Name/Title
Sept 1921 54th Bull Picnic & TITLE TO BULL HOMESTEADEntry/Object ID
000446Tags
Bull PicnicScope and Content
Article 1: The Independent Republican
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1921.
THE 54TH ANNUAL BULL FAMILY PICNIC
The 54th annual Bull Picnic was held Wednesday, August 31st, at the Stone House in Hamptonburgh. For more than two years the family has been working on plans for a memorial in the memory of William and Sarah Wells Bull, of whom more than 150 are already known to the committee in charge. After a year's consideration, it was with practical unanimity decided that the most suitable memorial the members of the family take is the purchase by the family of the old Stone House in Hamptonburgh, built in 1722, by William Bull and Sarah Wells, the founders of the family. In order to accomplish this purpose, the old Bull Association, which conducted the picnics in the past, has been disbanded and its duties taken over by a newly-constituted corporation, The William Bull and Sarah Wells Family Association, Inc. All of the necessary funds but some $4,000 having been reported at the picnic as already subscribed, the new corporation has entered into a contract for the purchase from Ebenezer Bull and sons of the Stone House and some 188 acres of land comprising the farm. The deed is to be delivered Sept. 30th. Mr. and Mrs. Ebenezer Bull retain life estates in the residence, but give the use of the farm land into the control of the association. Included in the sale are a number of antiques of great interest, including a grandfather's clock which belonged to the original William Bull, and is in a perfect state of preservation. A valuable addition was made to the association's possessions, by the Misses Jane H. and Catharine A. Bull, of Brooklyn, and their brother, William H. Bull, in the gift of a framed record of the descendants of William Bull and Sarah Wells, drawn up at the latter's funeral in 1796, showing the descendants then to be 335. Miss Jane Bull, in making the presentation, stated that the grandfather of the present generation of the family was then but 11. It seems that many years ago, when Mr. Casterline was Postmaster at Newburgh, he cut out the office he came on an old parcel, which he found had been mailed in London and whose address had become wholly illegible. On examination it proved to be the paper in question. Mr. Casterline gave it to Miss Bull's father as being a member of the family and much entitled to it as anyone who was known. This very interesting old relic is framed and will be hung in a place of honor in the Stone House. A rising vote of thanks was tendered the givers, as it. Several copies were made of this record at the same time, and at least one other is in existence today, being owned by Jesse Booth, of Campbell Hall, in whose family it has been handed down from generation to generation. The existing Board of Managers was re-elected as follows: President-Charles W. Slaughter, of Babylon, L. I. Vice President-Miss Lillian Bull, of Chester. Treasurer-Ernest M. Bull, of Monroe. Secretary-Robert McLeod Jackson, of the Town of Hamptonburgh. Other members of the Board-Charles M. Bull, of Poughkeepsie; Mrs. George R. Bull, of Bullville; Mrs. Hamlet S. Roe, of Chester; Harry C. Bull, of Goshen; Harry Bull, of Hamptonburgh. A picnic committee was appointed as follows: Ebenezer Bull, chairman; John G. Thew, Henry Bull, William Bull, Charles Johnson. The Secretary read an interesting letter of greeting from Mrs. E. H. Merrifield, of Pasadena, Calif., and another from Miss Sarah G. Lizzie McBride. Greetings were also received from Mrs. Susan Pierson Howell, of Denver, Colo., and from William Edgar Bull, of Charleston, S. C. It was pointed out as quite unique that one couple should have built a house which, after a lapse of 200 years, actually created home ties for so large a number of people. It was also emphasized that it was the same couple whose thought for their children's children was now being honored, and that all the family did was to keep what had thus been so far preserved. The roll of the family who had died since the last picnic was known to the Secretary as follows: Mrs. Mary F. Andrus, of New York City; Mrs. Ann Elizabeth Bull, of Chester, N. Y.; Mrs. James Bull, of Chester, N. Y.; Mrs. Theodore Bull, of Portchester, N. Y.; William Bull, of Middletown, N. Y.; William Hewlett Bull, of Stony Ford, N. Y.; Mrs. Dolly Ann Conklin, of Chester, N. Y.; Mrs. Maria Liddell Demott, of Ralston, N. J.; Frank Drake, of Goshen, N. Y.; Miss Elizabeth Howell, of Goshen, N. Y.; William Liddell, of Summit, N. J.; Victor K. Mills, of Goshen, N. Y.; Miss Nearpass, of Port Jervis, N. Y.; Mrs. Mary M. Nelson, of New York City; Mrs. Susan C. Mowbray, of Thompson Perry, of Chicago, Ill.; Eugene R. Presler, of Newburgh, N. Y.; Miss Elizabeth Sherer, of Bloomingburgh, N. Y.; John R. Sparrow, of Ridgewood, N. J.; Mrs. Susan M. Tator, of New York City; Mrs. Mary Emma Trotter, of Chicago, Ill.; Augustus Thompson, of Charity, Mo.; Miss Anna M. Weekes, of Bullville; and Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Willcox, of Milford, Pa. Warm appreciation was expressed and a vote of thanks given for the preservation of the Stone House by Mr. and Mrs. Ebenezer Bull, and their family, permitting it to come into the hands of the family as a whole, notwithstanding the fact that they had never offered the place for sale nor sought a purchaser, but on the contrary, wished to keep it as their own home. A reference has twice been made in this paper to this memorial as being to the Bull family. This is a misconception which should not go uncorrected. This memorial is to the young men and women of the family who served in the late war, at least 15 of whom lost their lives in their country's service.
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Article 2: The Independent Republican
TITLE TO BULL HOMESTEAD.
Suit by Mrs. Green for Historic Farm Decided Against Her.
An action to determine the title to the historic Bull family homestead in the Town of Hamptonburgh on the banks of the Wallkill river before Justice Morschauser at special term of Supreme Court in Newburgh Saturday, and resulted in a decision against the plaintiff, Mrs. Elizabeth Green, who claimed ownership under the will of her father, William Bull, notwithstanding the fact that the father, back in 1866, deeded the place in trust to the late Dr. Bartow Wright, formerly of Goshen. The title to the property goes back through the Bull family to the days of King George III. William Bull and his wife Phoebe conveyed the premises in trust to Dr. Wright, they to get the income, pay Bull's debts, and turn over the profits to Mrs. Bull, the property at the death of William Bull to be conveyed to his widow and children, or such of them as then survived, the same as if he died intestate. Bull continued to occupy the until his death, May 23, 1919, at age of 89 years, and then left a w which was admitted to probate, by which certain relatives were to receive legacies and the realty was to go to Mrs. Green. Dr. Wright had died in 1890, and two years ago Justice Morschauser appointed Charles W. U. Sneed substitute trustee. Mrs. Green thereupon brought suit individually and as executrix of the will of William Bull, naming as defendants Ebenezer Bull, Jr., Bartow W. Bull, Sarah Wells, Harry Bull, William Bull, Cox, Margaret Harlow and Bartow W. Wright. She alleged that the defendants unjustly claimed under the deed of July 23, 1866, as the trust had never really been in existence, and the purpose of giving the deed had been to ward off for a while the creditors of William Bull, who were pressing him sharply at the time. She said that Dr. Wright, although he lived more than 20 years after the deed was signed, never occupied the farm and that William Bull continued to reside there, as he hood, making imprthe taxes, etc. The defThe trustJustice-Relationships
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