My Genealogy Hound

HIRAM HULL. The subject of this sketch is one of the oldest and most highly esteemed citizens of Kearney, Buffalo county, and a man who has a history, ancestral and personal, well worthy of preservation in a memorial record like this.

Mr. Hull’s stock is of English origin, his ancestors having removed from England to New England some time in the Seventeenth Century, and among the early colonial settlers, were people of honorable distinction in church, state and military matters, as well as in framing the great fundamental laws for the republic when it was in its infancy.

His father, Joel Hull, was born near Boston, Mass., and near the birth-place of our American independence, in 1776. He grew up in his native place, and, after receiving a collegiate education, began life as a merchant and afterwards moved into New York State, where he spent several years, and in the year 1816 moved into the State of Ohio, settling in Meigs county, where he entered upon the peaceful pursuit of agriculture and died in 1827. His wife was Mary Wallace, a native of the town of Bennington, Vt., was born in 1779, and died in Adams county, Ill., in 1859. She was a devoted member of the Free Will Baptist church, a strong believer in saving faith, and led a life consistent with her belief.

The subject of this sketch is the youngest of a family of ten children born to Joel and Mary (Wallace) Hull. He was born in Utica, N. Y., September 30, 1812. He was reared in Meigs county, Ohio, whither his parents had moved when he was young, and there spent his life until the year 1852. He began the active pursuits of life as a farmer, but in the year 1831 moved from his farm to the town of Chester, Ohio, and there engaged in the several occupations of merchandising, tanning and building boats — active, enterprising and successful in everything he undertook.

In 1852, for the better advantages of educating his children, he moved to Delaware, Ohio, where he was enabled to graduate his two sons and three daughters in the Ohio Wesleyan University and the Female College there located; and there resided until the year 1872, when he removed to the State of Nebraska.

He stopped at Lincoln a few months, then settled at Lowell, in Kearney county, on the thirtieth of June, 1872, where he resided for two years and then moved to the city of Kearney, where he has continuously resided since September, 1874. He entered into the mercantile business extensively at Lowell, and continued in that pursuit the first two years after arriving at Kearney, when he closed the business and soon after commenced the real estate and brokerage business, at which he has been more or less actively engaged since.

Mr. Hull has made a wise use of his opportunities, investing considerably in real estate at an early day in Kearney, on which he has realized handsomely. He has never been a speculator, being content with the returns brought him by the gradual rise in values incident to the settling up and improvement of the town and surrounding country, and he has been willing to help, and has helped, in bringing about this state of improvement, lending his aid and influence towards inducing immigration, and giving cheerfully of his means to those enterprises of a public nature which have sought favor in his community. Mr. Hull married November 10, 1830; the lady whom he chose to share his life’s fortunes being Miss Luna Bosworth of Meigs county, Ohio. Mrs. Hull was born May 30, 1812, at Whitehall, N. Y., and is a daughter of Hezekiah and Hiddah (Pearce) Bosworth.

Her father was a native of England and her mother of New York State. Her father died in Meigs county, Ohio, February 23, 1859, aged eighty-nine years. His occupations of life were teaching school and farming, and throughout was a man of quiet tastes, studious habits, and exceptionally temperate and systematic in all things.

Her mother died in the same county February 23, 1863, aged eighty-eight years, a pious, good woman, she and her husband having been almost life-long members of the church, having services of the pioneer Methodist preachers in their own house many years after they settled in Ohio.

Mrs. Hull’s ancestors all lived to remarkable ages: her grandfather Pearce dying in his seventy-ninth year, her grandmother at one hundred and four, and her maternal great-grandfather in his one hundred and sixteenth year.

Mr. and Mrs. Hull have had born to them a family of ten children, of whom there are now living five — Joel, the eldest, born November 23, 1831, a sketch of whom appears in this volume as one of the representative men of Minden, Kearney county; Wyman, born March 27, 1835; Catharine (now wife of Wm. K. Goddard, residing in Dane county, Wis.), born January 3, 1837; Helen, born May 27, 1840, now wife of Wm. L. Kidd, of Oakland, California; and Marinda, born March 2, 1842, now wife of S. W. Switzer, of San Diego, California.

Mr. and Mrs. Hull have been zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church for many years, having united in 1831, and ever since have been active and efficient workers in that church and all its benevolent associations.

Mr. Hull never aspired to political honors, but has taken a keen interest in general politics and is a man of wide range of information on political and historical topics. In early life he was an old line whig and a stanch supporter of the doctrines of that party. Upon the formation of the republican party he became one of its organizers and has steadfastly adhered to the platform adopted by its founders — Protection — Loyalty — and Liberty. He voted for the elder General Harrison—the hero of Tippecanoe — and also for the younger Harrison, the present chief executive. Mr. and Mrs. Hull have ever been strict temperance people and have always been active workers in the cause of temperance. Mrs. Hull joined the Good Templars nearly forty years ago and has constantly been found in the front in all the efforts made for the deliverance of her community in which she resided from the curse of rum; associating herself for that purpose with several orders and societies. She is, and has been since its formation, a hearty worker in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

Though, for several years in feeble health and almost an invalid, she has never failed when called upon to aid any and all endeavors for the salvation of souls from sin and from intemperance to the utmost of her ability, and many there are to rise up and call her blessed.