His early boyhood was spent on a farm in Sanilac County, Michigan, where his family was early settlers. Mr. McNulty received his early training in the public schools. Not being charmed with the prospect of agricultural life, for like many others who afterwards proved to be poor farmers, he managed to get out, and in the fall of 1886 entered the law department of the University of Michigan, with a view of cultivating the field of the law, from which he graduated with his class in June, 1888. It was known at that time that Horace Greely had been kind enough to proffer some advice to young men, and as the writer thought there might be something in it, he ventured as far as the banks of the Mississippi, casting his “shingle” to the windward in the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, where he remained until the early spring of 1889. In 1893, McNulty removed to Sioux City, Iowa where he practiced law and served as a state representative in the Iowa General Assembly. He represented District 58 in Woodbury County, Iowa.