Stull

Stull

I hope you enjoy my page, if you have any questions, comments, or info you think should be added to my page, email me CedarBluffs@yahoo.com....click here to go to my third page with more pics., courtesy of Chad Smith, and here to go to my links page with some interesting links to other similar sites. If you have any stories, or info about Stull that you would like to share with me, feel free to email me, also feel free to link to my page, and in return I will link to yours. Just email me w/your URL and I will link to you when I see a link on your page added to me. Pictures from my page CANNOT be used without my consent, if you need them for something, let me know as I'm usually very generous if you just ASK!

The tiny town of Stull, Kansas (which sits at an elevation of 940 ft) is named after Silvester Stull, a postmaster of the area way back when. Thanks to S.S. Leggett for this info. "The town of Stull was named after Silvester when he was postmaster. Silvester was born 19 Mar. 1862 in the Stull area, Isaac was his father. Silverster reared 11 children near Stull - His wife was Mary Bertha Koehler. When they retired they moved to Orange Co. California, and Silvester died there 4 July 1931 He is buried at Fairhaven Cemetery in Orange Co. California." Stull, KS was first settled by 18 people who organized the Evangelical Emanuel Church. The land for the church was donated by Jacob Hildenbrand. The pine tree which was deemed to be 100 years old or so in 1952 was thought to be planted around the time the church was built in 1867. The headstone that was split by the roots of the tree which is mentioned later in this page had the names of Bettie and Frankie Thomas who both died in 1879. Stull had two major tragedies in the 1900's. The first is about a small boy who's father was burning a field of tall grass. After the field was done being burnt the charred remains of the boy were found out in the field. The other tragedie is of a man who was reported missing and was later found hanging from the limb of a tree. Could that possibly be the branches of the pine tree??? Stull also had a road when natural gas came through in 1905 called Devils Road which was adjacent to the Kraft Store. A look at any old maps of Stull will show that..

Above is the church (which was used up until 1922) with a picture of Isaac Stull's grave. This picture is looking to the NorthEast. The headstone is one of four Stull headstones I was able to find. The other two are two children Geneva Stull June 2, 1920-January 18, 1924 and "Infant Son" May 4, 1911, died same day. (I have some poor pics. of these headstones that I may post someday)
Below is another picture of the church. If anyone can tell me what used to sit on the old foundation that you can see in the picture, please let me know. Got an email from Patrick explaining that what appears to be a foundation is probably in fact a retaining wall around a family plot. I honestly can't remember seeing any graves in there, but I don't remember paying that much attention to it when I was there.

click here to see many pics. of me

I'm sure some of you are wondering, since Stull is supposed to be a gateway to hell, then where is the gateway. That is a big question in debate. Some say that it is in the church, while others say that it is somewhere else in the surrounding area. When I was there, I only looked a little bit, and I know for a fact that they are NOT inside the church, unless they magically appear through all the rubble or something, and that they are not out in the cemetery itself anywhere, leaving the only options to be either to the North, East, or West side of the chruch. I received an email today (3/29/99) from Ryan, and this is what it said: There are "stairs" that lead somewhere down. They are behind the chruch on the right side of the church if you are facing the church. They aren't easy to find, however, because they are well covered by the grass that has grown on top of the lid that covers them. It is not easy to find them, it took a friend and I about 3 hours of snooping around. We came upon this about 6 years ago. If you really want to see or hear awful and weird stuff, if you can, try to campout behind the church for a night. Do this behind the church to avoid the patrol that do drive by there at night every hour or two. Take a flashlight and plenty of batteries, becacue you will have a ton of trouble keeping the flashlight working and it will go out a lot, trust me, i know. Have Fun!

Ryan says "this is from an anonymous source..."

This is off the subject, but if anyone is a deer hunter, or collects antlers, I have a huge 25 point whitetail rack for sale at HERE there is a pic. of the rack and of the official score sheet. If this interests you or you know of someone it might interest, please check it out.

