William Thomas Aull, chief deputy clerk of the County Court, Owensboro, son of James and Charlotte (McDaniel) Aull, was born in Daviess County, Kentucky, March 16, 1840.
His father was born in Nelson County, January 4, 1818, and received a part of his education in that county before removing to Daviess County in 1832, and completed his schooling in the last named county. He has devoted his life during more than a half century to the honorable business of farming in Daviess County, where he is now living in quiet retirement. He is a faithful member of the Catholic Church.
Benjamin Aull (grandfather) was a native of Frederick, Maryland, who came to Nelson County when he was a youth; married a Miss Redman, daughter of Richard Redman; was a farmer in comfortable circumstances; a member of the Catholic Church, and a highly respected citizen of his county. He died in Daviess County, aged eighty-three years. His father, Aquilla Aull (great-grandfather) was a Virginian of German descent.
Charlotte McDaniel Aull (mother) was born in Nelson County in 1818. Her parents removed to Daviess County with the Aull family, and they bought adjoining farms in the Knottsville precinct. She married James Aull May 6, 1839, and they lived happily together for fifty years. She died as she had lived, in the Catholic faith, in 1893, aged seventy-six years. Abraham McDaniel (grandfather) was a native farmer of Nelson County, whose ancestors were from Ireland. William Thomas Aull was educated in Daviess
County in the public schools; and on the 30th day of September, 1861, he enlisted in Dr. C. T. Noel’s company. First Regiment Kentucky Cavalry, which belonged to the famous Orphans’ Brigade. Dr. Noel, the captain of Company A, was killed in 1862, and W. J. Taylor, first lieutenant, took command of the company, with whom Mr. Aull served until the close of the war. He was in the battles of Murfreesboro, Perryville, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Round Top Mountain, Atlanta, and other engagements in which the army of Tennessee took part. In the battle of King’s Salt Works, Virginia, October 4, 1864, he was severely wounded, necessitating the amputation of his right leg. He was left in the hospital at Liberty, Tazewell County, Virginia, until February 19, 1865, when he was taken to Yorkville and a second amputation was performed. He remained there until he was able to travel, July 10, 1865, when he returned to his home in Daviess County.
He resumed his studies at Pleasant Valley Academy, which he attended for two years, and then taught school for four years.
In 1873 he was elected assessor of Daviess County for a term of four years; in 1878 he was elected constable for a term of two years; in 1880 he became proprietor of a hotel in Owensboro, which was burned January 24, 1882, and in the same year he was elected superintendent of city scales; in 1886 he was employed by Collector Hunter Wood, in the Internal Revenue Department, serving until the close of President Cleveland’s first administration, since which time he has been chief deputy clerk of the County Court, a position for which he has the highest qualifications and which he has filled with great satisfaction to his employer, the members of the bar and the general public. He is personally very popular, being of a genial disposition, courteous and obliging, and is highly respected for his honesty, candor and loyalty to his friends. He is a fair-minded and honorable politician, an active worker in the Democratic ranks, and enjoys the unbounded confidence of the entire community, regardless of politics. He is the secretary and a leading spirit in the Daviess County Confederate Association, a purely social organization, in which the embers of the camp-fire are kept burning for memory’s sake.
Mr. Aull was married August 29, 1869, to Mary E. Bruner, daughter of George W. and Isabella (Head) Bruner. They are members of the Christian Church, and are social favorites in the church and in Owensboro society.
They have four children living: James G., born November 19, 1871; Leroy, born December 13, 1873; Maude L., born June 26, 1876, wife of Charles Usher of Owensboro; W. Jessie, born October 28, 1882.
Source: Biographical Cyclopedia of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. John M. Gresham Company, Chicago, Philadelphia, 1896.