Charles E. Hullett

The Family of Charles E. Hullett

1 E. A. Harris, Fourth Street, Larned Kans., 1894 4/4/18

Table of Contents

1 SAMUEL HULLET (1803–1870)...... 3

2 THE STEADS (1804–1852)...... 4

3 WILLIAM HULLETT...... 6

4 CHARLES E. HULLETT...... 7

5 MINNIE (LUCAS) HULLETT...... 11

6 THE FAMILY OF CHARLES AND MINNIE HULLETT...... 15

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1 Samuel Hullet (1803–1870)

Samuel Hullet and his first wife Elizabeth were born in England, but they are said to have been from mutually distant shires of England. Samuel was from Devon(shire) in the southwest (only Cornwall is father southwest), whereas Elizabeth was from Lincolnshire, two hundred miles northeast on the North Sea coast. It is due to this distance, and due to the fact that they don’t seem to have had any children in England, that we presume the two met in America, perhaps in Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where their first son William was born.2

Samuel, Elizabeth, and their sons William and Samuel moved to Morgan County, Illinois in 1834/35. They then moved to neighboring Macoupin County in 1835. This area is about seventy miles northeast of Saint Louis.

2 Future research: Are the Hullets in the 1830 Census for Chester, PA? Were there any other Hullets in Delaware County at the time?

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2 The Steads (1789–1852)

William Stead was a shoemaker in the village of Emley Park in Emley Parish, Yorkshire. He appears to have died in July 1789.

Amelia Stead was the mother of Charles Ephraim Hullett. The Steads are believed to have been Quakers from Yorkshire, England.

The following sketch features the oldest known brother of Amelia Stead:

SAMUEL STEAD - Among the many prominent English farmers of Macoupin county may be mentioned the name that heads this sketch. He was born in Skelmanthorpe, Yorkshire, England, May 17th, 1823; was the son of Benjamin and Martha Stead. The Stead family were quakers, and have lived in Yorkshire for many generations. Mr. Stead's father was a farmer, and owned a small place, but as he carried on farming rather extensively, he also rented land of Lord Lumley Savel. In the spring of 1840, he emigrated to America with his wife and family of seven children; the subject of our sketch remaining in England. Mr. Stead landed at New York in April, and immediately came to St. Louis, where he remained two months; he then came into Macoupin county and settled on section 1, in Nilwood township, this being in the summer of 1840. On the trip from St. Louis he accidentally shot himself and received injuries from which he never entirely recovered; he lingered along until the following Christmas, when he died. His wife survived him many years. 3

Yorkshire was the heart of the Danelaw during the Viking Era. The Danelaw was the part of England controlled by the Vikings. The word “skaelmen” is Danish for “rogues”. It

3 HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS, pg. 208. Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia //www.rootsweb.com/~ilmaga/macoupin/1879bios/stead.html1879.

Dan Jensen 4 4/4/18 appears to be spelled “skalman” in Swedish. “Thorpe” means “outlying settlement”. This might mean that Skelmenthorpe was a vagrant camp 900 years before Benjamin and Martha Stead, but it might just as well indicate that it was an English hamlet, as the Vikings might have been inclined to refer to the English as rogues. In any case, 900 years is a very long time. We have no reason to believe the Steads were rogues!

[Samuel Stead] remained in England for four years afer his father's removal. In 1844 he came to Nilwood, Macoupin county, direct from England. For four years he lived with his mother and assisted on the farm. June, 1848, he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Howard, a native of Kentucky. Her father, Samuel Howard, settled in Macoupin county in the fall of 1830. After Mr. Stead's marriage he began farming for himself and has so continued up to the present time, and had made a success out of his chosen vocation. Mr. and Mrs. Stead started out if life littled aided, and what they have acquired in this world has been gained by industry and economy; they have a good home and everything around them to make their declining years comfortable. They have had a family of six children; four living, namely: Helen, now the wife of Frederick Garst, living in Kansas; Robert T., now farming in Nilwood township; Lucinda D. and Jonas K. D., now at home. In politics Mr. Stead is a republican. He is a member of the Methodist church, and Mrs. Stead is a member of the Christian church. Such is a brief sketch of one of the old and much respected citizens of Nilwood township.4

4 HISTORY OF MACOUPIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS, pg. 208. Brink, McDonough & Co., Philadelphia //www.rootsweb.com/~ilmaga/macoupin/1879bios/stead.html1879.

