GEORGE McCULLOUGH, deceased. In depicting the career of him who is the subject of this sketch, one has not to deal with a life spent in vain strivings after riches or fame the two principal goals of the ambitious but rather with a life that was a negation of self, a daily sacrifice to the Lord, and a benediction to all others, that came into contact with it, even though but casually.

The late George McCullough came of a hardy family. His paternal grandfather was born in Ireland and learned the trade of tanner in the city of Cork, after which, when still a young man, he came to this country, making his home in a little town just in sight of Philadelphia. This town was destroyed in the Revolutionary War, by the British troops, grandfather McCullough losing all his property. He had early enlisted on the American side, taking part in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, under Ethan Allen; then reaching Bunker Hill, near Boston, in time to take part in the memorable battle there; and afterwards serving with Washington when he crossed the Delaware, and in the engagements at Trenton and Princeton, and in the closing operations of the war at Yorktown, where he witnessed the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. He lived many years after the war, and died at the age of eighty-eight, having never been sick a day in his life until then. He was a Free Mason and his funeral service s were conducted by members of the order. He married a Miss Mary Elliott, who was of Welsh origin, and their family numbered nine children.

William McCullough, son of the foregoing and father of the subject of this sketch, was the third son of his parents, and was born in Pennsylvania in 1793. He was reared amid pioneer surroundings and, like most of his contemporaries in this section, sought his living in the subduing of the forest and the conquest of the soil. About the year 1813 he married Susan Shidler, a sister of the Hon. Tom Shidler, who represented Miami County in the legislature in 1839. In October, 1823, when George McCullough was six years old, the family came to Ohio, crossing the mountains in wagons, the journey taking several weeks. Reaching Miami County, they settled on a tract of land in Lost Creek Township that has since been known as the McCullough farm. But little of the land was then cleared in this vicinity, wild game of all kind abounded, and panthers and bears were still occasionally seen. The first residence of the family was a little log cabin, 20x24 feet, and they also erected a small stable, where their little dun mare found shelter. Their food was plain., consisting principally of mush and milk, corn bread, pumpkins and game. The milk was strongly flavored most of the time with the wild onion, upon which the cattle fed. Once a week, on Sundays, the family had coffee, and that was a day that all looked forward to with joyous anticipations.

It was in this stern school of life that George McCullough received his early training, but it was conducive to the upbuilding of a strong and vigorous manhood. The district school which he attended in his boyhood days was taught by Mr. John Hutton and was in a log cabin. Here be was taught reading, writing and arithmetic to the single rule of three. In 1825 the first meetinghouse was built in Lost Creek Township. It was built of logs and was put together at a cost of just $6, which was spent for nails, glass, and sashes for three small windows, the labor being voluntarily contributed by the neighbors. At first a large quilt was used for a door, and the floor consisted entirely of "Mother Earth." The dimensions of this primitive place of worship were 26x30 feet. The first Sunday School in Miami County was organized and taught in this log building soon after its erection, by Thomas Long, the enterprise, however, not being regarded favorably by everybody, as it was not thought the right way to teach the Bible.

Mr. McCullough grew up in this neighborhood and saw it grow into beauty. The log structures that we have herein described he saw change into a commodious brick school house and a handsome country church. When still a lad he helped with his team to build the canal, and came to Troy on horseback to see General Harrison when the latter came with great pomp and show on a canal boat to that little city. In 1881 he went into the general dry goods business with C. R. Quick, at Addison, and so continued until 1860. He was afterwards engaged in the grocery business until he retired from active life.

