The Newtown bee., 1892-04-22
STEPNEY.
CAPT HANFORD HULL.

who died on Sunday, April 10. Capt
 Hull was born in Weston, January 27,
 1906, his parents being Moses and Sarah Hull. When but small boy, his father
 was stricken suddenly with the sinking typhus, a disease which was at that time epidemic and lived but two or three days. Shortly after, the widow and her family of little ones moved to Gregory's Orchard, to a place which formerly stood just below the Andrew Peck place, a part of the old chimney and cellar still remaining. Here he lived, working on the farm and helping to support the family until he became P or g years old. when he started to learn the trade of carpenter and joiner. After serving his time. he soon became contractor, working at one time in partnership with Burr Curtis of Bridgeport. While to- gether, they built all of the stations which were then needed on the New
 York, New Haven and Hartford rail- road from Bridgeport to New York. He and Capt Johnson, another associate in business, built the Baptist church at Stepney. Among the many other build ings which he contracted for and built are the following: The old Unitarian church, the Universalist, South Congre- gational and First Baptist churches, Dr Hewitt's church, which was burned, the Wheeler building, Sturdevant build ing, Franklin block, Wheeler & Wilson's factory, the hat and the silk factories, Stevenson's, Bishops and Eli Thomp- sons houses, the present depot, all in Bridgeport; William H. Barnum's large barns in Lime Rock; Henry B. Glover's house in Newtown; Pahquioque bank building in Danbury Seeley's block in Stamford; the Methodist church in Long Hill and many other buildings.
 The latter part of his active life, he devoted himself almost exclusively to framing, which part of the trade he seemed thoroughly to enjoy. He was, in his day, considered as one of the ablest and most efficient in his line of work in this part of the State and was called upon several times to do intricate jobs and to straighten out what others had entangled. One of the most noted of the latter was a Roman Catholic church in Bridgeport The contractors being unable to see what was necessary to do, the priest came up and engaged him to go down and help them out. The house he lived in was built by him in 1889, at a time when houses were more substantially built, when Stepney was more thinly settled and when there were rail fences along our village streets, long since given way to the picket fences of the present. While building, he resided in little house which stood where Rev Mir Osborne now lives. He received the title of captain in the old general training days, when he was cap tain of the militia, which used to train on our green. He was married on No vember 24, 1881 to Lois Rowland, who died on May 27, 1881 and four children were the issue of the marriage :. Mariet- ta, who married John Warner of Gray's Plain, Newtown, Moses, Orville H. and Sarah Maranda. He was the oldest member of the Baptist church, having been member since it's organization. He cast his first presidential vote for William Wirt, who ran in 1928 when Andrew Jackson was first elected and was. at times, a member of the board of assessors and board of relief and occa- sionally served as juror in our courts. His funeral was held at the Baptist church on Wednesday, Rev Mir Johnson having charge of the service and George B. Hawley of Hawley, Wilmot and Rey- holds of the funeral. The bearers were the immediate relatives, Moses and Or vile H. Hull, John Warner and Ebert O. Hull. So, one by one, the old land- marks are being taken from us. Thus the world is ever changing. The aged are fast joining the silent majority and all that serves to weld together the past and the present is being rapidly broken. HI.
 Capt Hull was man of mark and will be long remembered as one of the most distinguished men of his day, for, as builder, learning his trade of Thom- as Dimond of Easton, he made himself master of the business and success at tended his labor. A thorough, skillful workman, no heavy or difficult structure was ever avoided, rather preferring to have the oversight and laying out of large, huge buildings, the parts of which were complex and most intricate, de- manding much study and close work. He wanted his work to be in perfect agreement with the plumb line, upon a true. level foundation and every tenon must it it's mortise to an exactness.