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3 William Hullett

William, Amelia, and their children probably moved to Kansas in 1878, as did William’s brothers John and Charles,5 and Amelia’s niece Hannah.6

WILLIAM HULLETT DIED--At his home in this city, on Friday, Jul 14th, 1902, aged seventy-two years. The deceased was a native of Delaware county, Pennsylvania, where he was married on December 25, 1852, to Miss Amelia Stead, to which union was born eight children, four of who survive them. Three live here, James, George, Charles. Claud lives at Lawrence. Mr. Hullett was an old soldier, having served an independent battalion of Minnesota cavalry two years, hving enlisted in 1864 and discharged in 1866 by reason of general order No. 22. He was a member of B.F. Larned Post, No 8, G.A.R., under the auspices of which order his funeral was held Saturday morning.

5 “Samuel Hullet”, provided by Betty Hullet [email protected]. 6 Pat Hagan Frunzi [email protected], “Re: Lord Lumley Savel/Quakers”, 10 Feb 2003.

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4 Charles E. Hullett

Charles Ephraim Hullett was born near Lakeville, Dakota County, Minnesota in November 1869.

When about ten years old he moved with his parents to a homestead near Jetmore, Kan., and later to Larned, and for the last 30 years has lived in the Ash Valley community...7

The Hulletts are known to have moved to Kansas in 1878. Charles would have been about age eight at the time.

Jetmore is in Hodgeman County, immediately west of Pawnee County. Hodgeman County was organized in 1879, a year after the Hulletts arrived.8 The first settlers are known to have arrived there a year before the Hulletts. The first attempts at farming the area met with mixed results, but a severe drought followed the arrival of the Hulletts:

In the spring of 1877, settlements were commenced. There was only a small acreage of wheat sowed, and the crop was cut short by hail. The average yield in 1878, was twenty-six bushels per acre, and other grain and vegetable crops were good in the years 1877 and 1878. The best yield of winter wheat in 1879 was four bushels per acre. Spring crops were a failure. There was a small growth of sweet and Irish potatoes, turnips, pumpkins and squashes and an abundance of melons. The summer crop embracing sorghum, rice corn, broom corn and millet, gave a medium yield in one-half of the county, the other half being almost an entire failure. In 1880, winter and spring grain were an entire failure; summer crops were better than in 1879; but little Indian corn was raised, but considerable of rice corn, which is a

7 Obitutuary: Charles Hullett 8 http://skyways.lib.ks.us/counties/HG

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good substitute for feed and food. Plenty of fodder was secured for stock. The drouth, of unparalleled duration in Western Kansas, commencing about the 1st of September, 1878, …9

Charles' sister Mary Bell died three years later, at age 9. By this time, Charles had three living brothers: Jim, Claude, and George; all older than Charles. Three Hullett children had died before Charles was born.

The winters of 1885–87 were extremely harsh, decimating cattle herds throughout the Plains. The harsh weather may also have driven the Hulletts out of Hodgeman County.

As soon as the two harsh winters were over, the plains were hit by another great drought. The record high temperature for neighboring Colorado, 118° F, was recorded in July 1888.10

Charles' mother Amelia died in the summer of 1887, when Charles was age 17.

By 1890, the third year of the drought, …The people of the plains states, still shell-shocked by the great white winter, began to turn back east. The populations of Kansas and Nebraska declined by between one-quarter and one-half.11

Amelia is said to have died on the prairie near Hanston. As Charles’ obituary states that they settled near Jetmore, perhaps their farm was between Jetmore and Hanston.

9 William G. Cutler, History of the State of Kansas (1883). http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/hodgeman/hodgeman-co-p1.html 10 NOAA National Climatic Data Center. http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/severeweather/temperatures.html 11 Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner, 1993.

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The following map12 shows Hodgeman County about twelve years later.

Figure 1: Hodgeman County, Kansas (1899)

Charles and his father appear to have moved to Pawnee County shortly after Amelia died, though it’s possible that Charles was already on his own in Pawnee County at the time.

Charles’ oldest brother Jim had married Hattie Ward in Jetmore the previous summer, but appears to have moved to Pawnee County later in 1886.13

Jim lived in Pawnee County for 52 years, and died in Larned. He and his wife Hattie had eight children, six of whom lived to adulthood and married. Their first son died at age 16, immediately after being thrown from a race horse in Dodge City.

Charles' brother Claude married Huldah Anderson in Lawrence, Kansas months before Charles and Minnie married in Larned (1895). It appears that Claude and Huldah settled in Kansas City, Missouri.

12 History of Kansas, Noble Prentis, (Winfield: E.P. Greer. 1899). http://skyways.lib.ks.us/counties/HG 13 Obituary of James N. Hullett, provided by Susan McGuire.

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Charles' brother George was a bachelor. He married Daisey Milton in Larned when he was 60 years old.14 He died two years later.

