SMULL: Samuel Gramley's Diaires...High Cost of War

While on my trip to Brush Valley in 2024, I had a few moments to look through the diaries of Samuel Gramley. I have written about him here. Samuel Gramley married Sarah Jane Smull (daughter of Henry Smull, in 1849. They lived in Centre County, Pennsylvania. This is the second post of entries.

March 3, 1865. Many of our neighbors were drafted - 27 of whom must either go or furnish substitutes. There are some drafted for whom I feel sad. Some of my near friends. Harrison Smull, Henry Smull, S. G. Mengle and others for whom I feel sad. All the Shoemakers are drafted.

(Not sure about either Harrison or Henry, but Harrison has no record of service, so he must have found a substitute. Henry Jr. served in the 175th Infantry in 1862 - so did he get drafted after that service?  If you would like to know about Smull service for the Stephenson County, Illinois group, go here.)

March 4, 1865. This was nationally a great and memorable day, as Abraham Lincoln took his seat the second time as President of the United States; and my humble prayer to Almight God this evening is that God's choicest blessings may be upon him  as the Chief Magistrate of our Nation; and that his being President may yet be a blessing not only to our United States, but also to the world; that the long prayed for day of peace may speedily dawn; and that war and the rumors of war may cease O though God have mercy on us.

(A little over a month later, President Lincoln would be assasinated by John Wilkes Booth.)

March 10, 1865. I and several of my neighbors, moved George Deavler into my Tenant house today with sleds, but almost as much through mud as through snow. I am much pained to be compelled to enter in my Journal the death of my nephew, Charles A. Wolf, of Co. A, 18th PV. He was captured by the Rebels some time ago, with others, and was literally starved in their prison. May Almight God reward them for starving so many of our soldiers.

(Charles was the son of Samuel's sister Catherine and Henry Wolf.)

October 29, 1880. My sould feels much grieved from the fact of my irrepairable loss of my dear wife Sarah Jane. It seems to me at times that it could not be a reality that she is no more to be seen in the family. When I watch my two girls Naomi Jane and Adah E go about the house after the work, and their dear mother's voice is no more heard in giving counsel and advice, it almost breaks my heart. O! When thinking of the kind voice speaking and encouraging, not only the children, but also, me, language entirely fails to express my feelings.

(Sarah Jane died in May of 1880.) 

November 4, 1880. Mrs. Polly Walker (Sarah's sister) and Barbara Hoy were here today, assisting me and my little girls to cook apple butter, and also to kill or butcher a little hog. We were quite busy all day, and I feel very much tired. Last evening, I wrote my fourth letter to my Dear friend, Mrs. C.A.O. in Snyder County, and this morning I took it to the PO and then got a letter, and after I came home and opened it, I was not a little surprised and also full of Joy to find it a kind reply from her to my third letter. I felt thankful to God to know that there is still a friend to be found for me, and one, too, God willing, who will come to my assistance in due time, to help to bear my burden, and I hers. May God bless her and me, and help us successfully carry out our purposes.

(This is just adorable. He has started a postal romance with Catherine Spangler Ocker, who was widowed shortly before Sarah Jane died.)

December 30, 1882. Last Monday my dear wife Kate and I were at Millheim with my brother Reuben and his wife at a Lutheran Dinner given for the benefit of their New Lutheran Church which they are building. On Thursday I was out at Henry Wolf's to be present with Road Viewers and now have a severe cold from which I am suffering--severe hoarse.

(There were many sweet entries about his dear wife, Kate. However, she had seven children from her first marriage and visited them frequently.)

My last two entries just remind me of any man or woman in a blended family with teens!

January 6, 1883. My dear wife Kate all at once took a notion to take the train to see her daughter Mary A. a visit at Mifflinburg, and so she did today and will spend this evening and God willing I will meet her next Wednesday evening at Mifflinburg and accompany her back Thursday. I will leave home Tuesday morning for Middleburg, Snyder Co. and come to Mifflinburg as said.

January 17, 1883. We have excellent sleighing, and snowing now most of Saturday a week ago my wife Kate left home for Mifflinburg. On Tuesday following I went to Middlebur in search of the residence of Michael Hetzel, who has become a Township charge, and found that he has his last residence in Washington Township by having paid co. tax twice in succession--1875 and 1876. After having made said search I came to my friend Christian Spangler the same day at Centerville at whose place I staid over night, and the following morning I came to Mifflinburg, where I spend that day with my wife at her daughter's place, and on Thursday we came home about noon. On last Friday, Jan 12, Clement H. and Naomi J. (his children) left home on a visit in Clinton County to their uncle, T. J. Smull at Mackeyville, and also their Royer friends, with the understanding to come back on Monday. This command they both violated, and Clement H. alone came home yesterday. By the influence of the Royer friends Naomi J. staid, which was a violent temptation and disappointment to me, and the disobedience in her I am compelled to reproof severely. I have all the respects necessary for my friends, but they must however in this case be taught that I am the head in my family. I have immediately send her a Postal to be home by Friday or Saturday, if not that I would fetch her on Monday to her sorrow. This disobedience I do not blame as the heart only by the head pursuaded.

