Thomas Henry Null Biography


	This biography appears on pages 322-325 in "History of Dakota Territory" 
	by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. IV (1915) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				THOMAS HENRY NULL.  

	Thomas Henry Null is a lawyer of Huron, where he has engaged in 
practice for more shall a quarter of a century. He was born in Warren 
county, Ohio, February 10, 1862. His father, Benjamin Null, was a son 
of Henry Null and a grandson of Charles Null, who with a brother came 
to America from Germany before the Revolutionary war, both settling in 
Virginia and participating in the struggle for independence. In 1796, 
following Wayne's treaty with the Indians, Charles Null made his way to 
the Miami valley of Ohio and was among the earliest of its permanent 
settlers taking up his abode about forty miles from Cincinnati. In 1800 
he returned to Virginia and removed his family to the new wilderness 
home. after which the Nulls were there represented through several 
generations. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Mary J. 
Stevens and was also a native of Ohio and a member of one of the 
earliest pioneer families. Both Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Null are now 
deceased.  

	Thomas Henry Null was the second in a family of three children. 
He attended school in Warren county, Ohio, and at the age of seventeen 
years began reading law, carefully mastering the principles of 
jurisprudence until he was qualified for the bar. In 1883 he was 
admitted to practice in Dakota territory soon after his arrival here in 
the same year. He settled first in Jerauld county, where he took up a 
claim, and in 1884 he entered law practice at Waterbury, while in 1886 
he located at Wessington Springs. He served as state's attorney there 
from 1886 until 1888 inclusive and proved a capable official in that 
position. In 1889 he removed to Huron and afterward joined John M. 
Davis under the firm name of Davis & Null. In 1910 he was joined by Mr. 
Royhl under the firm style of Null & Royhl, and that relation has since 
continued. From 1897 until 1901 he served as special counsel to the 
state railway commission in the celebrated freight rate cases. He has 
been connected with other important litigation and has proven his 
ability to successfully solve intricate and involved legal problems.  

	On the 25th of May, 1887, Mr. Null was united in marriage to Miss 
Innis Burton, a daughter of James and Caroline Burton, of Jefferson, 
Iowa, and they have two children, Gertrude and Fern. Mr. Null finds 
recreation in the study of geology, in which he has always been deeply 
interested. He is an enthusiastic hunter of big game and is an expert 
trap shot. Independent in politics, he leaves office seeking to others. 
However, he is well known in fraternal circles as a Mason, an Elk and 
an Eagle, and he holds membership in the German Reformed church. Mr. 
Null is a self-educated as well as self-made man, making his own way in 
life unaided from his eleventh year. In his youthful days he worked on 
farms, sold papers, blacked shoes, and also served an apprenticeship to 
the blacksmith's trade. While working in the blacksmith shop he boarded 
with students and teachers, and this it was that aroused his ambition 
for an education. Once he set his face in that direction, he never 
faltered, and steadily he has advanced step by step until be is now one 
of the leading lawyers and citizens, not only of Huron, but of the 
state.