Chiefly letters and personal papers of William Clare Bull and Hessie Travis Bull written during the first half of the 20th century. William Clare Bull served in the US Navy and the South Carolina National Guard for a brief period in 1915-1917. Due to his father's terminal illness, the Navy released him to care for his family. Bull later joined the South Carolina National Guard, Company L, 2nd Regiment, but received an honorable discharge by reason of physical disability, 10 April 1917. In civilian life, Bull worked as a salesman for the Kingan and Company, a wholesale meat distributor and his territory included the S.C. Counties of Spartanburg, Union and Laurens. In the course of business travel or during Hessie Bull's visits with relatives in North Carolina, Clare Bull wrote frequently to his wife re his activities, finances, purchase of gifts, and how he missed his family. In a letter written on stationery of the Hotel Clinton (Clinton, S.C.) dated 18 Dec. 1924, he stated,"Well Honey had my first puncture on the road this afternoon in eight months got out & fixed it & didn't 'cuss' was quite an improvement don't you think..." Ca. 1938-1939, the Bull family moved from Spartanburg to Columbia, S.C. Bull continued his employment with Kingan, while Hessie Bull worked as a telephone switchboard operator at Fort Jackson and downtown at the Belk Department Store, where she also worked as a personal shopper. Papers dating to the 1940s and 1950s document the family's purchase of a house and furniture, expenses for a daughter's wedding and the funeral of William Clare Bull in 1953 and other activities. Photographs include images of William Clare Bull, Hessie Travis Bull, Eusebia Bachman Bolles Bull, Mary Dotha Bull, William Connor Bull, and other family members. This collection also includes an 1876 "Friendship Album," i.e. a scrapbook with autographs and Victorian illustrations and ephemera, and a family history published in 1865, "The Genealogy of the Bolles Family in America."
