Jefferson County Historical Society

Home - Biographies Menu

 

W. W. Hull, M. D., a successful physician and surgeon, of Sulphur 
Springs Landing, is a native of Union County, Ky., born in 1855, and
the fourth of eight children born to Dr. James and Mary (Simpson) Hull.
The father was born at Indianapolis, Ind., in 1821, where he was reared
and educated.  He graduated from the medical institutiion of that place
and soon after went to Caseyville, Ky., where he was married, and where
he practiced his profession successfully until about 1858.  He then 
removed to near Jackson, Cape Girardeau County, Mo., his children being 
educated at the county seat, Cape Girardeau.  Here he practiced his 
profession until 1870, when he removed to Fenton, St. Louis County, and
in 1887 removed to Moselle, Franklin County, where he is at present 
engaged in the drug business, in connection with his practice, at which 
he has been remarkably successful for nearly forty years, during which
time he has made several fortunes.  Prior to the war he was a heavy
slave holder, which proved a great loss by emancipation; but he did not
dispair, and is today, probably, worth $10,000.  During the war his
sympathies were with the South, but he was far from being aggressive.
He is a son of James Hull, a native of Marion County, Ind., where he
(James) lived all his life, engaged in farming.  He reared a family of
seven children, all of whom received a handsome competency from his 
estate.  He was a soldier in the War of 1812, being in the battle of
Chippewa Falls, where he became seperated from a brother, William, whom
he never heard of afterward.  He was of German-English origin.  The
mother of young Hull was of Scotch-Irish descent, born in Union County,
Ky., and is now about sixty-three years of age.  She is the daughter of
Col. Vincent B. Simpson, who was born in Fairfax County, Va., (now 
Fairfax Court House), of a very aristocratic Scotch family, and when he
left his home for Kentucky his father gave him forty negroes.  He was a
colonel in the regular army, and took an active part in various early
Indian Wars.  Both father and mother of our subject have been for many
years prominent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and 
are among the best families of Northeast Missouri.  The Doctor was 
reared at home and received a good high school education at Cape 
Girardeau; at the age of nineteen he began the study of medicine with 
his father, and after two years at the Missouri Medical College, at St. 
Louis, graduated in the class of 1875.  He then located at Sulphur
Springs, where he soon became popular, and is one of the foremost and
successful practitioners of Jefferson County.  He was married April 10,
1882, to Miss Lillie, daughter of Thomas and Caroline Burgess, who are
still living at Sulphur Springs.  Mr. Burgess is a native of Rock 
Township, of which his father was one of the first settlers.  To the 
marriage of the Doctor were born four children: Earl W., Minnie, Wallace 
and an infant.  Although an active politician, the Doctor has never 
aspired for office.  He is a Democrat, and an earnest worker for the
cause of education, and for general upbuilding of the community. He has, 
for several years, been town trustee.