Thomas Jefferson Smull Family: Dr. T. J. Smull, Jr.

HENRY SMULL > THOMAS JEFFERSON SMULL > THOMAS JEFFERSON SMULL, JR, PhD m Cora Anita Kemp

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T J Smull is third from right, back row
ONU Football

Henry Smull was one of the Brothers Smull from Centre County, Pennsylvania. His son Thomas Jefferson Smull taught school and then decided he had a passion for the "mercantile life" and opened a general store in Mackeyville, Pennsylvania, a few miles from Mill Haven and Lock Port. He and his wife Harriet Transue had two children who survived to adulthood. Their son James Leroy "Roy" took over the family store and son Thomas Jefferson, Jr. went on to other things.

Thomas Jefferson Smull, Jr., was born 22 Sep 1875 in Mackeyville, Clinton County. He attended Central State Normal School in 1897 and 1898 in Lock Haven, playing on the baseball teams. In 1900 he entered Susquehanna University in Selingsgrove and also played baseball there. In winter of 1901, he entered Ohio Normal University which would later become Ohio Northern University. He was a standout in both baseball and football. In a football game against the famous Fielding Yost "Point a Minute" teams of the University of Michigan, Yost convinced Smull to come to Michigan on scholarship to play. Smull played five games of the U of Michigan's 11 games in 1904, but finished the season at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He had found that the academic schedule at Michigan just wasn't working for him and while he loved athletics, he wanted to get his education completed. In 1905, he returned to Ohio Northern as the Dean of the College of Engineering.

Dr. Thomas J. Smull, Jr.

Smull was instrumental in developing athletics teams at the University. He was fully in charge of all athletics from 1905-1908 until he asked that an Athletics Board be organized. He chaired that board for several years and was then named Honorary President and Advisor and served in that position until 1922. A good bit of what Smull did was to keep the play "amateur" by ending subscriptions by businessmen and ensuring that players were matriculated students. He helped in getting the school into the Ohio Athletic Conference in 1916.

He ably served as Dean of the College of Engineering and was fiercely devoted to the University. He and his engineering students were the driving force behind the change of the university name from Ohio Normal to Ohio Northern, to ensure that the engineering degrees didn't seem diluted by being issued by a mere Normal School. That change happened in 1903.

According to "Who's Who in America," was dean of Ohio Northern University's College of Engineering from 1905-17, executive secretary of the university from 1917-29, and business manager from 1929-42. He was also faculty manager of athletics. Additionally, Dr. Smull was a member of the Board of Examiners of the State Civil Service Commission from 1914-16, an appraisal engineer with the State Utilities Commission in 1915, and the senior member of Smull and Unger architects from 1912-30.

He was chairman and chief examiner for the Board of Registration of the Ohio Professional Engineers and Surveyors, a member of the Ohio Society of University Business Officers (president in 1941), the Ohio Athletic Conference (president in 1943), the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers (president in 1918), the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.

In light of his many contributions the T J Smull College of Engineering was named in his honor.

After his retirement from the University in 1942, Dr. Smull was employed as materials engineer for the Ohio Department of Highways. He was also city engineer at Ada from 1906-23.

Miriam Smull Parkhill

He married Cora Anita Kemp 28 Mar 1894. She was born 29 Dec 1879 in Ada. Her father owned Kemp's Drug Store in Ada. Mrs. Smull died 12 May 1946 in Ada. Dr. Smull died 15 Feb 1962 in hospital in Lima, Ohio.

The couple had two children:

Miriam May Smull was born 08 Jul 1913 in Hardin, Ohio. She married Edwin Parkhill on 04 Oct 1935 in Ada, but they divorced. She headed the catalog department of Ohio Northern University's library. She resided in the home of her parents after their deaths. She had a bachelor's from ONU and a master's in English from OSU and a master's in library science from the University of Michigan. She worked in several Ohio communities prior to returning to Ada. She worked at ONU from 1959-1978 and then held the title Associate Professor Emeritus. She had a boy and a girl with Parkhill. She died 25 Mar 2001 in Columbus, Ohio.

TLK Smull &
Ruth Rhyne Smull

Thomas Leland Kemp Smull was born 04 Aug 1916 in Hardin. He first married Roberta Spidel of Chevy Chase, Maryland 22 Apr 1944 in Washington DC. They had one daughter and divorced. He then married Ruth Rhyn Hoover Kiertzner in 1964. Tom died 31 May 1999 in Alexandria, Virginia. You can read about Thomas and his career with the precursor to NASA and then NASA and his second wife, here.

Henry Smull Family: Thomas Jefferson Smull

HENRY SMULL m Elizabeth Royer (1) > THOMAS JEFFERSON SMULL

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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.

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.