SMULL: Samuel Gramley's Diaries

While on my trip to Brush Valley in 2024, I had a few moments to look through the diaries of Samuel Gramley. I have written about him here. Samuel Gramley married Sarah Jane Smull (daughter of Henry Smull, in 1849. They lived in Centre County, Pennsylvania. I want to share a few entries:

December 24, 1856. Christmas evening. Weather severely cold for about 8 or 10 days already and no abatement yet. The cold has been so severe that no drop of water is now running in our town--all must be hauled from H. Royer's. And, Bear's or John Gramlys. Today Rev. Alleman had communion here and his discourse was based on Psalm 37:37. This too was his last sermon that he may do for us this side of the grave, as he has received a call some time ago from Hanover York County, Pennsylvania, wor which place he will leave this place next Monday. May the Lord's blessing attend him and his family withersoever he goes is my ardent prayer to God. The Lord has severely afflicted us in calling our most worthy Pastor Rev. Alleman to another field of labor. May the Lord soon send us another true, and really pious servant of his, is my wish and prayer to our God, who is willing, as well as ble, to here and answer the prayers of his children. Amen.

(Many entries were prayers or references to God.)

January 31, 1857. It is a long time since I wrote in my journal last and this was I think partly because during this time I met with so many trials and temptations from Satan, my own wicked heart, and from neighbors who are my deadliest enemies, round my back, but to my face seem yet as friends, and facts show are seeking my ruin, in any way they and the Devil think to succeed that I often know why, what to do, nor where I was standing. May God help me!

(There were a few entries that gave me the impression that he had fits of despair that may not have been warranted in the general scheme of things. I wonder who was backstabbing him!)

April 18, 1860. This has been a very fine day and the farmers in every direction were busy ploughing--sowing oats, etc. They are far back with their work on account of too much rain to do anything. Hardly any gardening has as yet been done before today for the same reason. I and Cephas Luther (his son) are alone at home tonight, as Sara Jane and Titus Melancthon have remained in town at Harrison Smull's. Nancy, his wife, is not expected to live long any more. She is very low. She has dreadfully to suffer--n one can hardly stand to see her suffer so. May the Lord have mercy on her, and grant that, should he see proper to remove her from this world, she may be prepared to leave this world in peace, has long been my prayer. Our friends William Walker's youngest child also is very low--hardly any expectations can be entertained of her reocvery. Last night I was there, and Sara Jane till half past one o'clock. Their daughter Jest Ann is in a most pitiable condition, on account of her spells of fits, whic she gets so very frequently. I have in my heart already felt for her, as she used to be on of my most obedient scholars--would learn well--and be active at everything.

(William Walker was married to Samuel's wife Sarah's sister, Mary Magdalena "Pollie." Their daughter Jest Ann was born in 1845 and survived until 1890, but was classified as insane - it sounds like she was epileptic, which was a sure way to be classified as insane back in that era.)

April 21, 1860. I have today been digging some in the garden. I owe also a great debt of gratitude to Gofr for his tender care toward me and my family. We are all enjoying good health and strength of body and mind. Sarah Jane has gone to town this evening to spend the night with our friends the Harrison Smulls; as she is yet very low--may not be able to live long anymore. Yet for all we know, she can by the help of God, again recover, as nothing is impossible with God; but to human appearance she may very properly be said to stand; as it were, with one foot in the grave. But she, as well as we, in the hands of him who is able to speak a word and it must come to pass. When he says, "come for thou son of man" we are; and when he says "die," we are no more--as a vapor before the sun, or that the grass is cut down. 

(Nancy McGee Smull, wife of Harrison Smull, died on 05 May 1860 at the age of 29. Harrison remarried to Matilda Hackman, "spinster" sister of Rev. H. E. Hackman, of St Clair, Pa. Matilda cared for her nephew Horace Hackman, son of Rev H. E. Hackman who had lost his wife and remarried and had several very small children in 1870. Unfortunately, Harrison himself would die in Sept 1871.)

January 5, 1861. Since my last entry into my journal we had fine winter weather--cold--excellent sleighing, and about 3 inches of snow. Had large attendance in school. One day more will finish my 2nd mo. I and family had taken a sleigh ride this afternoon to our friend's Henry Smull's. Found them all well. On my home road I received a letter from my friend T. J. Smull, who is teaching in Clinton Co, Pa.

(T. J. Smull is Thomas Jefferson Smull, brother of Sarah Smull Gramley. He would stay in Clinton County, Mackeyville, in particular, where he would spend 50 years as the postmaster there. When he retired, his son Roy took over.)

I'll publish a few more on the next blog.

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

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

Click to enlarge

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

Click image to enlarge

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.

