Webster County, West Virginia Biography of DAVID WALTER NULL ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , March 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 87 DAVID WALTER NULL is a member of the firm Funk & Null, contractors in the drilling of oil and gas wells. Their headquarters are at Hundred in Wetzel County. During the eleven years this firm has been operating in West Virginia it is claimed for them that they never plugged a hole and never moved a rig until the well was drilled. Mr. Null, of this firm, has had a wide experi- ence in the oil fields of the East and West, covering all the years since early youth. He was born in Greene County, Pennsylvania, September 14, 1882. His father, David Null, still living at his home near Deep Valley in Greene County, was born in West- moreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1839, and as a young man went to Greene County, where he married and where during his active life he conducted an extensive farm and did much business as a carpenter. He is now retired and is a democrat in politics. David Null married Lizzie Wright, a native of Deep Valley, and she died at the old home there. She was the mother of the following children: Mary, wife of Lloyd Strope, president of the First Na- tional Bank of Cameron, West Virginia; James H., an oil and gas well contractor living at Garrison, Pennsylvania; Lucy, wife of Burns Lemley, a native of Ned, Pennsyl- vania; Rachel, wife of Joe Sellers, a farmer near Deep Valley; Eva, wife of James Murphy, a merchant, stock dealer and prominent business man at Littleton, West Vir- ginia; David Walter, the subject of this article; Miss Lotta and Miss Ada, still at home with their father. David Walter Null attended the rural schools of his native county in Pennsylvania, and his activities were identified with his father's farm until he was eighteen. Since then he has been in some phase of the oil industry. The first three years he was a tool dresser in the Deep Valley field. During 1905 he began drilling in the Bartles- ville field of Oklahoma, but in 1906 became identified with the drilling operations in the Wetzel County field near Hundred. In 1910 he formed his present association with Mr. Punk, and they have conducted an extensive business as reliable contractors for the drilling of oil and gas wells, and have a large capital employed in their tools and outfits and the operating expenses. His partner is Thomas H. Funk, and they own their office building on Wetzel Road. Mr. Null is also president of the Wetzel Natural Gas Company. He owns one of the best homes in this vicinity, located three-quarters of a mile west of Hundred, and has two other dwellings nearby. Mr. Null is a democrat, and during the World war responded with his means and in- fluence in behalf of every patriotic drive. January 17, 1906, at Bartlesville, Oklahoma, he mar- ried Cecile Virginia Riggs. Mrs. Null was born at Lewis- ton, Idaho, but represents an old West Virginia family and she graduated from the high school at St. Marys, this state, in 1905. Her father, Arthur Perry Biggs, was born near St. Marys in Pleasants County in 1841, was reared and married there, conducted a farm, and was a leading man in the democratic party of the county. He served as county commissioner and road supervisor. Twice he removed to the Far West, and he homesteaded a claim near Lewiston, Idaho, proving it up before he sold it. His daughter, Mrs. Null, was the first white child born in Nez Perce County, Idaho. Mr. Riggs is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. During the Civil war he was a Southern man in sympathies, was a member of the Home Militia, and he received a silver cup for pro- tecting Judge Jackson of Parkersburg from an attack by Northern men. Mr. Biggs married India Barker, who was born at Sylvan Mills in Pleasants County, December 9, 1851, and is now living at Holiday, Oklahoma. Mr. and Mrs. Null are the parents of six children: David Arthur, born November 8, 1906; Eugene Jennings, born March 2, 1908; Vaughn Aubrey, born May 12, 1911; Neill Nathan, born August 9, 1912; Orville Milton, born June 13, 1918; and Armond Walter, born June 4, 1920.