Generally, there is very little of public interest in a boy's life. Yet, it is said that." the child is father to the man." Boyhood commences in babyhood and continues during dependency, and sometimes for a while after. Manhood usually commences when a person goes out to engage in the battle of life for himself; but boyhood does not always end where manhood begins. As Moses Hull commenced his ministry at the age of sixteen, his manhood really commenced long before the termination of his boyhood, so that one overlaps the other by nearly a decade.

Moses Hull was born in Waldo, (then Delaware) County, Ohio, in 1836. He was the seventh child of Dr. James and Mary Hull, and the second son who grew up to manhood. The older children were: John, Isaac and Rebecca, (twins), Phoebe, Daniel, Aaron and Moses, (twins). After them were Joseph (now in spirit life), Emily (now Mrs. Charles Ogden of Sixpangs, Washington), Jesse and Harriett (twins, both now in spirit life), Sarah Ellen, (now Mrs. A. S. Price, of Danville, Illinois), Hiram Lycurgus, of Seattle, Washington, (whose twin mate Cincinnatus, passed to spirit life in infancy), and Eveline Jane (Mrs. J. B. Earle, in spirit life).

Moses Hull's ancestry is traceable to George Hull, who sailed from Plymouth, England, March 30, 1629, nine years after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth, Massachusetts, and who on arriving in this country, settled at Dorchester, now a part of Boston. The old family record by Dr. James Hull, reaches back a little way, probably as far as he could trace his ancestry. It was written in the style of the first chapter of Matthew, which the Hulls of early times being zealous members of the Baptist Church, believed to be inspired, and ran thus: "James Hull, which was the son of Ezekiel Hull, which was the son of Nathaniel Hull, Jr., was born April 27, 1808." If he had been able to have continued the record farther back, it would have read, "which was the son of Nathaniel Hull, which was the son of Cornelius Hull, which was the son of George Hull, who immigrated to this country from Plymouth, England, in 1629."

The Pilgrim Fathers sailed from Plymouth, England, in 1620, to escape persecution, and nearly every year thereafter for several years exoduses were made from the same place to America, by the Presbyterians, the Baptists and the Quakers to gain religious freedom. John, the oldest of the Hull brothers immigrated to America the very next year after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth, and George came eight years afterward. From these brothers are descended all the Hulls of the United States.

But the Baptists and Quakers were not made very welcome in the region of Boston, and seven years after the landing of George, he and his son Cornelius with all other Baptists were driven out. Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, moved first to Narragansett, and afterward to what is now Providence, a name given to the place by him, and George Hull moved to Windsor, Connecticut, and his son Cornelius to Fairfield, which two places were represented by them in the General Assembly for several years.

In I789, Nathaniel Hull, Jr., moved to Virginia, from which State, Ezekiel Hull, grandfather of Moses Hull, moved to Ross County, Ohio in 1807 or 1808. Ezekiel Hull passed away when James Hull was but two years old, so that James was early thrown on his own resources. He followed his older, brothers to Delaware, Ohio, where he worked in a woolen factory, and there he became acquainted with Mary Brundage, daughter of Probate judge John Brundage, whose home when not in office was Waldo in the same county, and about the year 1826 they were married. Of the Brundage ancestry I have heard but little. Of course they were Baptists, as people of that denomination at that time seldom married out of the church. But judge Brundage afterward became a Universalist and also an Abolitionist.

I do not think that James Hull commenced to study medicine till a few years before Moses' birth. Probably his mind was drawn that way on account of the loss of his older children. As he had to earn a living while studying, it is probable he did not finish his medical education for five or six years.

In 1839, armed with his diploma, he started from Delaware County, Ohio, for the Missouri territory with an ox team and wagon in which were his wife and four little ones with his household goods and a kettle of coals to keep his little family's feet warm. After driving about two hundred miles, walking by the side of his team through the mud and slush of an early winter, he came to a small village in Wabash County, Indiana, called America, where he concluded to tarry until the next spring. Meantime he found an inviting field for the practice of his profession in a small place called Liberty Mills, in the same county. Here he remained about two years until the opening of the Miami Reserve. He then moved to a claim on Treaty Creek, where the town of Treaty now stands. The nearest school established some time afterward, was two-and-a-half-miles away. Moses studied there one summer, having gone a term more or less in Liberty Mills. To get to this claim with his goods, the doctor went ahead with an axe, and blazed the trees and cut a road, there being Indian trails, only, through that section. The woods were full of wolves, which sometimes made night hideous with their howling, often coming close to the house when the doctor was away from home with some patient. Once they ran after him when returning, from a belated visit, giving him a five-mile chase, and almost overtaking him.

While we were attending school a little pamphlet which had been given to the doctor fell into my hands, and from it I learned that black men were enslaved in the South, and badly abused. In talking it over with Moses we both felt keenly the outrage. No talk was had with any one on the subject by either of our parents, probably on account of the prejudice it, would create against the doctor and the injury to his practice likely to ensue. But we had no knowledge of that, and commenced the agitation of the subject with our schoolmates. We succeeded in raising a big storm. We were called "Abolitionists," and informed that "egging" was the proper thing for such boys as we were, and further, we were told, that the next day there would appear a basket full of rotten eggs for our benefit. We agreed on our part to be there to receive them, and informed the boys that meantime we might find something to busy ourselves at. We did not then know what the word "Abolitionist" meant. Mother informed us that it was a term applied to all who opposed slavery, and that it was considered quite in order to pelt such people with decayed eggs. Then, she added, "Your Grandfather Brundage is an Abolitionist." When we went to school the next day we were full of fight, but no eggs appeared.