The Story of Hortie's Family

These 130-year-old letters were mostly addressed to George W. Tullis’s wife, Hortense Mary (Johnson) Tullis. Many different people wrote to Hortie, as she was called. After all, this was the time before telephones.

Most of the letters were from George, who used the abbreviation of Geo for his name. Geo and Hortie met in Danville, Illinois, after the Johnson family had been living in town for about seven years and Geo had recently returned home from the west. He began to court Hortie in 1872, and wrote her several letters during his return trip to Denver, where he was unsuccessful in finding work.

Geo was not very successful in Danville either so he moved the family to Girard, Kansas, to try his luck there. Five years after the move, Hortie took their two girls, Julia and Ora, back home to Bismarck for a summer-long visit. George wrote to his beloved wife every two weeks while she was away.

The family lived in Girard for 15 years before Hortie, perhaps too home sick after the death of her mother, moved back to Danville, where she was the happiest. However, Geo was not fond of Danville and after renting a house there for about two years he wanted to move. So he, along with Julia, convinced Hortie to move to Tuscola, Illinois, and take over the Cottage Hotel, a boarding house run by George’s mother. Reluctantly, Hortie sold everything, as they would not need much in this fully furnished house, and moved to Tuscola. This arrangement did not last six months before Hortie took the girls back to Danville. She left when Geo was in Missouri on business, in February of 1895.

Hortie had come from a wealthy and stable home and Geo’s consistent failures drove her to take control of family life. Geo struggled to make ends meet all his life, bouncing back and forth from farming to a stoves salesman, never making any money. Upon Hortie’s return to Danville, with the help of her inheritance, she was able to secure a home for her two daughters quickly. This home was at 212 Franklin Street in Danville. In April of 1901, the family moved down the street to 117 Franklin Street, where Hortie lived for the rest of her life.

It was a relief for Hortie’s sister-in-law, Mag, that Hortie and the girls were finally in a proper home for socializing. Mag pointed out the importance of proper social participation. Rented places were considered unsuitable for entertaining which was required to secure agreeable suitors for Julia and Ora. It was also considered improper to raise a family in such an unstable environment because families who rented usually moved around quite frequently.

This left Geo alone at his mother’s in Tuscola and it took him a long time to get over coming home to find that his wife and daughters had left him. They left so quickly that they did not pack very much. Geo had to send them the rest of their belongings. Half of Geo’s letters were written at this time. He was very hurt when Hortie left him and continued to refuse her invitations to come for visits. His response was that “she would find him where she left him”. This lasted until the middle of the summer when Geo finally started to make regular visits to Danville. He eventually moved in with his family in November of that year, 1895.

Hortie’s older sister, Ora, lived with her parents all her life and was very lonely when her sister moved to Kansas. Ora was very bored at home, yet she never moved away nor married. However, she did like to travel and would visit her mother’s family in Covington. She also made a trip to see Hortie in Girard in 1880. Ora spent the entire summer there, which frustrated her mother to no end, as she constantly asked Ora to come home. When Ora returned home, the letters from her began to flow back to Hortie. She would frequently write long letters, often running out of room and having to use the margins; writing at whatever angle would fit. Ora wanted to return so badly, but she never did.

Both Hortie’s parents wrote to her. First the letters were mostly from her mother, Amanda, but after her death, Hortie’s father, John Harvey, would write to his daughter and granddaughters. Hortie also heard from her three brothers, Richard, Edward and Barton. Dick and Ed eventually followed their sister to Girard and set up a dry goods store. It was successful for a few years before they closed it. Both became travelling salesman in Kansas and Illinois. Bart remained a farmer in Bismarck all his life.
When Julia moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, after her marriage to William H. Carter, she frequently wrote to her mother and family in Danville. She told of her new life in this cold place (it was always cold for Julia) with her new baby boy. She never spoke of her fight with Typhoid Fever. She would talk about Tullis’ new adventures in life and say that her husband was away a lot on business.

She also spoke of her new life style now that she was married to a successful businessman. Her new life included such things as fur coats and a lavish house with furniture to match. Their home on Wellington Crescent was spectacular with a very large front driveway. Julia also had a lot of help: a maid, Annie, and a cook, Sing Que, who was simply replaced by his son, Mah Que, one day in the 1940s. Mah was the creator of the famous family cookies “Que’s Cookies”. There was also a nanny for Tullis, named Sarah. William took Julia on several trips, including regular vacations to Florida. They were well acquainted with Will’s new business partners, the Aldingers and the Halls, and would frequently travel with both couples.

Of course there are many miscellaneous letters from cousins and friends, and several from Geo’s family. Many are addressed to Geo; there are even some left behind by other family members, such as Hortie’s sister Ora and one addressed to Hortie’s mother.