14 Note by Charles Hullett, 1897.

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5 Minnie (Lucas) Hullett

Minnie's parents were John Calvin Lucas and Sophia Tiday. John was born in Ohio, and Sophia was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Sophia's parents were William Tiday and Katherine Mosier. William was born in New Jersey, and his parents may have come from England. John and Sophia were both age 16 when John enlisted, in September 1862. John served as a private in the 39th Regiment of the Ohio Infantry, probably under General Grant. John and Sophia married in 1871, perhaps in Illinois, where Minnie was born four years later. Minnie Mabel Lucas was born in Champaign County, Illinois in November 1875. She had two sisters, Margaret and Chauncey, who were seven and nine years younger. Chauncey died just after reaching age two, and Margaret lived to age 27. The Lucas family came to Pawnee County, Kansas in February 1877, when Minnie was about 14 months old. They were the first from among the Fulton forebears to arrive in Kansas.

Minnie Mabel Lucas born in Champaign Co., Ill in Nov. 15:1875 in Feb 1877 the family came to Pawnee Co. and lived on a farm north of Larned for several years …15

15 Unsigned handwritten note with "Minnie Hullett" written on back (segment 1 of 4).

Figure 2: Pawnee County, Kansas – 1878

This map16 of Pawnee County, dated a year after the Lucas family arrived, shows the recently established Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, Fort Larned, and a town named Lucas, six miles due North from Larned.

16 http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/1878/images/pawnee.jpg

Figure 3: Pawnee County, Kansas (1880)

This 1880 map17 of Pawnee County shows that Ash Valley Township was almost adjacent to Larned Township, up Ash Creek from the Barton County line. Conkling Township is just west of Ash Valley, further up Ash Creek. Around 1881, while the Lucas family still lived on a farm north of Larned, before Minnie's sister Margaret was born, the family encountered a prairie fire that Minnie remembered as follows:

It happened on a Sunday morning; when my father, mother and I came home, and we walked three miles in those days to Sunday School. My father & mother, had to go fight fire and they turned their two cows loose and my mother warned me that I should not go out of the house. One of the cows got her rope fast on a stake in the yard and I thought I must get it loose. Then my mother's

17 http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/kancoll/graphics/maps/pawnee.htm

words, "do not go out of the house." I finally opened the door and slipped out to loose the rope and made a run for the door. My mother had baked cookies on Sat. and all I had for my dinner was cookies and I ate cookies all day and looked out the windows to see if my parents were coming.

And I can tell you it was the longest day of my life, as I was about 5 years old.

And I still like cookies.18

Not long later, the Lucas family moved to Larned, where Minnie lived until she was about age thirty.

the family moved to Larned where she riviled with the Baptist ch. when 11 years old, 7 years later joined christian ch. In 1895 married Charles Hullett.19

18 THE PRAIRIE FIRE, Written by Minnie Lucas Hullett 19 Unsigned handwritten note with "Minnie Hullett" written on back (segment 2 of 4).

6 The Family of Charles and Minnie Hullett

Charles and Minnie married and started their family in Larned, where their first three children were born.

After about eleven years of marriage and raising three children in Larned, the Hulletts moves to Conkling Township, just west of Ash Valley:

in 1906 moved to Comklin township and in 1933 moved to Ash Valley.20

This was about a year after the Fultons arrived in Ash Valley. Pearl was about four years old when they moved (her future husband was nine).

Minnie's sole remaining sister Margaret died in March 1910. Margaret left three daughters, each of whom Charles and Minnie adopted. By the time Raymond was born 18 months later, there were two boys and five girls in the Hullett household. Raymond is reported to have been born in the town of Rozel, a few miles south and slightly west of Conkling Township. In 1933, about the time Harley, Pearl, and Charles left Ash Valley for Texas, Charles and Minnie moved to Ash Valley. Perhaps they moved onto the very same farm. Charles died about five years later in Ash Valley.

20 Unsigned handwritten note with "Minnie Hullett" written on back (segment 3 of 4). "Comklin" is presumed to mean "Conkling".

for 30 years worshipped with the Pleasant Hill church and for 6 years taught a glass in S.S. always worked in Ladies Aid. in 1942 moved to Larned and worked in Christian ch. where her membership was all these years.

To this union 4 children born Edith Morrison Pearl Fulton Ralph Hullett, Raymond Hullett. Mr. Hullett passed away April 30 1938.21

Minnie stayed in Ash Valley about four years after Charles died, then moved to Larned, where she lived for another 15 years before passing away in May 1957.

21 Unsigned handwritten note with "Minnie Hullett" written on back (segment 4 of 4).

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