Transcribed from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Chicago : Lewis, 1918. 5 v. (lvi, 2731 p., [228] leaves of plates) : ill., maps (some fold.), ports. ; 27 cm.

Fannie Wilson

MRS. FANNIE WILSON. Many persons from birth to death are creatures of circumstances, and only by chance affect or impress their environment or render any benefit greater than they receive. Others accept the life granted them as an opportunity for work and service and many are made better by what they are able to accomplish. It is of the latter type that Mrs. Fannie Wilson, of El Dorado, is a representative. She gave many long years to the work of teaching, and has also made herself an effective instrument in business affairs at El Dorado, where she owns property accumulated chiefly through her own wisdom and management.

Mrs. Wilson's maiden name was Fannie Hull. She was born at North Elba in Essex County, New York, December 22, 1853. Her father, Jabez Hull, was born in New Hampshire in 1809, a son of Eli Hull. Eli Hull, who was born in Killingsworth, Connecticut, March 20, 1764, was a boy soldier of the Revolution. When only about twelve years of age he became a personal attendant to General Washington, and at the age of seventeen, in 1781, was enrolled as a regular in the ranks of the patriot armies and gave three years to the winning of independence, serving in Capt. Stevens Patten's Company of Col. Heman Swifts Second Regiment Connecticut, Continental line. He and three of his sons were at the Battle of Plattsburg in September, 1814. Through this ancestry Mrs. Wilson is eligible to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. Eli Hull married Sally Beckwith in 1790. She was born in March 1770, and died at Keene in March, 1862. Eli Hull died in Keene, Essex County, New York, April 3, 1828. He was one of the pioneers in that section of New York State. Jabez Hull, Mrs. Wilson's father, was born in New Hampshire, was reared and married in Essex County, New York, became a farmer, and afterwards moved out to Illinois, where he lived for many years. He died at La Prairie, Illinois, in 1871. He was a republican in politics and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He married Miss Harriet Bullard, who was born at East Topsham, Vermont, May 1, 1821. She died June 2, 1917, at Potwin. She was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable women in El Dorado, where her home was for thirty-seven years. Her friends were legion and her death was mourned by many. She possessed a markably keen, active mind and was loved by all with whom she came in contact. She was ninety-six at the time of her death and throughout her life was a most active woman. She was a member of the Methodist church until she reached the age of seventy-four, when she became a Christian Scientist. Mr. and Mrs. Jabez Hull were the parents of five children, Mrs. Wilson being the youngest. Eli, the oldest, entered business and died in Chicago, Illinois. Cornelia resides at Potwin, Kansas, the widow of Silas Hull, a farmer in Butler County, now deceased Arletta is the wife of Henry Gladfelter of El Dorado, Kansas.

Mrs. Wilson was educated in the public schools of La Prairie, Illinois, and she came to Kansas in 1874, being a pioneer settler in Plum Grove Township in Butler County. While living in Illinois she had taught school for five years, and after coming to Kansas she put in twenty-one years as a teacher in the country schools of Butler County. During 1875-76 she took higher courses in the State Normal School at Emporia. While teaching she also managed to accumulate some property and finally gave up her work in the schoolroom and resumed the active management of her farm in Plum Grove Township. Her homestead there comprises eighty acres of land, and she also has a 160 acres in New Mexico. Mrs. Wilson has a great deal of courage, and in 1906 she went out to New Mexico, then a territory, homesteaded a claim, and in 1907 settled upon it and lived there until she proved up. She also owns her city residence at 912 West Seventh Street in El Dorado. Recently Mrs. Wilson has disposed of some real estate in El Dorado. She sold this property consequent upon the rise in prices following the oil discoveries in Butler County. Mrs. Wilson is a former member of the Kansas State Grange.

A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, copyright 1918; transcribed 1997.