Joseph Gully 1882 age 24 years

Pioneer, Dakota Territory
Joseph was the fifth child of his parents Joseph and Crescentia Gully. His ancestry was Alsatian and German. His father was bilingual, fluent in French and German and his mother, from Wurttemberg, spoke German.
About twenty months prior to his birth, his family had moved from Wilmington, Delaware to Mineral Point in SW Wisconsin. During 1857, they moved nine miles from town to farm land in central Fayette Township, Lafayette County. Joe may have been born in a cave in a hillside under a slate of rock located on this farm. The crude dugout left by lead miners was used by his family until a home could be built.
When Joe was 3.5 years old his father died following a brief illness. After his mother married again two years later, his family of nine moved 380 miles to Stearns County, St. Martin, MN where Joe grew to adulthood. He and his older brother Jacob owned 80 acres of land across the road from their home place and overlooking the beautiful Sauk River before they sold out and left the area. Joe moved to Day County, Dakota Territory during Spring 1883. Open Sioux tribal lands had recently been made available for settlement.
Joseph settled in what latter became South Dakota near Webster where he met and married his wife Clara Michlitsch, a native of Austria. They married in 1884. Both he and Clara spoke German in their home.
Joe soon discoverd his land, not unlike much of the entire Coteau region of NE South Dakota, was much rockier than he had first thought.
After his younger brother Richard W. Gully settled in (North) Dakota Territory, approximately 40 miles north of where he was, Joe and Clara moved there and homesteaded north of Hwy 11 about 6 miles east of Lidgerwood in Liberty Grove Township (extreme northern Moran Township). They birthed three sons, one an infant death, on this property located very near the elevator site known as Stiles. Sometime after, they purchased more land straight south of Hwy 11 near prairie water that is known today as Gully Slough. The family eventually built a new home near the slough where the remainder of their children were born. Joe and Clara lived there for decades. Their five year old son Johnny was killed in July 1897 when he slipped under the wheels of his dad's wagon.

Joe and Clara had good land on both pieces and were successful farmers. Most of the Gully land is still in the family.

Joseph Gully, ca 1873, about age 15 years old, photo taken in Stearns Co., MN.-- copied from tintype

Joe Gully, age 78, ca 1936

a photo shot before he shaved his beard

Joseph Gully
Lidgerwood area farmer
picture taken age 78 1936