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| Affiliation | Republican |
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1902-01-01 |
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| Name | John Griffith McCullough |
| Address |
Bennington, Vermont , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
September 16, 1835
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| Died | May 29, 1915
(79 years)
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| Contributor | Joshua L. |
| Last Modifed | BrentinCO
Jun 15, 2023 11:32am |
| Tags |
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| Info | John Griffith McCULLOUGH, of Bennington [Bennington County, Vermont], was
born [about 1837*] in Newark [New Castle County], Delaware, son of Alexander
and Rebecca McCULLOUGH [who were also born in Delaware*]. He is of mingled
Scotch and Welsh ancestry, and the circumstances surrounding his early youth
did not present a rosy prospect for his future, for his father died when he
was three years of age, and his mother died when he was seven. His early
educational advantages were meager, but with unwearied industry he made the
most of them, and succeeded in graduating from Delaware College with the
highest honors before reaching his twentieth year. He then commenced the
study of law in the office of St. George Tucker CAMPBELL of Philadelphia,
dividing his time between study and practical experience in the office and
attendance at the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he
received the degree of LLB. In 1859 he was admitted to the bar of the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
At this time impaired health rendered a change of climate and surroundings
necessary, and he set sail in that year for San Francisco, but the severity
of the seacoast winds induced him to remove to Sacramento [Sacramento
County], where he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of California.
Even here the climate was too rough for his delicate condition, and he soon
changed his residence to Mariposa [Mariposa County], at the foot of the
Sierra Nevadas. California at this time was passing through her trying
pioneer period, and her precarious situation was about to be complicated by
the bursting of the war cloud of the Rebellion, and the young lawyer arrived
on this rough scene in time to perform his part in the drama.
A terrible struggle between the Secessionists of Southern California and the
Unionists appeared inevitable, when the arrival of General Sumner, sent by
the government to supersede Gen. Albert Sidney JOHNSTON, then in command of
Fort Alcatraz, frustrated the scheme of Southern sympathizers to separate
California from the Union. In young McCULLOUGH, whose loyalty to the Federal
government was intense, General SUMNER found a ready and efficient supporter
and coadjutor. Ascending the stump, in spite of his delicate health which
precluded active service in the field, by his courage and eloquence, he did
yeoman service for the cause of freedom and national unity.
Having secured the admiration and confidence of the Union element, he was
nominated for the General Assembly in 1861, and elected by a triumphant
coalition of Republicans and Douglas Democrats. In 1862 his constituents
returned him to the state Senate, though the district up to that time had
been overwhelmingly Democratic. Such was his success and vigor in shaping
legislation, that notwithstanding his youth and his brief experience as a
practical lawyer, he was nominated the next year by the state convention of
the Republican party as attorney general of California, and elected by an
overwhelming majority. In this position he labored with signal skill and
success in the interest of and for the honor of the state. Renominated in
1867, he failed of a re-election, though receiving the largest vote of any
candidate on the Republican ticket. For four succeeding years as the head of
a well-known law firm in San Francisco, he enjoyed a highly remunerative
practice and the enviable reputation with court, counsel, and client, of a
practitioner scrupulously accurate in statement and in every action or
position governed by the nicest sense of professional honor.
In 1871 [30 August?], while on a visit to the eastern states, General [John]
McCULLOUGH married Eliza Hall, daughter of Trenor W. and Laura V. H. PARK,*
of Bennington [Bennington County, Vermont]. They [John and Eliza Hall (PARK)
McCULLOUGH] have four children: Hall Park, Elizabeth L., Ella S., and Esther
Morgan. Two years after his marriage, having acquired an ample fortune, he
removed to Southern Vermont [in 1880 was residing in Bennington, Bennington
County*], where he interested himself in railroad, commercial, and banking
enterprises. His active operations in these directions have made him for
some months in the year a resident of New York, where a portion of his time
is passed, but his home and permanent and favorite residence is in Vermont.
From 1873 to 1883 he was vice president and general manager of the Panama
Railroad Company, and from 1883 until his resignation in 1888, was president
and directing genius of the corporation; was elected a director of the Erie
Railroad in 1884, and since 1888 has been chairman of the executive
committee; was the first president of the Chicago & Erie Railroad, a position
he still holds; is president of the Bennington & Rutland Railroad Company; is
president of the First National Bank of North Bennington; a director in the
New York Security and Trust Company, and of the Fidelity and Casualty
Insurance Company of New York; and is largely interested in many other
corporations. American politics have always possessed the liveliest interest
for General [John] McCULLOUGH, and he has suffered no political campaign to
pass by since 1860, in which his voice has not been heard in earnest and
efficient advocacy of the men and principles of the Republican party, yet he
entertains no ambition in the direction of public office. His genial nature
and social tastes have won him hosts of friends, and his home life in the
state of his adoption is singularly happy and contented.
[The family of Trenor W. PARK was enumerated in the 1880 Census of
Bennington, Bennington County, Vermont: Trenor W. PARK, attorney, a widower,
age fifty six (by calculation born about 1824) in Vermont. The other members
of his family enumerated are: his daughter, Laura H. PARK, age twenty one,
born in Vermont about 1859; his son, Trenor L. PARK, attends college,
nineteen, born in California about 1861; his son-in-law, John G. McCULLOUGH,
lawyer, forty-three, born in Delaware about 1837 to parents who were also
born there; his daughter, Eliza H. (PARK) McCULLOUGH, thirty-one, born in
Vermont about 1849; his grandson, Hall P. McCULLOUGH, seven, born in
California about 1873; his granddaughter, Elizabeth L. McCULLOUGH, six, born
in Vermont about 1874; his granddaughter, Ella S. McCULLOUGH, five, born in
Vermont about 1875; and his father in law, Hiland HALL, lawyer (and an
ex-Governor of Vermont), eighty-four, born in Vermont about 1796 to parents
who were born in Connecticut; and about twelve individuals unrelated to Mr.
PARK (servants). Thus Esther M. McCULLOUGH, daughter of John and Eliza
(PARK) McCULLOUGH, was either born and died before, or born after, the 1880
census was taken. The biography states John McCULLOUGH was married in 1871
and two years later moved to southern Vermont; did John McCULLOUGH's
mother-in-law (the wife of Trenor W. PARK) die in 1873 and initiate the
McCULLOUGH family coming to Vermont? For additional information on the
Hiland HALL family, see the Vermont HALL biographies. Bracketed information
included by submitter, who is not researching this family, to support or
clarify information in the biography and to raise questions.]
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