McKean County Democrat. In 1915, Mr. Hull bought the Wright House, one of Smethport's leading hotels which he conducted successfully up to the time of his death, although the details of active management of the big hotel have been capably performed by a son, John Hull, since his father's first attack of illness in 1920.  During the seven years Mr. Hull resided in Smethport, he took a leading part in civic developments and his advise and judgment from long years of experience were recognized generally by Smethport citizens.

Joseph S. Hull was born in Addison, N.Y. October 28, 1849.  At the age of four his parents, Samuel and Margaret (Bunn) Hull moved to Ulysses, Potter Co. Pa., where they conducted a mercantile business until the close of the Civil War, moving from there to the headwaters of the East Fork of the Sinnemanhoning named for them and became the hunter and fishermen's ideal place of recreation in the very heart of the virgin forest of Potter Co.

Mr. Hull later on became the land agent for various lumber firms in that vicinity, notably, Payne, Cochran and McCormick of William sport, who later sold their holdings of 1400 acres to the Goodyear Lumber Co. of Buffalo,, selling at the later date to the Dieffenbacher Stave and Heading Co. of Galeton.  He and his family then moved to Coudersport where they resided until 1910.

When the lumbering town of Norwich, up the Potato Creek Valley from Smethport opened in the spring of 1910, Mr. Hull and family moved to the new town where he and others engaged in the wholesale and retail business, operating the largest mercantile establishment in McKean county, which was destroyed by fire in 1914.

He was a member of the first class of the Coudersport Consistory, also an active member of other Masonic bodies and of Imalia Temple, Norbles of Mystic Shrine of Buffalo.

Mr. Hull was united in marriage to Anna Logue in 1874, who died leaving two children, Charles and Harry.  On June 15, 1884, he married Melissa Brooks and to this union five sons were born:  John and Norman at home; Loren, deceased; and Robert and Lewis at home.  Harry Hull is in business at Norwich and Charles Hull is head of the Smethport Construction Co., now located at Union City, Pa.  Loren Hull was killed when an automobile he was driving was stuck by a Shawmut Railroad passenger train at the East Street crossing in the borough (Smethport) September 17, 1915.

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