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Henry Smull was one of the four brothers Smull of Centre County, Pennsylvania. He was married twice. His second wife was Catherine Kreamer. They had five children after their marriage. His first wife was Elizabeth Royer, whom he married 11 Dec 1834. They had seven children. Elizabeth died on 26 May 1834 of complications of the birth of her seventh child, Thomas Jefferson Smull, the subject of this article. Thomas had been born 24 May 1834.
When he was a few days old he was sent to his grandfather Christopher Royer to be raised. He
attended public school. At age 15, after the death of his grandfather, he lived with his cousin Samuel Royer in Nittany Valley. It was during this time, he learned to speak English. Rebersburg was a German community. He continued his education while there and after he completed that, he taught for eleven terms in various schools in the area.
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| I have a feeling this is the location of the second Smull store in Mackeyville |
In 1857 he went for a brief few months to Valley Falls, Kansas and in 1859 he went to Illinois for a year, where he taught one year in Stephenson County. Many Smull relatives lived in Stephenson county during this time. On the way back to Pennsylvania, he stopped in Ohio and Philadelphia, where discovered a "desire to enter mercantile life." He took a clerk job in Lamar Township in Clinton County near Porter Township.
The Civil War interrupted his life in mercantile and he served briefly as a private in the 28th Pennsylvania Volunteers and was honorably discharged.
In 1866, he formed a mercantile partnership of Beck, Smull & Co. in Hamburg (which became Mackeyville) for a year. That business did not succeed. Smull had started another venture the same year with F E Hays, which continued to 1870 when Smull bought Hays out. Being successful, Smull built a new store house to handle the volume of business in 1874.
Thomas Jefferson "Jeff" Smull married Harriet Transue on 01 Feb 1873 in Hublersburg, Pennsylvania, daughter of Peter Transue, a prominent farmer and his wife Elizabeth Best.
In 1889, his store was destroyed by a flood, costing $6,000 in complete loss. Interestingly, the safe was found two years later below Mackeyville. Though he had no debt, this left him nearly penniless.
Smull's reputation for good character allowed him to meet up with a Mr McDowell, who allowed Smull to buy a piece of property on the opposite end of town from his previous location and had good enough credit to rebuild.
Their final years were spent in Clinton County. Jeff died 10 May 1926 in Porter and Harriet died 24 Dec 1916.
They had four children; one died as an infant and another at 18 months. The two surviving children were:
Dr. Thomas Jefferson Smull, Jr., was born 22 Sep 1875 in Mackeyville. He married Cora Anita Kemp, daughter of David and Laura Kemp on 28 Mar 1894. She was born 28 Dec 1879. They also had two children: Miriam May and Thomas LK Smull. Dr. Smull died 15 Feb 1962 in Lima, Allen County, Ohio. Cora died 12 May 1946 in Ada, Hardin County, Ohio. I'll be writing more about Dr. Smull.
James Leroy "Roy" Smull, was born 07 Jun 1879 in Mackeyville. He married Hope Bower, born in 1882 in Pennsylvania. Roy clerked in his dad's store and later ran the Smull General Store and post office previously owned by his father. In 1933, he was named as a state Fish Board Commissioner. In 1946, Roy sold the store to Fred Kyle, who abruptly changed his plans and sold the store to Mr & Mrs Richard Edler. Smull was still acting as postmaster. Once the Edlers took possession in August of that year, the Smulls moved to live with their daughter in Schenectady. They had one child, Harriet A. Smull. Roy died 21 Dec 1963 in Williamsport, Lycoming, Pennsylvania and Harriet died 03 Apr 1952 in Schenectady, New York.
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