Trenor W. Park

Trenor W. Park
Born (1823-12-08)December 8, 1823
Woodford, Vermont
Died December 13, 1882(1882-12-13) (aged 59)
Aboard ship "San Blas" between New York City and Aspinwall, Panama
Occupation Attorney
Businessman
Philanthropist

Trenor William Park (December 8, 1823 – December 13, 1882) was an American lawyer, political figure, businessman, and philanthropist.

Early life

Trenor William Park was born in Woodford, Vermont on December 8, 1823.[1] He was raised in Bennington and began working at an early age, including selling candy and carrying letters to and from the Bennington post office.[2]

At age 15 Park became the proprietor of a candy store on Bennington's North Street, and at age 16 he began to study law with Bennington County State's Attorney A.P. Lyman, attaining admission to the bar as soon as he was legally eligible in 1844.[3] Park began a practice in Bennington, and maintained it until 1852, also becoming active in lumbering and other business ventures. On December 15, 1846 he married Laura Van Der Spiegle Hall, the daughter of Congressman and Governor Hiland Hall. They had three children Eliza, Laura and Trenor Luther Park.[4][5]

Career in California

In 1851 Hall was appointed Chairman of the U.S. Land Commission empowered to settle Mexican land titles after the annexation of California, and Park traveled to San Francisco with him.[6] He practiced law successfully, soon becoming a partner in the state's leading firm, Halleck, Peachy, Billings & Park.[7] In 1855 Park played a key role in San Francisco's political reform movement by establishing the San Francisco Bulletin newspaper.[8] He also became active in several commercial enterprises, including real estate and mining, and managed the Rancho Las Mariposas gold mine owned by John C. Frémont. Park lost some of his investments in the Panic of 1857, but eventually became very wealthy.[9][10]

At the founding of the Republican Party, Park became an active member, serving as a delegate to several state conventions. In the late 1850s he served as Chairman of California's Republican State Central Committee.[11][12] In 1863 he was a Unionist candidate for the U.S. Senate, narrowly losing election in the California legislature.[13] In 1864 he was a California delegate to the Republican national convention that nominated President Abraham Lincoln for reelection and named Democrat Andrew Johnson as its vice presidential candidate.[14]

Return to Vermont

In 1864 Park returned to Vermont, where he incorporated the First National Bank of North Bennington, was an original investor in the Central Vermont Railroad, and again speculated in several successful business ventures, including timber and mines.[15] He also established a second residence in New York City. In 1868 he was a Vermont delegate to the Republican National Convention that nominated Ulysses S. Grant for President and Schuyler Colfax for Vice President.[16] The same year, he was elected as Vermont's member of the Republican National Committee, serving until 1870.[17][18]

In 1870 he was one of the founders of Rutland, Vermont's Baxter National Bank, and he often continued to invest in partnership with the bank's President, Horace Henry Baxter.[19] In 1871 Park's daughter Eliza married John G. McCullough, former Attorney General of California, who became active in several of Park's business ventures and later served as Governor of Vermont.[20][21] Also in 1871, Park was an owner and promoter of the supposedly depleted Utah Emma Silver Mine. Unsuspecting English citizens invested millions of pounds in the mine. In 1876 and 1877 his partners and he were accused of defrauding the group that purchased the mine from them, and they were acquitted in a nationally publicized trial.[22]

Park was a candidate for the 1874 Republican nomination for Governor, but withdrew in favor of the eventual nominee and general election winner, state Supreme Court Justice Asahel Peck.[23] The same year, Park purchased controlling interest in the Panama Railway and was elected its President, succeeding Russell Sage.[24] During the rest of the 1870s he engaged in a well-publicized contest with rival financier Jay Gould for control of Pacific Mail, the company that shipped cargo between the eastern and western United States by moving it overland across the Isthmus of Panama.[25]

Active in civic affairs, Park served in the Vermont House of Representatives,[26] was a member of the committee that oversaw design and construction of the Bennington Battle Monument,[27] and was a Trustee of the University of Vermont.[28] His philanthropic donations included the Bennington Free Library (with Seth B. Hunt),[29] and the building and land for the Vermont Soldiers' Home (again in conjunction with the Hunt family).[30][31] He also donated the University of Vermont's Park Gallery of Art, the exhibits of which were later incorporated into the university's Robert Hull Fleming Museum.[32]

Death and burial

Trenor Park died on December 13, 1882, while aboard the ship "San Blas" between New York and Aspinwall, Panama while en route to San Francisco.[33] His funeral took place at New York City's Collegiate Reformed Church, and he was buried in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery.[34] He was later re-interred at Bennington's Old Cemetery.[35]

Legacy

His Bennington home, the Park-McCullough House, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and is open to the public.[36]

