Thomas H. Null Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1698-1700 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	THOMAS H. NULL, who is actively engaged in the practice of law in 
Huron, Beadle county, is a native of the Buckeye state, having been born 
in Warren county, Ohio, on the 10th of February, 1862, and being a son 
of Benjamin and Mary (Stevens) Null, both of whom were likewise born and 
reared in that state, where their respective parents were numbered among 
the early pioneers. Henry Null, the grandfather of the subject, was born 
in Rockingham county, Virginia, and the great-grandfather, Charles Null, 
was likewise born in that state. His father, Christopher Null, was born 
in Germany, whence he came to America prior to the war of the 
Revolution, taking up his abode in the Old Dominion. He came to the new 
world about 1750 and continued to reside in Virginia until 1796, when, 
after the Wayne treaty with the Indians, he removed with his family to a 
point about thirty miles north of the Ohio river, in what is now the 
state of Ohio, taking up land on a trail which had been established by 
"Mad Anthony" Wayne's army, in what is now Warren county, so that the 
Null family became represented among the earliest settlers within the 
confines of the present Buckeye state. Christopher Null died yeoman 
service in the cause of independence, having served as a colonel in the 
Continental line during the war of the Revolution and having previously 
been an active figure in various wars and conflicts with the Indians. In 
Warren county he and his sons took up large tracts of land and reclaimed 
farms in the midst of the primeval forests, while their products were 
shipped down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, on flatboats, to New 
Orleans. Christopher Null lived to attain a venerable age, and his death 
occurred in Warren county, as did also that of his son Charles, who 
there devoted the major portion of his life to agricultural pursuits, 
while in the early days he also owned and operated a distilery, the 
output of which was shipped to New Orleans. He also took part in the 
early Indian wars in Ohio and was of the advance guard of civilization 
in that great commonwealth. Henry Null, the grandfather was four years 
of age at the time of the family removal to the wilds of what was then 
the Northwest Territory, and he passed the remainder of his life on a 
portion of the ancestral homestead in Warren county. He passed to his 
reward in 1880, in the fullness of years and well-earned honors. His 
fourth son was Benjamin Null, the father of our subject. Benjamin was 
reared on the old homestead and received a common-school education. At 
the age of twenty-one years he was united in marriage to Miss Mary 
Stevens, who died a few years later, leaving three children, of whom 
Thomas H. was the second in order of birth. 

	Thomas H. Null secured his early educational training in the 
district schools. At the age of fifteen years he entered upon an 
apprenticeship to the trade of carriage making, and during the four 
years he was thus engaged he was a diligent student, passing all his 
leisure moments in close application to his studies and early showing a 
predilection for the law, so that he finally began the technical study 
of the same under an able preceptor, George W. Moyer, in Farmersville. 
At the age of eighteen the subject entered the office of the firm of 
Bolton & Shanck, prominent members of the bar, engaged in active 
practice at Dayton, Ohio, and under their effective direction carefully 
continued his study of the science of jurisprudence until he had 
attained his legal majority. Immediately afterward Mr. Null came to what 
is now the state of South Dakota, and in his profession and as a citizen 
he has thus literally "grown up with the country." He located in Jerauld 
county and was admitted to the bar of the territory at the first term of 
court held in Aurora county by Judge Edgerton, who was one of the 
prominent members of the early bar of the territory. In April, 1883, Mr. 
Null took up one hundred and sixty acres of government land in Jerauld 
county and opened a law office in Waterbury, that county, where he 
entered upon the active practice of his profession. In the fall of 1886 
he was elected state's attorney of the county, and in the following 
spring located in Wessington Springs, the county seat. He resigned his 
office and removed to Huron, Beadle county, in January, 1889, believing 
this a wider and more attractive field for professional labor, and here 
he has built up a large and representative practice. Mr. Null was 
candidate on the People's ticket for the office of attorney general of 
the state, but was defeated with the balance of the party ticket. While 
a resident of Jerauld county he was retained in the defense of B. L. 
Solomon, charged with murder. Solomon and the deceased were alone on the 
ranch of their employer and during a quarrel Solomon shot his companion, 
resulting in the death of the latter. The case came to trial before 
Judge Tripp, the district judge, and the jury disagreed, a change of 
venue being then taken to Sanborn county. The subject made an able 
defense for his client and Solomon was convicted of manslaughter only, 
and received a sentence of but two years in the penitentiary. Solomon 
was a son of a prominent lawyer in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the case 
attracted wide attention, while in this connection the service rendered 
by Nr. Null gained him a reputation throughout the state. In 1897 Mr. 
Null represented the railroad commissioners of the state in the 
litigation in the United States courts as to the rights invested in the 
railroad commission to fix the maximum rates for transportation of 
freight and passengers on the lines traversing South Dakota. The case 
was strenuously fought through the circuit courts of the United States 
and then carried to the federal supreme court, and after a period of 
four years of conflict a compromise was effected, just as the matter was 
to be taken into the United States supreme court a second time. The 
railway companies submitted to the jurisdiction and control of the state 
railroad commissioners, and while the expense of the litigation to the 
state had been more than forty thousand dollars the benefits received 
were twofold, in that the railways had incidentally placed a high 
valuation on their properties, thus enabling the assessment to be 
materially increased by the state assessors, while a reduction for 
passengers was secured from four to three cents a mile. As indicating 
the increase in the amount derived by the state from the tax placed in 
the roads it may be noted that the assessed valuation of the rolling 
stock on one system alone was raised from two hundred and fifty thousand 
to one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A reduction in 
freight rates of about ten per cent. was also secured. The subject was 
most conspicuously identified with this prolonged and important 
litigation. Fraternally he has attained the thirty-second degree in 
Scottish-rite Masonry, being identified with the consistory, at Yankton, 
South Dakota, while he is also affiliated with El Riad Temple of the 
Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Sioux Falls, 
and with Huron Lodge, No. 444, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, 
in his home city. 

	On the 25th of May, 1887, Mr. Null was united in marriage to Miss 
Innis Burton, of Jefferson, Iowa. She was born in Indiana and is a 
daughter of J. O. Burton. Mr. and Mrs. Null have three daughters, 
Gertrude, Veda and Fern.