Stull

For those of you who read this article I think you will begin to see what kind of people the caretakers of the cemetery are. I have had a run-in or two with them myself. When my interest in Stull first began several years ago, I slowly drove by the church, just looking from the road, from inside my car. I didn't even stop, but someone seemed to think I was bad, as they decided to come from the new church up behind me and turn their high beams on. I wasn't staying long as the town is only a couple hundred yards long, and was soon on the highway again, but the vehicle felt the need to follow me clear out of town, as CLOSE to my back end as possible. Trying to be nice and thinking they just wanted to pass, but were maybe scared to as it was dark adn raining I slowed to 10 MPH, but they refused to pass me, and continued to ride my butt until I came to a complete stop on the highway and they finally flew past, just centimeters from the side of my car. They are NOT nice folk there. I apologize to the townspeople that ARE nice and don't feel the need to harass and CHASE people without just cause, but some of your fellow citizens are giving you all a bad name, you might want to mention something to them so that you don't get sterotyped as "jerks" just as I get stereotyped as a "vandal" because I am a young male.------Back to the article though. I fail to understand why the caretakers would run off the reporters that I feel were doing them a favor. By reporting they were showing everyone that authorities do watch the place and that it's illegal to be caught there, which is a point I think they would WANT to make, just makes me think maybe there IS something they are hiding after all....maybe not, but it's definately something to think about.

Stull

The Myths

There are many myths surrounding the church and cemetery, the most common one being that on Halloween or the spring equinox (maybe both) a gateway to hell opens. It is said that if you should find the stairs and venture down them, that if you try to go back up them, it will either take a long time to get back up, or maybe you'll never even make.

No precipitation will enter the church, although it has no roof. I have found this to be the second most commonly known rumor.

If you make an upside down cross w/two bottles and throw them against the walls they will not break.

The devil is buried there.(I sure didn't see a grave marked devil :) Personally I don't think he can be dead, as he was never human.)

The devil's child is buried there. (He has offspring?)

A werewolf meets the devil there. (If someone could get a pic. of the gateway, I would be deeply in debt, if someone can get a pic. of this werewolf, they better sober up and take another look at the picture)

Witches were hung from the old pine tree (very old, maybe original rumor. Is there truth to this rumor? Why did they cut the old historic pine tree down the day before halloween 1998 when it was still alive? check out a page with pics. of the tree as it comes down HERE there are some more rather...interesting rumors on their page.)

Witches had rituals around the old pine tree. (also a very old rumor)

Stull

Some research I've done has really helped me come down to where most people believe the stories surrounding Stull began. Supposedly back in the 1970's a massive pine or cedar tree which was believed to be the biggest in the state grew so large that it's roots split a headstone that was placed near it. THIS is where the rumors are said to have started. The splitting of the headstone was seen as a bad sign or omen or something along that line, and stories began that witches had been hung from that tree, causing it to be cursed. That was the beginning, and along with some lightning strikes to the chruch which may have caused the burning of the roof rumors began to really fly. You will find some of the other rumors that I feel are very new and not widely known on some of the other webpages that I have in my links. Remember what I have typed above is just RUMORS of where the rumors began, nothing definate or solid. Just some more info. for the curious. I will try to get something more solid and definate as to where these rumors began, and hopefully add some more details, along with some pics. of the pine tree that supposedly started it all (which has since been cut down in recent years)

Would like to give many thanks to Mary Madracki for getting the above picture of Sylvester's headstone from Lawn XX plot 683 at Fairhaven Cemetery in California.

Visitors since 12/8/98

April 8 2002- As previously reported, the Stull church has indeed been torn down. My understanding is that some strong winds two weeks ago knocked down one of the walls, and immediately following this, the church was torn down for good. I have first handedly visited Stull and taken some pictures from the road of the ruins of the church that I have yet to get developed, but rest assured that as soon as I have the pics that I will post them right here for all of your curious eyes to see. I've talked with people via email that are directly related with the ownership of the church, and even the ownership does not know who tore it down and are curious themselves as to who did it. Any info regarding who tore this down can be directed to me to relayed to the proper channels. Now for SPECULATION as to why the church was destroyed. With one wall down, the church was a danger to fall, if soneone were trespassing and the church fell on them, the owners would be liable. My guess is that the caretaker of the cemetery had it tore down, or maybe the town it'self to avoid any possible legal trouble. This is pure speculation though.

In the meantime, here is a link that will give you a glimpse of the remains of the church CLICK HERE

April 9 2002- A quick update. The K-State campus paper did an article April 9th, on the destruction of the church. The article which I hope to have scanned and posted here soon confirms my suspicion that the church was torn down as it was a safety hazard. John Haase in Lecompton who was one of 3 supposed owners authorized the destruction of the church according to the paper.

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Click on the thumbnails to the right to get a much larger version of the picture.