Hulse was born and raised on a farm near Fayetteville in Washington County, Arkansas.

With just a high school education, he came to California as a young man.

He worked at a machine shop in Stockton for two years, then moved to Imperial County in 1910, where he began to sell tractors and Ford cars in Calexico, El Centro and Yuma.

By 1920 his dealerships (Hulse and Dick in Yuma, Hulse and Anderson in El Centro) were important in promoting the agricultural development of Imperial County.

[1] He was known as "the watchdog of the treasury"[3] during his years in the Senate, serving on the taxation and other committees.