Joseph L. Hull, member of the Muskogee bar since 1915 and now engaged in the practice of civil law as a partner in the firm of Gibson & Hull, was born in Athens, Georgia, May 6, 1885, and is a son of Augustus L. and Callie (Cobb) Hull. He is also a nephew of the Hon. Hoke Smith, at one time governor of Georgia and afterward United States senator.
Augustus L. Hull was born and reared in Georgia and for a number of years was secretary and treasurer of the State University at Athens, while his name is found on the title page of several historical works, including the “Campaigns in the Confederate Army” and a second volume called the “Annals of Athens.”
In the maternal line Joseph L. Hull also comes of distinguished ancestry. He is a great-grandson of Judge Joseph Henry Lurnpkin, who was the first chief justice of the supreme court of Georgia and in whose honor one of the counties of the state was named. The grandfather in the maternal line was Thomas R. R. Cobb, the author of the codification of the laws of Georgia and one of the authors of the constitution of the Confederate States of “America. He was prominent in the affairs of the Confederate government throughout the Civil war period and was numbered among the most distinguished representatives of the Georgia bar. Other names connected with Mr. Hull through the maternal line figured prominently on the pages of professional and military history. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Augustus L. Hull were four sons and three daughters Marion, a physician and surgeon of Atlanta, Georgia; Harry, a real estate dealer of Athens, Georgia; Augustus L., formerly a reporter of the United States district court for the western district of Oklahoma at Guthrie; Joseph L., of this review; Mrs. William H. Pope of New Mexico, whose husband was judge of the United States district court there; and Mrs. Philip Weltner and Callie Hull, both residents of Atlanta.
Joseph L. Hull spent three and a half years as a student in the State University of Georgia, pursuing law studies during one year of that period. In 1905 he was admitted to the bar of his native state and engaged in general practice at Athens until 1910, when he became a resident of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and assisted Clinton O. Bunn in annotating the statutes of the state. In April, 1912, he was appointed special assistant attorney general of Oklahoma, under Charles West, and on the 1st of July, following, he was made a regular assistant in the attorney general’s office. On the 13th of October, 1914, he was licensed to practice before the United States supreme court.
In 1915 Mr. Hull removed to Muskogee, where he has since engaged in practice, being now junior partner in the firm, of Gibson & Hull, their attention being concentrated upon civil law cases.
On the 23d of October, 1912, in Oklahoma City, Mr. Hull was married to Miss Lucille Kilpatrick, a daughter of James Kilpatrick, who was controller of the United States sub-treasury in New Orleans under President Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs. Hull have two children: Alyce Lucille and Joseph Lumpkin.
Mr. Hull belongs to the Delta Theta Pi, a law fraternity, also to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, of which he became a member while a student in the University of Georgia. He has always stood as a stalwart champion of democratic principles and his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Presbyterian Church, South.