The Stull Family of Ohio

[Seth Isaacson]

I was looking into the identities of the Stull family gunmakers in Ohio and was wondering if anyone had any good information on who the actual gunmakers were. I've seen Samuel Stull (1808-1907) generally identified as one of the gunmakers. George Stull has been presumed to have been his brother in the past, but I believe he was the father.  The identities of some of the Stull family members are confusing given multiple George and Samuel Stulls that were related and all living in Ohio in the 19th century and connect back to Michael Stull (1767-1842) of Northumberland, Pennsylvania, and later Harrison, Ohio. His son George Stull (1792-1882) is listed in genealogical records as the father of Samuel Stull (1808-1907). Michael Stull also had multiple other younger son, including Samuel Stull (1817-1900) and John Stull (1793-1874), and one of John Stull's sons was George Washington Stull (1833-1894). Adding to the potential confusion is George Stull (1792-1844) buried in Miller Township, Knox County, Ohio, who is listed as the son of John Stull (1752-1823) who served in the Washington County PA militia during the Revolution. Census records generally list all of these men as farmers, the primary trade of many rifle makers in the period.

[Habu]

There was a Stull daybook being shown around at the CGCA show in Greeley maybe 5-6 years ago.  I'll ask around to see if any of my contacts know the current whereabouts.  Not sure which of the family it was.  (I only recall because I kept hearing about the "Skull daybook" and finally asked someone what they were talking about.)

[Habu]

Found the current owner; the daybook is in the possession of a collateral descendant.  It was acquired unexpectedly when the current owner acquired an S. Stull-signed rifle from another family member.  The book belonged to one of the Georges--the one from Knox County, (father? older brother?) of gunmaker Samuel Stull of Millwood.  (Current owner was unaware of the closeness of ages and didn't know what the relationship was, said he will try to ask around at family gatherings to see if anyone has records, family bible, etc.) 

Dates run from 1822-early 1823.  From the notations, it sounds like George was a typical small farmer, possibly also a small-scale stockman.  During this period the sales of 5 guns are noted; 3 identified as rifles, 2 as "guns".   Some repairs were noted ("steeling", "to stock a gun"), as were more than a dozen sales of "horns".  This caught my attention because of the price range of $.40-$.55 cents per.  This is consistent with the cost of finished "common" powder horns purchased from the maker in other roughly-contemporaneous records I've seen.

[Seth Isaacson]

Thanks for sharing. I'd be interested in confirming which George and Samuel Stull were the gunmakres. From that, it sounds like it would be George Stull (1792-1882) and then his son Samuel Stull (1808-1907).

[Habu]

Samuel Stull (1808-1907) was definitely a gunmaker, and from the daybook it sounds like the associated George probably also made or did some trading in guns. 

Some years ago I did some research on Samuel for a friend who has a flintlock rifle signed in script "S. Stull~Knox Co. Ohio".  During that project I was focused on Samuel.  From the information gathered then, Samuel was making guns almost to the end of his life.  There were several newspaper articles about him over the years; the earliest I saw as from the late 1870s.  I heard various stories about his relationship with George--that George was Samuel's father, that George was his older brother/uncle/cousin--so I'm not sure what the relationship was.  From what I can find of my notes, it looked like George (1792-1844) and Samuel (1808-1907) had different parents.