Joseph Hull, born in Virginia, moved to Hartford County, Maryland, and died there in 1725; his (Joseph’s) father was Captain Benjamin Hull (burn, 1639, died, 1713) lived in Oyster River, Durham and Dover, New Hampshire, and Piscatagna, New Jersey, married Rachel York, in 1668 and acquired the commission of captain while serving in the Indian wars. Captain Hull was the son of Rev. Joseph Hull, born in England, 1595, graduated from St. Mary’s Hall, Oxford, in November, 1614; came to America in 1635; and died in 1665. He was the son of Thomas and Joan (Peson) Hull, natives of Crewkerne, Somersetshire, England. T. A. Hull’s mother, Elvira Ann (Jones) Hull, born October 23, 1829; died in may, 1922, was the great-grand-daughter of Jacob and Dinah Jones, of Morgantown, West Virginia, who were married in Burlington County, New Jersey, September 28, 1763. Dinah Jones was the daughter of John Staunton and Dinah Gale Staunton who were married October 6, 1732. Dinah Gale was the daughter of Samuel and Mary Gale of Little Egg Harbor, Burlington County, New Jersay. Jacob Jones was an esign in the “Rangers of the Frontier” of West Moreland County, Pennsylvania, and Monongalia County, Virginia, during the Revolutionary War. He was for a time a member of Captain Nicholas Shin’s Company. John Jones was the son of Jacob and Dinah Jones and was born in Morgantown 1764. He, with his sister, Mary Jones, was captured by the Wyandotte Indians, near Fort Statler, Virginia, July 14, 1774. He escaped three years later while the tribe was in the wilderness of the far Northwest territory (now Michigan), made his way to the settlement at what now is Detroit, then Fort Pontchartrain, where he eventually became a physician. The sister, Mary, remained with the Indians until twenty years of age when she was rescued by British troops, near what is now Grosse Isle, Michigan, and later married Peter Malott, dying in 1845 and buried at Kingsville, Ontario, Canada.

On June 17, 1882, T. A. Hull was united in marriage to Miss Christina Ullum. She is a native of Winchester, Indiana, and was born October 28, 1859. Her parents were Luke and Mary Ann (Bolinger) Ullum, the former born February 6, 1830, in Greenville, Ohio and the mother, in Winchester, October 23, 1833. Luke Ullum died January 26, 1901 and his wife died at Potwin, September 4, 1923. They were married in Winchester, December 12, 1851, and came to Kansas, settling in Butler County, in the fall of 1881. The father of Luke Ullum was of German descent and an early Indiana pioneer. On the maternal side, Mrs. Hull’s grandfather was George Bolinger, born in Germany and his wife was Christina (Haubic) Bolinger, both natives of Germany and Indiana settlers. The former died in Indiana; the latter in Haverhill, Butler County, and is buried in West Cemetery, El Dorado.

Eight children have been born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Hull, four of whome are living and one of whom, Oscar Clayton Hull, of Detroit, Michigan, has attained to more than ordinary success in the profession of law. He now is a practicing attorney of Detroit, with a wealthy individual and corporate clientele. He is a graduate cum laude, of the law schools of University of Kansas and University of Michigan. His sketch follows this of his father.

Emerson Ray Hull, the second son of Mr. and Mrs. Hull, was killed in a motor car accident December 18, 1934, while returning to his home in Fort Morgan, Colorado, from Boulder, where he operated a gold mine. Mr. Hull, who was forty-two years old at the time of his death, was born in Butler County on June 26, 1892. He was graduated from El Dorado High school in 1914, and attended Kansas State College at Manhattan. In June 1917, he enlisted in the army and served as a sergeant in the 89th Division of the ambulance corps in the World War. He was married to Jennie Dickerson at Denver, Colorado, October 1, 1920. He was a member of the Presbyterian church and of the American Legion and Masonic Lodge at Fort Logan. He is survived by Mrs. Hull and one daughter, Frances Marie, eleven years old.

Olive Blanche Hull, born in 1895, died in 1918. Thomas Alonzo Hull, Jr., born in 1897, died in infancy.

Three daughters of Thomas Alonzo and Christina (Ullum) Hull live in El Dorado. They are Daisy Belle, wife of Rev. Harry W. Smith; Mrs. Harriet M. Fisher, widow of Russell H. Fisher, newspaperman and author. Mrs. Fisher is a teacher of exceptional ability. She formerly was principal of grades in the Wilmington, North Carolina schools and more recently is on the faculty of El Dorado schools.

Miss Mabelle Edna Hull, the youngest daughter, resides at home.