Bennington

McCULLOUGH, John Griffith

Men of Vermont: Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters & Sons of 
Vermont. Ullery. Brattleboro: Transcript Publishing Company, 1894, pp 262-264

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.]

Submitted by Cathy Kubly