He was an able counselor and his skill in the handling of intricate legal problems, together with his fine personal qualities, brought him to the fore and at the time of his death in 1870, at the age of forty-three years, he was considered one of the prominent citizens of Des Moines. He held membership in the Masonic fraternity. After her husband's death Mrs. Hull became the wife of the Hon. W. K. Wood, then a member of the state legislature, with whom she lived until she too passed away.
At the time of his father's death James E. Hull was only a child and was reared to manhood by his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Abraham Boys, which was her name by her second marriage. He was educated in the public schools of Des Moines, graduating from the high school with the class of 1882, being sixteen years of age and having the distinction of being the youngest student, at that time, ever to have graduated from that school. He decided that the printer's trade had more attractions for him than any other and after serving the usual apprenticeship he followed that vocation for twelve years, during which time he worked in almost every state in the Union. Being temperate in his habits he was able to save sufficient out of his salary to enable him, after working for a few weeks or months, to go elsewhere, and while such a method is not advisable if one wishes to accumulate wealth, he has found that the knowledge thus gleaned is such as cannot be obtained in any educational institution, while the experience has proven of inestimable value. He worked for almost a year at one time on the Nevada democratic paper, The Watchman, which has since gone out of existence. While in Livingstone, Montana, he formed a partnership with a banker by the name of Stebbins, who later became a state senator, in the conduct of a local paper. Mr. Stebbins, not wishing his name to be in any way connected with the venture, was always a silent partner, Mr. Hull having the entire charge and management and being supposedly the owner of the paper. He placed the business on a solid foundation and was making money when he developed lead poison and was forced to give up the trade entirely.
Returning to Iowa Mr. Hull located in Story county where he engaged in farming as a renter, and after two years he began the breeding of Poland China hogs, which venture proving most lucrative he bought one hundred and twenty acres of land on section 21, Indian Creek township, where he continues to reside. He had been breeding registered hogs for five years when he moved. to his present location but it was not until the following year that he began raising thoroughbred registered shorthorn cattle. He has been most successful in both of these lines and has achieved quite a reputation as a stockman in this section of the state as he has been exhibiting at the various county fairs for years and has taken more first premiums than any other one exhibitor.
Mr. Hull was united in marriage in 1893 to Miss Mary M. Boster, a daughter of Stephen T. and Sarah (Ingraham) Boster, of Nevada, who came to Story county from Wapello county, Iowa, in 1878. They are both