Trenor Luther Park

Trenor Luther Park (1861-1907) studied at Harvard University and was a successful businessman, yachtsman and golfer. He was married to Julia Hunt Catlin (1864-1947). Trenor L. Park died during surgery for an intestinal ailment, and his friends and family believed his decline had been hastened by despondence over the death of his nine-year-old daughter Elliott, who had been killed in an accident earlier that year.[37][38]

Laura Hall Park

Laura Hall Park (1858-1939) married Frederic Beach Jennings (1853-1920), a Bennington and New York City lawyer and businessman. They donated the site of their Vermont home to become the location of Bennington College.[39]

References

  1. ↑ Cecil Gage Tilton, William Chapman Ralston: Courageous Builder, 1935, page 252
  2. ↑ Henry Clay Williams, American Encyclopaedia of Biography, 1893, page 108
  3. ↑ Henry Clay Williams, American Encyclopaedia of Biography
  4. ↑ Abby Maria Hemenway, editor, Vermont Historical Gazeteer, Volume 5, 1891, page 92
  5. ↑ Oscar Tully Shuck, editor, History of the Bench and Bar of California, 1901, page 594
  6. ↑ Henry Clay Williams, American Encyclopaedia of Biography
  7. ↑ The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Hon. Frederick Billings, October, 1891, page 259
  8. ↑ Rossiter Johnson, John Howard Brown, editors, The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, 1904
  9. ↑ Richard Jay Hutto, Their Gilded Cage: The Jekyll Island Club Members, 2005, page 90
  10. ↑ John Hannavy, editor, Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, 2007, page 1478
  11. ↑ Robin W. Winks, Frederick Billings: A Life, 1998, page 126-127
  12. ↑ Franklin Tuthill, The History of California, 2010, page 519
  13. ↑ Wallace Emerson Lamb, The Lake Champlain and Lake George Valleys, 1940, page 569
  14. ↑ Horace Greeley, et al., editors, Proceedings of the First Three Republican National Conventions of 1856, 1860 and 1864, 1893, page 248
  15. ↑ Clark C. Spence, British Investments and the American Mining Frontier, 1860-1901, 2000, page 140
  16. ↑ The Presidency: List of Delegates to the Republican National Convention, New York Times, May 19, 1868
  17. ↑ Republican National Convention, Official Proceedings of the National Republican Conventions, 1903, page 113
  18. ↑ Ely, Burnham & Bartlett, Proceedings of the National Union Republican Convention Held at Chicago, May 20 and 21, 1868, 1868, page 58
  19. ↑ Bennington Banner, Gen. H. Henry Baxter, Death of a Well Known Millionaire, February 22, 1884
  20. ↑ Christina Tree, Rachel Carter, Explorer's Guide to Vermont, 2012, page 128
  21. ↑ Tyler Resch, Glastenbury: The History of a Vermont Ghost Town, 2008, page 91
  22. ↑ The Emma Mine Case Ended, New York Times, April 29, 1877
  23. ↑ Railway Gazette, General Railroad news: Elections and Appointments, May 23, 1874
  24. ↑ Railway Age, General Railroad News: Elections and Appointments, Volume 6, December 19, 1874, page 496
  25. ↑ Maury Klein, 1986,The Life and Legend of Jay Gould, 179 to 180
  26. ↑ Vermont General Assembly, Journal of the Vermont House of Representatives, 1867, page 4
  27. ↑ Charles Spooner Forbes, The Second Battle of Bennington: A History of Vermont's Centennial, 1877, page 13
  28. ↑ Vermont General Assembly, Vermont Public Documents, 1867, page 56
  29. ↑ Vermont. Board of Library Commissioners, Biennial Report of the Board of Library Commissioners of Vermont, Volumes 1-6, 1895, page 52
  30. ↑ National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Report of Inspection of State Soldiers and Sailors' Homes, 1889, page 36
  31. ↑ Bill Morgan, Bennington and the Civil War, 2013, page 112
  32. ↑ Art and Architecture, University of Vermont web site
  33. ↑ Death of Trenor W. Park: He Dies at Sea On His Way to Aspinwall New York Times, December 21, 1882
  34. ↑ Hiram Carleton, Genealogical and Family History of the State of Vermont, 1903, page 12
  35. ↑ Tyler Resch, The Meticulous Advocate: Hiland Hall of Vermont; A Biography, 2009, page 70
  36. ↑ Park-McCullough House web site
  37. ↑ New York Times, Trenor L. Park Dead; Head of the American Yacht Club Expires After an Operation, October 24, 1907
  38. ↑ New York Times, T.L. Park's Daughter Killed; 9-Year-Old Girl Fell Six Stories from Her Garden on the Roof, January 6, 1907
  39. ↑ John J. Duffy, Samuel B. Hand, Ralph H. Orth, editors, The Vermont Encyclopedia, 2003, page 55

Sources

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