To Infinity And Beyond! Chuck Yeager Wasn't the Only One with The Right Stuff

UNK SMULL > Henry SMULL (my 3rd GG's brother) > Thomas Jefferson SMULL > Dr. Thomas Jefferson SMULL,Jr  > Thomas Leland Kemp SMULL married (2) Ruth RHYNE

Herbert H Hoover. Test Pilot

Ruth Rhyne was born to Richard and Edith Rhyne. She was born on 17 Nov 1921 and raised in
Stanley, Gaston County, North Carolina. She met a young man by the name of Herbert Henry Hoover from Tennessee whose father was visiting his sisters and family in Stanley. His father ended up marrying her aunt.  By the time she was a junior in college, Herbert had set his sights on marrying Ruth. Herb was working for Standard Oil as a pilot in South America. He left Standard to go to work as a test pilot for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the precursor of NASA. They married after her graduation in 1942 and moved near Langley, Virginia, where aircraft testing was done on the East Coast.

Though NACA was founded in 1915 to spur aeronautical research, the efforts at the time Hoover started working there were put towards World War II and then, after the war, to supersonic flight. The facility at Langley eventually led to the opening of Muroc, an adjunct facility in California (later Edwards AFB).

Herb thrived at Langley and tested hundreds of aircraft. He was the first person to test drive the X-1-2. Chuck Yeager had previously tested the X-1-1 (with a different wing weight) at Muroc. Yeager finally flew at Mach 1.06 and shortly thereafter, Herb became the first civilian and second person to break the speed of sound while flying in the X-1-2.

Bell X-1-2, Champine & Hoover

All this while, his wife had two young children and Ruth focused on the home. On one sad day, the chaplain from the base arrived to tell her that Herb had died flying a B-45 that broke apart mid-air. Declassified documents reveal his body most likely hit the broken plane on his way down. His parachute never deployed. His co-pilot survived with minor injuries. Ruth's oral history, including her thoughts on Chuck Yeager, are here.

A good friend insisted Ruth get out and find a husband and introduced her to Kurt, an Air Force pilot. After two years of marriage, he too died before his time - of a brain aneurysm. Her friend once again stepped up to insist she find a husband and introduced her to her boss, TLK Smull, an engineer and administrative manager at NACA. Recently divorced with a daughter, he married Ruth about 1964. Ruth recalled their meeting:

Then the same gal that introduced Kurt and me, my second husband, said, "You've got to come to Washington [D.C.] and meet Tom, my boss." She worked for Tom Smull, who was in the Office of Grants and Research. He was at Langley for about four years and then sent to Washington. I said, "I'm not ready to go out." They called me one morning—I was working in a church office at that time—and Lee's husband called and said, "Come on up and attend the Christmas party that my group is having." I said, "I'm not ready to go out." I said, "I'll call you tonight when I get back."

So I called him that night and I said, "I'm not ready to go out." He said, "Well, you get off your high horse and get up here," he said, "just consider it an evening out." Well, I made reservations on a flight to fly to Washington, and I got up that morning and there was snow on the ground, and I thought, "Oh, good, I don't have to do." I called the airport, "Yeah, planes are flying."

So I go, and I meet Tom. We just considered it an evening out, that's all it was, but he knew Herbert. They had worked together and they were friends. A couple weeks later, I got a letter from him, and his handwriting was terrible. I couldn't decipher what it was for my life. It took me about two days to read it. Finally, he says, "I'm coming to Langley for a meeting. Would you go have dinner with me?" So I did. He had a sailboat up near Annapolis [Maryland] with West River Sailing Club, and he’d invite me up to go sailing with him, and it just kind of developed. We had so many mutual friends, he knew the Reeders and the Bales, and it was just all ones that Herbert and I knew. So he asked me to marry him, so I did. We were married 35 and a half years.

~ NASA Headquarters NACA Oral History Project; Edited Oral History Transcript; Ruth Hoover Smull; Interviewed by Sandra Johnson; Virginia Beach, Virginia – 1 May 2008

Thomas L K Smull was born in Ada, Ohio in 1916 to Dr. T J Smull, Jr. and Cora Anita Kemp. He attended Ohio Northern University in 1937 and two B.A. degrees from the University of Michigan

Thomas LK Smull

in 1939, one in mechanical engineering and a second in aeronautical engineering. In 1949 he was awarded a Sc.D. in aeronautical engineering from Ohio Northern University.

He went to the Washington DC area where he started working for NACA - the precursor of NASA - in 1939. He started his career as a research engineer, but quickly moved up, putting to use his natural talents as an administrator and manager. He held positions from assistant to the director of NACA; chief, Research Coordination Division, NACA; director, Office of Grants and Research Contracts, NASA; special assistant to the administrator, NASA; program manager in the Office of Advanced Research and Technology, NASA; to special assistant to the director of Research, NASA. He authored articles on aeronautical and space issues and served on administrative and technical committees. He retired in 1974. Their boat and golf filled much of their retirement time.

Ruth, I believe, is still living and would be 94 now. Tom died after a long illness in 1999 and was buried in his hometown in Ada, Ohio. He left a daughter, an artist in California, her son, and two stepchildren.