- John G. McCullough
Infobox Governor
name=
caption=
order=49th
office= Governor of Vermont
term_start= 1902
term_end= 1904
lieutenant=Zed S. Stanton
predecessor=William W. Stickney
successor=Charles J. Bell
birth_date= birth date|1835|9|16|df=y
birth_place= Newark,Delaware , U.S.
death_date= death date and age|1915|5|29|1835|9|16|df=y
death_place=New York City ,New York , U.S.
spouse= Eliza Hall Park
profession=
party= Republican
footnotes=John Griffith McCullough (
September 16 ,1835 -May 29 ,1915 ) was an Americanbusinessperson andattorney . He was Attorney General ofCalifornia during the Civil War, and Governor ofVermont from 1902 to 1904.Early life
John G. McCullough was born on September 6, 1835, in
Newark, Delaware , to Albert and Rebecca (Griffith) McCullough.Hill, Edwin Charles. "The Historical Register." New York: E.C. Hill, 1921.] Duffy, John J.; Hand, Samuel B.; and Orth, Ralph H. "The Vermont Encyclopedia." Lebanon, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2003. ISBN 1584650869] His father wasScotch-Irish , and his mother Welsh. An ancestor on his mother's side had fought inOliver Cromwell 's army.His father died when he was three years old, and his mother four years later."McCullough, General John." "History of Bennington County, VT." Lewis Cass Aldrich, ed. Bennington, Vt.: 1889.] Relatives and family friends took him in, and provided him with a private school education.
He attended
Delaware College , and graduated first in his class after just two years of schooling. He clerked in the law firm of St. George Tucker Campbell inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania , while attending law school at theUniversity of Pennsylvania . He graduated with anLL.B. in 1858, and was admitted to the bar of thePennsylvania Supreme Court . After aheart attack he was advised to seek a warmer climate. He sailed toCalifornia , where he took up the practice of law inMariposa, California . He was admitted to the bar of theCalifornia Supreme Court .California years
McCullough supported General
Edwin Vose Sumner when the Union general seizedFort Alcatraz in 1861, preventing ColonelAlbert Sidney Johnston from using the fort in support of bringing California in on the side of the Confederacy.His public speech-making in support of Sumner led to his election to the
California State Senate the same year. He was re-elected in 1862. In 1863, he was elected Attorney General, but lost re-elected in 1867. He moved to San Francisco, where he established a lucrative legal practice.Return to Vermont and governorship
He returned to Vermont in 1873, where he devoted himself to business. He had married Eliza Hall, daughter of
Panama Railway presidentTrenor W. Park , onAugust 30 ,1871 . The couple had four children: a son,Hall Park McCullough , and daughters Elizabeth Laura McCullough, Ella Sarah McCullough, and Esther Morgan McCullough.His father-in-law appointed him vice-president and general manager of the Panama Railway. After Park's death in 1882, he became the railroad's president. He helped reorganize the
Erie Railroad in 1884 and 1893, becoming chairman of the company's executive committee. He was president of theBennington and Rutland Railway from 1883 to 1900, and president of theChicago and Erie Railroad from 1890 to 1900.A lifelong Republican, McCullough was very active in politics. He was elected a delegate to the
Republican National Convention in 1880, 1888 and 1900, being elected chairman of the delegation in 1900. He was elected to theVermont State Senate in 1898, and electedpresident pro tempore .McCullough was elected Governor of Vermont in 1902. During his administration, Vermont abandoned
prohibition .Later life
After losing the governorship, McCullough became active in business again. He was president or a director of the First National Bank of North Bennington, the Bank of New York, the Fidelity & Casualty Co., National Life Insurance Co. of Vermont,
Hudson and Manhattan Railroad ,Central Vermont Railroad ,Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad , and theLackawanna Steel Company .He was widely admired, and received an honorary doctor of laws degree from
Middlebury College in 1900, theUniversity of Vermont in 1904, andNorwich University in 1905.McCullough died in
New York City on May 29, 1915. ["Information Annual: A Continuous Cyclopedia and Digest of Current Events 1915-16." New York: R.R. Bowker Co., 1916.]Notable placenames
The
Park-McCullough Historic House , where Trenor Park and (after his death) Governor McCullough lived, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.The John G. McCullough Free Library in
North Bennington, Vermont , was built by McCullough's widow, Eliza McCullough, in memory of her husband. The two-story brick building was designed by the firm ofRenwick, Aspinwall and Tucker , and opened onAugust 24 ,1921 . [ [http://www.mccullough.lib.vt.us/index.shtml "Our History." John G. McCullough Free Library. No date.] Accessed August 26, 2008.]References
External links
* [http://vermont-archives.org/seriesresults.asp?rsCreator=Vermont.+Governor+(1902-1904+%3A+McCullough) Governor John G. McCullough Records, 1902-1904. Vermont State Archives.]
* [http://www.parkmccullough.org/index.html Park-McCullough House, North Bennington, Vermont]
*Find A Grave|id=11889154
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.