Lloyd, Lavetta, Max, and Donna about 1980
I can’t let the day go by without mentioning my dad who, if still alive, would be 100 years old today. He (Lloyd Kull) always listed his birth year as 1916 but I know from numerous sources (census records, my birth certificate, conversation with my cousin Henrik) that he was born in 1913. Either way, we lost him too soon in 1984 on Easter eve. It was very much unexpected as he led an active life style, was in good shape, and (we thought) good health.
I was recently going through some boxes of photos in my basement and found a booklet entitled “Pioneer Profiles” (F. Johnson, Ed.). This was put out by the Madison Crossroads Homemakers Club in conjunction with the “Alabama Reunion 1989″. In their words: “It is hoped that this booklet will cause an awareness and appreciation of the rich heritage afforded by this community.” It is a collection of histories and stories from the area one of which was submitted by my mother. The following is excerpted from that story.
The Homemakers thank Mrs. Lavetta Kull for the following insight (both historical and humorous) into the family/heirs of Max Julius Kull.
Max Julius Kull (known in America as Julius Max Kull) of Lenzburg, Switzerland arrived in America aboard the ship “Weimar” (a steam assisted sailing vessel) in 1892. [NOTE: My information is that he actually arrived earlier around 1888 with his mother and brother. There is a record of an 1893 arrival for Julius and his brother Fred but this was their return trip from Switzerland after going back to settle affairs after their father’s death in 1892.]
Kull farmhouse
He settled in Chicago where he worked for Pullman Company. I have heard him tell the story about a land agent from Madison County, Alabama coming to Chicago to get settlers to come to Northwest Madison County. He and his friend Michael Ghidotti, an Italian, came to Madison County in the early part of 1895. He said when they arrived in Madison County and saw all the sage grass they thought this must be very fertile land. He laughed when he told this for he said he learned this was not true. He and his friend homesteaded adjoining farms on Stateline Road. The farm Julius acquired (158.5 acres) had been entered by someone else who failed to prove his claim. Julius bought the improvements and took up permanent residence on June 28, 1895.
From the “small world” file: Last September, I went to my 45th year high school reunion in Huntsville. It was great to reconnect with old friends and to find out that I wasn’t the only one cruelly betrayed by my mirror. One of the folks I ran into was Bill Newman. He was not actually part of our graduating class, but he did go to school with most of us from grade school on until he moved to another district. Anyway, besides being an old classmate, he was also the great-grandson of Miss Addie, third and last wife to Fred Kull. I’ve since been corresponding with him to find a little bit more about “Miss Addie”.
Continue reading »
It took longer and was more complicated than I anticipated so I feel a little battered and bruised like this sign but I hope I have everything working well enough to re-enable logins and registrations. I still have some of the old pictures that need to be relinked but on the good side there are a lot of new ones here.
You will notice that the URL has changed from www.kull.ws to www.kull.us. I was not intending to do that but I had to at least temporarily for technical reasons that will bore everyone but the tech-geeks. It may eventually change back but for now, if you accidentally type in the old one, it should still route you here. Most people will need to re-register for full access. I did keep the accounts set up for anyone who had been a recent visitor. If you are one of those, you should have already received a note from me.
As mentioned in my last post, the main genealogy software has been through four major revisions since I last actively worked on the site. There are a lot of new features that will hopefully make your visits more interesting. A few of note: Continue reading »
Wow! I can’t believe it’s been this long since I’ve put anything on here. We moved from Texas to North Carolina in 2007 and it took us quite some time to get settled. While I wasn’t doing any updates, quite a few less than nice folks were getting on to the site and using the privilege to generate spam. I ended up closing off registrations to stop that. I can tell by the site logs that at least some of you registered users have continued to sign-in and visit. I’ve also continued to receive periodic contributions in the way of pictures and other information. Even though it hasn’t made it on to the site, I still have that stuff saved away and I do plan to include it here….soon.
The main software I use to organize and display the family history has been through four major revisions since 2007 so while there are a lot of very nice new features, upgrading after that much time is taking a lot longer than I expected when I started. I’ve made some good progress but still have a fair number of things to get worked out. Because of the past problems with troublesome visitors, I’m spending a lot of time to try to minimize those kind of issues this time around. I’ll attempt to keep active all registered users who have visited over the last few years. Because the passwords are encrypted and the way they are stored has changed, you will have to reset your password the first time you log in after the new site goes live. If you are new or have not visited in a long time, you will have go through the new registration process. I’m hoping to have the new site ready turn on within a couple of weeks. Stay tuned….
P.S. – Besides the changes to the software that I use, my web host has changed some of their server software. Because of that, some of the features on the current site no longer work correctly. For example, the search function in the family tree section is now case-sensitive. If you search for elsie kull you will come up empty. You must search for Elsie Kull instead. The site upgrade should take care of all this stuff.