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Farming For A Better Future, page 166
John T. and Bazola Bulls had 11 children; the oldest was John Thomas Bulls, Jr. (1914-2002). John, Jr. attended Bethel AME Church, once located on County Road 69 north of Center Star. He most likely attended Center Star School, which was located off the same road and at one time across the road from Bethel AME Church. After completing the lower grades in Center Star, Bulls went to Burrell High School in Florence. Upon graduation, John T. Bulls, Jr. began an impressive journey of higher education, influenced by his family's agricultural background. He first attended Tuskegee where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture. In 1940, he was enumerated in the census back home with his mother and father
(Above) Dr. John Thomas Bulls (Courtesy of the Office of the Mayor, Florence, Alabama) (Top Right) World War II Registration Card for John T. Bulls, Jr. (National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com) (Right) World War II Registration Card for John T. Bulls, Jr. (National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com)
(Below) A Passenger List for United States Lines, Outgoing from Southampton, England, UK, July 1954 (The National Archives, England via Ancestry.com (Bottom) Excerpt of City Directory of Ithaca, New York, 1960 with John and James Ella Bulls (National Archives and Records Administration via Ancestry.com)
” Marion E Mrs h301 S Com *
Bulls John (James Ella) grad student CU h408 Stewart av
Bui ter Karl D h202 E State (705)
in Center Star. He was 25 years old and single, with four years of a college education. He then went to Iowa State University for a Master of Science in vocational education and animal husbandry. Finally, Bulls received his Ph.D. in Extension Education, Rural Sociology, and Public Administration from Cornell University.
Dr. John T. Bulls, Jr. then joined the Air Force during World War II. After the war, on December 23, 1945, he married James Ella Turnley Bulls (1917-2001), a local of west Lauderdale County with a similar and equally impressive upbringing. Ms. James was the daughter of John Westley Turnley (1861-1919). The Turnleys were another African American farming family from the “Bend in the River” where Oakland, Smithsonia, and Rhodesville come together. Turnley's father was a slave and probably son of his mother's master, named Jerry. Jerry Turnley was one of five former slaves who established the Mt. Zion AME Church. When the church needed a new location and building, John W. Turnley, a landowning farmer, provided the land and helped build the building in 1912. Ms. James Ella attended school and church at Mt. Zion as a child and went to Burrell High School in Florence, just a few years behind her future husband.
James Ella also went to Tuskegee, earning her B.S. in Home Economics Education. She then received a Master's in Textile and Clothing with a minor in Costume Design from Cornell University before earning a Ph.D. in Adult Education and Household Equipment from Iowa State University. After graduate school, she was a professor at Alabama A&M in Normal, outside of Huntsville. Dr. James Ella Bulls also taught at Howard University, University of North Alabama, and Tennessee State University at various times in her career. Meanwhile, Dr. John T. Bulls, Jr. had returned from the war, married Ella, and taken up a post with Alabama Cooperative Extension Service as a Colbert County agent. He did this from 1945 to 1952 - (4694)