Bennington

PARK, Trenor William

Men of Vermont: Illustrated Biographical History of Vermonters & Sons of 
Vermont. Ullery. Brattleboro: Transcript Publishing Company, 1894, pp 296-298

Trenor William PARK, late of Bennington [Bennington County, Vermont], was 
born 08 December 1823 in Woodford [Bennington County, Vermont], son of Luther 
and Cynthia (PRATT) PARK. His parents moved to Bennington when he was two or 
three years of age, and as they were poor he had few educational advantages, 
but in his earliest youth he contrived to contribute something to the family 
support. Resolving to adopt the legal profession he began to study law in an 
office in the town when only sixteen, and a few years later he was admitted 
to the bar. In 1852 a political appointment changed the whole current of his 
life, and interrupted a successful professional career in Bennington.

His father-in-law, ex-Governor Hiland HALL, had been selected by President 
FILLMORE as chairman of the U. S. land commission of California, to settle 
disputed land titles in the territory lately acquired from Mexico. This 
appointment induced Mr. PARK to remove to San Francisco [San Francisco 
County, California], where his skill and success in the management of his 
first case attracted the attention of the newly established firm of Halleck, 
Peachy & Billings, and he was invited to become a member of that concern. 
This offer he accepted, and the firm soon became, and continued for years, 
the most eminent one in California.

Mr. PARK became prominently identified with the reform movement in San 
Francisco in 1855, and assisted James KING to establish the "San Francisco 
Bulletin," and after the assassination of that editor in the streets of the 
city, he became the attorney of the historic vigilance committee, which 
delivered San Francisco from the reign of terror established by lawlessness 
and ruffianism. The commercial panic of 1858 swept away a considerable 
portion of the large fortune which Mr. PARK had acquired, but he soon 
recovered lost ground.

About this time he became interested in politics, and was a candidate for U. 
S. Senator, lacking but a few votes of an election. Returning to Vermont in 
1863, he established the First National Bank at North Bennington, and soon 
after was elected to the Legislature, exercising great influence in that 
body. He now gave his attention to a number of railroad enterprises in his 
native state, assisted in the reorganization of the Vermont Central, and was 
one of the original incorporators of that company under its new title. He 
purchased the Western Vermont Railroad, and commenced the construction of the 
Lebanon Springs Railroad, hoping to make Bennington an important railroad 
center, but no meeting with adequate cooperation he sank a large fortune in 
this latter patriotic enterprise.

In 1872 Mr. PARK was associated with General BAXTER in the ownership and 
conduct of the famous Emma Mine, and he was for many years a director of the 
Pacific Mail Steamship Company. In 1874 he was elected president of the 
Panama Railroad, holding the office until the time of his death. Under his 
skillful management, and with the able assistance of Gen. J. G. McCULLOUGH, 
[see also the Bennington County, Vermont, biography of John Griffiths 
McCULLOUGH] the stock rose from par to three hundred cents on the dollar, at 
which price it was sold to the De Lesseps Canal Company.

Mr. PARK was pre-eminently a public-spirited man. When a trustee of the U. 
V. M. he donated to that institution the art gallery which bears his name. 
He was a liberal contributor to the New York Tribune "Fresh Air Fund," 
establishing the Bennington Free Library, and with ex-Governor PRESCOTT of 
New Hampshire, ex- Governor RICE of Massachusetts, and E. J. PHELPS of 
Burlington [Chittenden County, Vermont], constituted a committee on the 
design of the Bennington battle monument. He also contemplated a magnificent 
charity to be entitled the "Park Home," to be established at Bennington, a 
refuge for destitute women and children. Unfortunately his death occurred 
before his plans could be completed, and a large property which had been 
secured near the town as the site of the new charity was donated to the state 
by his heirs and is now occupied by the Soldiers' Home.

The energy, perseverance, and public spirit of Mr. PARK carried him from the 
humblest circumstances in youth to a manhood of noble attainments, and his 
enterprises procured for him the possession of great wealth, a large portion 
of which he conscientiously employed, not in self-indulgence, but for the 
benefit and assistance of his fellow men. On 15 December 1846 Mr. [Trenor 
William] PARK was married to Laura, daughter of ex-Governor Hiland HALL, of 
Bennington [Bennington County, Vermont]. He had the misfortune to lose this 
estimable lady in June 1875. Trenor William PARK married his second wife, 
Ella, daughter of A. C. NICHOLS, Esq., of San Francisco. In 1882 while en 
route to Panama, Trenor William PARK died. One son, Trenor L., and two 
daughters, Mrs. J. G. McCULLOUGH and Mrs. Fred B. JENNINGS, survive him.

[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). 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 given 
in the biography and to raise questions.]

Submitted by Cathy Kubly