James A. Paull, present county treasurer of Ellsworth County, had long been identified with business, industrial and civic affairs in this section of Kansas.
Mr. Paull had a very interesting ancestry. The family originated in Alsace Lorraine, immigrated to England, and from that county Richard Paull established the name in America. Richard Paull was born in 1615 and at the age of twenty, in June, 1635, embarked on the “True Love de London” for the Bermudas. He soon settled in Massachusetts and on November 7, 1638, married Margery Turner, of Cohasset, now Taunton, Massachusetts. There are several public records concerning this Massachusetts colonist. He was subject to military duty in 1643, was member of a jury on inquest in 1650 and again in 1653, and was surveyor of highways in 1652. His death occurred before March, 1654, when about thirty-nine years of age.
James A. Paull’s grandfather was Richard Paull, a native of New York State and of the sixth generation from the original Paulls settling in Ameriea. He died in Kane County, Illinois, before his grandson was born. He married Clarinda Gooding. She had an ancestor, William Gooding, who served in the Revolutionary war, She was descended from Governor Edward and Susanna Winslow, who came over in the Mayflower and their marriage, celebrated May 12, 1621, was the first marriage ceremony in New England.
Clinton E. Paull, of the seventh generation of the family in America and father of James A., was born near Akron, Ohio, in September, 1829. He grew up there, and when a young man accompanied his parents to Aurora, Kane County, Illinois, was married there, next removed to Keokuk County, Iowa, and in 1876 to Ellsworth County, Kansas, where he was a pioneer. He homesteaded 160 acres northwest of Ellsworth in Columbia Township, lived on it and developed a farm until 1892, subsequently sold and bought other land in the vicinity of Ellsworth and at the time of his death owned 160 acres three miles northeast of the city. This estate was subsequently sold. He died at Ellsworth February 25, 1902. He was independent in politics. Clinton E. Paull married Sarah L. Clark, who was born at Burlington, Vermont, June 13, 1830, and died at Ellsworth, Kansas, October 1, 1901. In their family of eleven children were three pairs of twins. Leon, the first born, died at the age of three years. Catherine married Albert Whaley, an Ellsworth County farmer, and both are now deceased. Richard is a farm owner and land dealer and lives at Ness City, Kansas. His twin brother died in infancy. Lucy died at the age of twenty-one. Byron C. is a farmer seven miles south of Ellsworth. Gueva is an osteopathie physician at San Diego, California. His twin brother was named Gustave, and he died in infancy. The ninth in age among the children is James A. Paull. Victor E. is a farmer 2 1/2 miles east of Ellsworth. Vinton E., a twin brother of Victor, is a successful farmer sixteen miles north and east of Ellsworth, his farm being partly in Lineoln and partly in Ellsworth County.
James A. Paull was born in Keokuk County, Iowa, August 9, 1865, and was eleven years of age when his parents came to Kansas. He finished his education in the rural schools of Ellsworth County and lived on his father’s farm until 1883. For a year he clerked in a store at Ellsworth, went west and studied music one year at San Jose, California, and on returning to Kansas taught musie and did a real estate business, which he had followed more or less ever since. Mr. Paull had his residence a mile east of the City of Ellsworth. From 1910 to March, 1916, he lived at Salina, Kansas, where he was proprietor of the National Hotel. Since February, 1916, he had become importantly identified with oil development in this section of Kansas. He had taken up a solid block of leases of 35,000 acres around Ellsworth. Contracts have been made with the Carter Oil Company of Oklahoma and the J. E. Whiteside Company of Muskogee for drilling, and at this writing two wells are being sunk, with every prospect of opening up these leases into a large and abundant oil field.
For many years Mr. Paull had had much to do with public affairs. In 1897 he was chief clerk in Secretary of State W. E. Bush’s office at Topeka during Governor Leady’s administration. He also did considerable work for the State Board of Pharmacy from 1900 to 1910. In his home county he was elected and served two terms, four years, as county clerk, and in the fall of 1916 was elected county treasurer, his term beginning October 1, 1917. In politics Mr. Paull is a democrat.
He is past master of Ellsworth Lodge No. 146, Anciènt Free and Accepted Masons, and belongs to Salina Consistory No. 3 of the Scottish Rite and for nine years was worthy patron of Ellsworth Chapter No. 144, Order of Eastern Star. He is a member of Isis Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Salina.
In 1893, at Holyrood, Kansas, Mr. Paull married Miss Mertie Smith, daughter of N. C. and Susan (Tebb) Smith. Her father was a farmer and her mother is still living a resident of San Diego, California. Mrs. Paull died in 1895. On September 3, 1904, at Ellsworth, Mr. Paull married Miss Merne E. Coleman. She was born at Indiana, Pennsylvania, December 29, 1884, and is the mother of one daughter, Chloris Merne, born November 10, 1907.
Mrs. Paull is a highly cultured woman and had had considerable practical business experience. Her father, Albert A. Coleman, was born in Pennsylvania in 1850, was reared and married there, became a druggist, and in 1891 came to Kansas. For a number of years he suffered ill health to the point of invalidism and died at Denver, Colorado, in 1910. He was a member of the English Lutheran Church. Albert A. Coleman married Margaret Frances Lucas. Her ancestry is connected with the Mahaffey family, and some of them came to this country in the Mayflower. Mrs. Paull’s mother was born in Ohio in 1856 and died at Joplin, Missouri, in 1914. She was a woman of splendid moral character, of gentle and beautiful disposition, and her children have always paid her a splendid tribute of respect and gratitude. Mr. and Mrs. Coleman were the parents of six children: Wilbert L. is agent for the Missouri & Iron Mountain Railway at Guyon, Arkansas. Edna married Charles Schultheis, a grocery merchant at Council Grove, Kansas; Cordelia C. is the wife of W. W. Watson, a merchant at Winfield, Kansas; the fourth of the family is Mrs. Paull; John E. is chief clerk for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway in the commercial office of the road at Joplin, Missouri; and Theodore is city passenger agent for the same road at Joplin.
Mrs. Paull was educated in public schools in the different localities where her parents resided, and finished the junior year in the high school at Council Grove; Kansas. Before her marriage she was bookkeeper one year in the Bank of Blackwell, Oklahoma, and another year in the Mountain Park Bank. She is an active member of the Presbyterian church and is affiliated with Ellsworth Chapter No. 144, Order of Eastern Star.