Hull, Moses (1836-1906)

Moses Hull, a prominent American Spiritualist lecturer and teacher, was born in Waldo, Ohio, in 1836. As a teenager, he joined the Church of the United Brethren, a Methodist body serving primarily German-Americans. He seemed destined to be a Brethren minister, but along the way became interested in Adventism, and joined the newly formed Seventh-day Adventist Church (organized in 1865). In his interaction with an Adventist minister over doubts about life after death, he was led to Spiritualism, and there he found his home. For the last quarter of a century of his life he was a dedicated Spiritualist.

Though not a medium himself, Hull became a forceful orator in the Spiritualist cause and is remembered for two debates he held with orthodox Christian ministers, the lectures being published as the Jamieson-Hull Debate and the Hull-Covert Debate. Hull also authored The Encyclopedia of Biblical Spiritualism (2 vols., 1895). He emerged as an advocate of a Christian Spiritualism, as opposed to many of the movement's leaders who eschewed any connection with Western religious traditions. He used his prior training among the Brethren and Adventists to teach the Bible from a Spiritualist perspective and argued that many events in the Bible, such as the appearance of the long-dead Moses and Elijah with Jesus at the Transfiguration, should be interpreted in a Spiritualist context.

During the 1890s, following the organization of the National Spiritualist Association (now the National Spiritualist Association of Churches ), Hull became increasingly aware of the passing of the first generation of Spiritualist leaders and the need for a school at which all that had been learned could be passed on. He organized a "Training School" at Maple dell Park, Mantua, Ohio. He enlisted the help of his wife, Mattie Hull, and his daughter, Alfaretta Jahnke, to assist him. He operated the school for several years, but it eventually failed. Then in 1901 Morris Pratt, who had built a large mansion in Whitewater, Wisconsin, that he wished to be used as an educational facility for Spiritualism, passed away. Hull moved to Whitewater in 1903 and opened the Morris Pratt Institute which he headed for the several years remaining in his life. He died in January of 1906. The institute survived his passing and is now the educational arm of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches.

Sources:

Hull, Moses. The Encyclopedia of Biblical Spiritualism. 2 vols. Chicago: M. Hull, 1895.