California Biographies Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time. Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905 Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176 STEPHEN E. TULLY. To a splendid record as a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war S. E. Tully has added years of practical experience along agricultural lines in Mer- ced and other counties in California, and has succeeded by his earnest, upright and capable na- ture. Mr. Tully's political sympathies are at variance with those of his immediate ancestors, for the south claimed the ambitions of both his father and grandfather. Samuel Tully was born in old Virginia, and Martha (Vestal) Tully in the Shenandoah valley in the same state. The par- ents were married in Virginia, and became very early pioneers of Pickaway county, Ohio, then but sparsely settled. The father lived to be fifty-four, and the mother seventy years old. They reared a family of eight children, two of whom are living. Notwithstanding the southern sym- pathies of the father, the children espoused the northern cause, and two of the sons served in the same regiment, Company C, Seventeenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry; of these, John, the young- er, died in Nashville, Tenn., during the war. S. E. Tully was born on the paternal farm on the Scioto river, four miles north of Circleville, Pickaway county, Ohio, September 1, 1837. and in early years attended the public schools and the Circleville Academy. At the age of twenty-one he removed to Iowa, and later to Minnesota, spending two years in farming in those two frontier states. Returning to Ohio in 1859, he en- gaged in farming in Fayette county, and while feeding stock in the afternoon of April 19, 1861, was informed of the firing on Fort Sumter. That evening, after completing his chores, he drove eight miles to Midway, volunteered in Company C, and was mustered in at Camp Anderson for three months. Sent to West Virginia under General MacClellan, he participated in the bat- tle of Rich Mountain, and was later detailed as scout, a precarious service which brought him much adventure and many hairbreadth escapes. One night on the Little Kanawha, three companies were surrounded by fifteen hundred reb- els, but succeeded in holding the enemy at bay for three days and nights, finally being relieved by reinforcements. Mustered out at Danville, at the expiration of his term, Mr. Tully re- enlisted in 1862, in Company F, Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, becoming a part of the Army of the Cumberland, and delegated to cover Nelson's retreat. During his second service Mr. Tul- ly was in the thick of the fight in many of the battles during the remainder of the war, includ- ing Chickamauga, Dalton, Resaca, Dallas, Kennesaw Mountain, Snake Creek Gap, Peachtree, Lovejoy Station, Jonesboro, Chancellorsville, and Cold Harbor. His experiences were thrilling in the extreme, especially toward the latter part of the war, for at the battle of Stone River he had thirty-two bullet holes in his blanket, and at other engagements he had his hair shot off and his clothes perforated with bullets. Being transferred to the command of General Thomas, he took part in the battles of Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville, and at the close of the war was honorably discharged at Cincinnati, Ohio, June 14, 1865. The satisfaction and peace attending the life of the agriculturist was thoroughly appreciated by this brave soldier on returning to Pickaway county, and after farming a year he removed to Shelby county, Ill., remaining there until settling on a farm near Danville, the same state, in 1868. In 1875 he came to Turlock. Cal.. and the following year, in January, began to farm in Tu- lare county, still later purchasing land in Yolo county. In 1886 he located on land in the west- ern part of Merced county, homesteading one hundred and sixty acres seven and a half miles southeast of Los Banos, just outside of the canal. Since then he has engaged in grain raising, and at times has had a thousand acres under grain. Ten acres under irrigation are placed to alfalfa, and it is the intention of Mr. Tully to install an engine and pumps, for irrigating the balance of his farm. He has the best of modern improvements, and his place has the air of being man- aged by one who thoroughly understands the scientific and practical side of farming. Mr. Tully is a member of the William A. Seward Post No. 65, G. A. R., of Woodland, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Politically he votes the same way that he shot during the war, and ever since has been a stanch defender of the Republican party. In Pickaway county, Ohio, in 1866, he was united in marriage with Mary Pennington, a native of. Ohio, and daughter of John Pennington, a farmer of Pickaway county. Six children have been reared in the Tully home, the order of their birth being as follows : Alice, living on the home place ; John, a farmer near Modesto; George, a farmer in the San Joaquin valley ; Elmer, a business man of Stockton ; Lester, a farmer of Merced enmity; and Ernest, his father's assistant on the farm. None of the pioneers of Merced county can claim greater honor or consideration at the hands of their fellowmen than Mr. Tully, for his life is conceded to be not only a brave and honorable one, but one into which much success has been crowded, and which has been of incal- culable benefit to other strugglers on the highway of existence.