E. M. Stull

E. M. STULL was a practical farmer and producer before he entered the grain business as a merchant, and has a practical understanding of all sides of the grain industry and appreciates the viewpoint of the grower as well as the buyer. He has become one of the leading figures in business affairs at Palco.

Mr. Stull was born in Montgomery County, Indiana, April 15, 1870, son of J. F. and Maria (Mitchell) Stull. His grandfather, Alexander Stull, was born in 1825. The mother of Alexander Stull lived to the advanced age of ninety-four, dying near Mount Sterling, Kentucky, in 1890. Alexander Stull was a farmer in Kentucky and Indiana, and died in Montgomery County, in the latter state in 1873. He married Charlotte Downs, whose mother, Jane Downs, died near Mount Sterling, Kentucky, in 1893, at the age of ninety-seven. Charlotte Downs was born in Kentucky in 1822 and died in New York City October 25, 1918, lacking scarcely four years of being a centenarian.

James F. Stull was born near Mount Sterling, Kentucky, in 1846, grew up and married there, and has spent his active life as a farmer. In 1869 he moved to Montgomery County, Indiana, and a few years later came to Palco, Kansas, where he homesteaded 160 acres and also had a timber claim of a quarter section. Later he sold these claims, after developing them, but still owns 200 acres and is a retired farmer of Palco. In January, 1865, he enlisted in the Fifty-Third Kentucky Infantry, and served nine months in the Union army. He was mastered out in September, 1865. He is a republican, is affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic and is a very active member of the Christian Church. He married Maria Mitchell, who was born near Mount Sterling, Kentucky, November 13, 1842. Her father, John Mitchell, was born in France in 1802 and came to the United States when a young man and settled near Mount Sterling, where he was a farmer. In 1870 he moved to Indiana, and he died in Montgomery County of that state in 1888. Of the eight children of J. F. Stull and wife Ernest M. Stull is the oldest. The next two, Luther and Oscar F., were twins, and the former died in infancy. Edwin also died in infancy. Maude married William Cruthers, a farm owner at Palco, and died there in 1912, Myrtle died in childhood. Ettia is the wife of Al Reardon, a brakeman with the Union Pacific Railway Company, living at Plainville, Kansas. Ralph W. is a farmer near Palco.

E. M. Stull has spent nearly all his life in Western Kansas. He attended the rural schools in Rooks County and the Academy at Stockton. For nine terms he taught a country school in Rooks County. Along with that occupation he also farmed near Palco until 1908, and he owns 440 acres near Palco, comprising a good wheat and stock farm. On November 17, 1908, he entered the grain and elevator business at Palco as manager for the Farmers and Merchants Elevator Company, and that enterprise he has conducted successfully since. He is a director and secretary of the Farmers State Bank.

Mr. Stull is an independent republican in matters of politics, and for four years served as trustee of Northampton Township, Rooks County. He is affiliated with Paradise Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Plainville, with Palco Camp of Modern Woodmen of America, and is a member of the Twenty-Two Club of Palco, a social club of limited membership, as its name indicates.

In 1896, near Palco, Mr. Stull married Della Cobb, daughter of John and Maria Cobb, both now deceased. Mr. Cobb was one of the early settlers in Rooks County near Palco, locating there in 1884. He came to Kansas from Bedford, Iowa, but was a native of Indiana. He married Maria Jones. Mrs. Stull was born in Taylor County, Iowa, February 3, 1876. Mr. and Mrs. Stull have two children: Azel C., born August 2, 1897, and recently discharged from the United States army at Camp Travis, Texas; and Forest, born June 23, 1902, a sophomore in the high school at Palco.

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