Biography - ABRAHAM C. HULSE

The Civil war passed into history as one of the most important struggles mankind has known and the men who participated for the Union will ever be regarded with reverence and honor by lovers of liberty. One of the anomalies of the war was the division of families occasioned by difference of opinion as to the cause and object of the great conflict, brothers being in many instances arrayed against brothers and father against sons. Captain Abraham C. Hulse belonged to a family of this kind, his father and brothers fighting for the south, while he donned the uniform of the blue and upheld the stars and stripes. Each was thoroughly conscientious at the time and performed his duty as he saw it. The crucible of years has shown that Captain Hulse was right.

He was born in Washington county, East Tennessee, September 23, 1835, a son of William K. and Hannah (Cox) Hulse, both of whom were natives of Tennessee. They were the parents of eleven children, one of whom died in infancy, the others being: Sarah, who married Jessie Baines and is now deceased; John W., who was a Confederate soldier and is also deceased; Dr. William A., who is deceased; Caroline, who became the wife of James Wheelock and is deceased; Abraham C.; Thomas, who was also a Confederate soldier and is now deceased; Polly, the wife of Franklin Hulse, of Jonesboro, Tennessee; Elizabeth, who married Joseph F. Galloway, of Palmyra, Illinois; Louisa, now Mrs. William J. Solomon, also of Palmyra; and Elvira, the wife of Nelson Chase, of Palmyra.

The father of our subject was reared in Tennessee and learned the carpenter and joiner’s trade, becoming a flatboat builder and also a pilot on the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers. At the time of the Civil war he was colonel of a Confederate regiment. He was captured at Black River Bridge and imprisoned at Sandusky, Ohio, dying in prison when he was about sixty years of age. His wife died shortly after the close of the war, being then about fifty-five years of age. They were both members of the Methodist church. Mr. Hulse served as colonel of the State Militia of Tennessee previous to the war. The paternal grandfather of our subject was William Hulse, who was of Scotch-Irish and Dutch descent. He lived in Sullivan county, East Tennessee, and was a millwright by trade. He built a mill on his own account and owned a considerable body of land in Sullivan county. He was married to a Miss Keen and lost his property at the time of the Civil war. His father was Wilhelm Hultz (as the name was originally spelled), who came from Holland and died in Tennessee. The grandfather on the maternal side was John Cox. He was of Irish descent and his wife was a Miss Job, who traced her ancestry to France. They both died in Tennessee.

Abraham C. Hulse was reared on his father’s farm close to the line of Washington and Sullivan counties, Tennessee, until eighteen years of age and received only limited advantages of education. In 1853 he came to Illinois and took up his residence at Old Cummington, now Palmyra, in Macoupin county, working at the trades of blacksmith and wagon making until twenty-seven years of age. He then enlisted in Company E, One Hundred and twenty-second Illinois Volunteers, under General John I. Rinaker, record of whom appears elsewhere in this work, and served in this regiment until the close of the war, participating in many hard-fought battles and rigorous campaigns. He entered the army as second lieutenant and was promoted to captain on the battlefield at Parker s Cross Roads, Tennessee, for gallant and meritorious conduct. After receiving his honorable discharge he returned to Macoupin county and engaged in blacksmithing at Palmyra until 1882. He was then elected sheriff of the county and served to the general satisfaction of the people for four years. After retiring from office he turned his attention to breeding standard-bred horses and followed this occupation successfully for a number of years. On the 1st of April, 1911, he was elected city marshal of Carlinville, an office which he now fills.

In October, 1855, Captain Hulse was married to Miss Martha Ross, a daughter of Robert and Mary (Hunt) Ross, and to this union five children were born. Rosella married Charles Davis and resides at Salem, Oregon. Catharine is the wife of Elijah Etter, an attorney of Waverly, Illinois, and the mother of one son, Robert. William R. is an abstractor and is engaged in the real-estate business at Carlinville. Robert S„ a farmer of Oklahoma, married Alice Tappin and they have two children, Harry and Lee. Charles Abraham, the youngest of the children of Captain and Mrs. Hulse, died in infancy. Captain Hulse’s present wife was Mrs. Dora Baldwin, widow of Thomas J. Baldwin and the mother of five children by her first marriage, namely: Orville, deceased; Roy; Roscoe, who married Lucy Mant, and is the father of three children, Daniel, R. C. and Lee; Maude, who married Isaac Van Zandt, of Fort Worth, Texas, by whom she has three children; and Lottie, who married Elmer Barrows, of Girard, Illinois, and has one son, Orville Edwin.

Captain Hulse and his wife are both members of the Christian church, of which he is a steward. Politically he gives his support to the democratic party and fraternally he holds membership in Mount Nebo Lodge, No. 76, A. F. & A. M.; Macoupin Chapter, No. 187, R. A. M.; and is also a member of Dan Messick Post, G. A. R. The esteem in which he is held by his army comrades was shown by his election for two terms as commander of the post. Captain Hulse is greatly interested in the community in which he lives and has often demonstrated this interest by personal service in behalf of those less fortunate than himself. A true soldier when the life of the republic was imperiled, he is a patriotic, capable and progressive citizen, and it would be difficult to name a man in Macoupin county who stands higher in the respect of the people than the one whose name introduces this sketch.

Extracted 15 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Macoupin County, Illinois: Biographical and Pictorial, by Charles A. Walker, published in 1911, Volume 2, pages 504-508.