That OTHER SMULL Family, Part 1 (Madam Della)

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It's tricky, sorting through various families to make sure you're connecting things up properly. One of the problems I ran across early on was that several people had the early Westmoreland, Pennsylvania Andrew Smull connected to the Brothers Smull and it's really just not possible - the locations, dates, and data just don't line up for a direct connection. Still, the descendants of Andrew keep cropping up across the country as I sort through my Smull story so I decided to just chart them out a bit so I'd know when I ran across one who they were.

Of course, along the way, I ran into a very interesting multi-generational story of crime and punishment. So, while not from "my" Smulls - here's an aside from those "Other Smulls."

Andrew Smull was born about 1765. He married Barbara Weigel, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1768. They had at least seven children and lived in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Among them was Andrew Jackson Smull. AJ Smull was born 10 Apr 1803. He married Rebecca Ann Wray and they had at least nine children. AJ Smull went west to Columbiana County in Ohio, then on to Wilton in Muscatine County, Iowa, Among their children was Andrew Jackson Smull, Jr., born 1837 in Ohio. AJ Jr married Cynthia Francis about 1860.

AJ Jr. died in 1868 and Cynthia remarried to Alton Long. Long raised the Smull children, including Grant Smull, born about 1864. Grant also died young, prior to 1904. He and his wife, R. Mary O'Hare had four children before his death and her remarriage to WJ Hagener in 1904. Among those children were Russell Grant Smull, born 08 Jul 1890 in St Louis County, Missouri.

Russell married Della Gilbert, who had previously been married to a man named Kornfeld and had two children. The couple had at least three, possibly five children (it's murky), before their divorce. Russell returned to Missouri with son Don. Della remained in Decatur, Illinois, where she would gain an infamous reputation. Her sons Norman and Roy would reside in Decatur.

Della was a madam. She had operated a number of bawdy houses at various times in Decatur proper, two of them raided prior to 1939, but when morals squads were cracking down, she invested in the purchase of a large old mansion in the suburbs. She opened the Lone Birch Tourist Home, where gents could visit and enter and leave under the watchful eye of security. It didn't help on this occasion, though, in 1942, when the Macon County Sheriff's Department raided what was described as the fanciest bawdy house to ever open in Macon County.

Lone Birch Tourist Home

The history of the site of this whore house is as interesting as what happened there before the arrest. An African-American couple, Samuel Houston "Hue" and Laura Singleton, successful restaurateurs in Decatur, built a stunning home in the suburbs. Hue had started out working from a young age and eventually opened a barber shop in Decatur. In the 1880s, he started his restaurant with his wife and it flourished, making them some of the wealthiest people of any skin color in Decatur. His appeal and good reputation allowed him friendships across race lines. Singleton served eight years on the board of supervisors; something unheard of in a town of the size of Decatur. When he died in 1926, he left the beautiful house on West McKinley which would eventually become a bawdy house under Della Smull's rule.

Hue & Laura Singleton Cafe

In 1947, Della was again involved with illegal activity when it appears she was running yet another whore house and it was robbed. One of her "lodgers" was shot in the ensuing fray.

Carbondale Free Press

, December 4, 1947

Della did not live a long life. She died after a brief illness at the age of  60 on 01 Feb 1951, outliving her son Roy Gilbert Smull, who we'll cover in the next installment.