A. L. Bullis, born December 28, 1872, in Owatonna, Minnesota, is a prominent and progressive farmer in Brookings County, South Dakota. The son of Frederick J. and Mary A. Bullis, he moved with his family to South Dakota in 1882. He attended public schools and the State Agricultural College in Brookings. After completing his education, he managed the family homestead and expanded his agricultural operations. Bullis purchased significant land, cultivated it effectively, and invested in modern farming equipment. Active in the Republican Party, he has served as a delegate to county conventions and as a school board clerk.
A. L. Bullis figures as one of the most progressive and public-spirited young farmers and stock growers of Brookings County, where he has passed the major portion of his life, being a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of this favored section of the state. He was born in Owatonna, Steele County, Minnesota, on the 28th of December, 1872, being a son of Frederick J. and Mary A. Bullis. Our subject pursued his studies in the public schools of his native state until he had attained the age of ten years, when, in 1882, he accompanied his parents on their removal to South Dakota, the family locating on a farm in Afton Township, Brookings County, where he was reared to maturity, and this place still constitutes a part of the old homestead, of which our subject has the supervision. He here attended the public schools until fifteen years of age, when he was matriculated in the State Agricultural College, in Brookings, in which institution he completed a three-year course, the college having been in session for its first full year at the time when he was a student therein.
After leaving the college, Mr. Bullis returned to the homestead farm, being associated with his father in the operation of the same until he had attained his legal majority, when he rented land and inaugurated his independent career, though he still continued to reside at the parental home. Since 1900 he has had the general charge of the homestead farm, also continuing to utilize rented land for some years. In 1896 he purchased the northeast quarter of section 11, township 111, for a consideration of twenty-four hundred dollars, and he has placed the entire tract under a high state of cultivation. He now has charge of four hundred and eighty acres of land, is energetic and progressive and is known as one of the representative agriculturists of the county, while he is carefully conserving the best interests of his father’s estate and making the best possible provision for his widowed mother and the other members of the family.
In 1902 Mr. Bullis, in company with his brother Fred, purchased a twenty-two-horsepower Garr-Scott engine and separator of the best modern design, and in the operation of the same he has been very successful, his equipment being in constant requisition during the season. For the past decade he has given special attention to the raising of corn, which he considers one of his best crops, and through his experimentation and scientific methods he has done much to aid in proving that corn may be made one of the important products of this section. He is also engaged in raising cattle and hogs of excellent grade and all departments of his farming enterprise give evidence of his punctilious supervision and effective business methods.
Mr. Bullis is staunchly arrayed in support of the principles of the Republican Party, and he has served as delegate to various county conventions of the party and otherwise shown an active interest in forwarding its cause. He served as clerk of the school board of his district for three years.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.