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A Lot of Bull

People like to say that the story of Clintonville starts with the story of Thomas Bull Jr., who came to this area in 1812 with his family from Vermont, by way of Worthington. Bull purchased about 680 acres in Clinton Township, and bequeathed land to his children when he died in 1823. Bull and his family were Methodists and abolitionists. The family graves were moved in March 1910 to Union Cemetery, section “new”, lot 176, across from the flagpole. (Despite the section name, this is in the old area of Union Cemetery on the east side of Olentangy River Road.)

This is the Thomas Bull residence which stood on the east side of High Street between Dunedin and Piedmont. Some of the information about the house is conflicting, but Nancy Pendleton states that Alonson Bull helped to build the house around 1821 and lived there until the mid-1860s. The local Methodist congregation held services in this house until Thomas Bull’s death in 1823. Elias Pegg purchased it, along with its farm, in 1862 and raised his children there. The house was torn down in August 1931. This photo is from the Sunday edition of Cols Dispatch March 5, 1950.

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4 Responses to “A Lot of Bull”

  1. Kathie Smith Brzoska Says:

    I saw Thomas and Sylvia’s gravestone above while visiting Columbus a couple of years ago (they are my 4great-grandparents). Does anyone know where the other gravestones from the Old ME Church were moved. I couldn’t find them. (inc John and Olive Smith, Pyrum and Polly Hunt)

  2. Joel Miller Says:

    I have a picture of my Pegg ancestors in front of that house.

  3. Mary Rodgers Says:

    As the stories go, the Hunt graves were not removed from the Clinton Chapel Cemetery. The headstones were buried in the ravine by a local funeral director. I am sure they are now lost to time.

  4. J. Michael Finn Says:

    While researching another topic, I found that Chloe Fidelia Bull (1833-1895), daughter of Alonson Bull and Hanna Leonard Bull was married to a man named Ensey (haven’t found anything on him, as yet). They had a daughter named Grace Ensey born in 1860. Chloe Fidelia Ensey was proprietor along with Isaac Speer of the Ensey House, which was a hotel/boarding house located on the top three floors of the Chittenden Block on the Northwest corner of Spring and High Streets in Columbus. She opened the Ensey House in 1875 and managed it until about 1879 when she left Columbus for Denver, Colorado to manage a mining boarding house there. She died in 1895 and is buried in Denver. Her daughter Grace died in Denver in 1935.

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