Mr. McCullough was converted in 1843, under the labors of Mark D. Briney, in the old log meeting-house near the present beautiful brick structure of the Lost Creek Church. His conversion was thorough, comprehending soul and body, time and talents. It has been said of him by one who was ten years his pastor: "From the time of his Spirit-birth he was Spirit filled, and till death he carried with him that often overflowing measure. Endowed by nature with mind, thought, song, a musical voice, a winning face, fluent, fitting speech and forceful personality, his consecration of these, intensified by a glowing Christian experience, meant much for the church, for the community, for all reforms, for the souls of men, and for his long and grand career as the Lord's servant. No excuse of the sinner or subterfuge of the skeptic could stand before his array of Holy Writ, his burning love for the doubter, and his unique forms of unanswerable arguments. Meeting by accident or introduction with a stranger, he left him not till learning of him whether or not he loved Christ. Nor was this information gained offensively, but in a happy, tactful, winning way. From the time of his conversion he was an active worker for Christ, praying, speaking and exhorting in public, and this with peculiar impressiveness, edification and power." The same writer further says:

"When in his usual health he attended and actively participated in the sessions of the Ohio Miami Conference. On committees he was a wise counselor; on the floor his speeches were short, terse, and telling in the flavor of sincerity and the flash of earnestness. In exhortation few preachers were his equal. In prayer he seemed to come very close into the divine presence, pleading with a Jacob-like importunity, and seizing promises with the uncorrupted confidence of a child. It was his delight to pray with the sick, and his more than half a century of praying life built Bethels and altars by most of the sick beds and in most of the woods and fields in the vicinity of his home. Riding to church alone or in company, often did he pause at some suitable place by the wayside to wrestle with God in behalf of the service and the saving of souls. Perhaps I have never known a man who seemed so constantly to dwell in the secret of his presence and in his very pavilion. He carried everywhere the joy of his Christian experience, but never was he happier than in protracted meetings and when souls were being born into the kingdom. He was a persistent Bible student. He drew his theology from the Word, and had a fund of doctrinal and practical quotations at his tongue's end. He was friendly to ministerial education and culture, and believed that these were helpful to the spiritual power, without which all preaching is in vain.

He was an earnest friend of the young minister, whom be aided with his advice. A good student of human nature, he did not often err in forecasting the success or failure of the youthful Timothy. Many thought be himself called to the ministry, but on this subject he once said to his pastor the same from whom we have already quoted: "Brother Rush, I feel it is mainly my mission to lighten and broaden our people's ideas of lay relations." Mr. McCullough was an ardent reader of religious literature, especially that published by the Christian denomination, to which he belonged, and of which he accumulated a large collection. His brother Peter, of Dayton, was a minister of the denomination --earnest and successful in bringing souls to Christ-and it was Mr. Mc McCullough's belief that his brother sufficiently represented the family in that department of Christian effort, his own ambitions lying solely in the direction of lay usefulness.

Much could be said of his brotherly kindness and helpfulness to his fellow men. Especially was he the friend of the poor. His wagons, his farming utensils or garden tools were freely at the command of his neighbors especially those who were unable to purchase for themselves, and it was wonderful what amount of wear they were subjected to in the universal service. Everybody's friend, everybody's helper was he. The life of this good man was prolonged far beyond the scriptural three score years and ten, for he passed triumphantly to the Eternal Mansions on Monday, June 30, 1902, at the age of eighty-five years and twenty-five days. Well it might be said of him, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord."

His home life was true and beautiful. He was married November I8, 1849, to Amanda S. Warner, of Addison, Champaign County, Ohio, and for more than fifty-two years they pursued life's journey happily together. Until the father's death the family circle remained unbroken. Of its members we may briefly say that Derostus M. McCullough, the eldest son, is now one of the leading citizens and business men of Troy, Ohio, a prominent merchant, vice- president of the Troy National Bank, and an active lay worker in the Christian Church., George McCullough, the younger son and his father's namesake, is a respected resident of Dayton, Ohio. Of the two daughters, Emma is the wife of Dr. H. E. Smith, of Kansas City, Missouri; the other daughter is Mrs. John M . Thomas, whose husband is a successful business man in Columbus, Ohio.

For some years before his death Mr. McCullough was unable to attend church, but his son, D. M. McCullough, put a telephone in his father's house in Addison, the wires reaching to the pulpit and choir seats of the Christian Church in Troy, and being skillfully arranged to catch every sound. Thus, through his son's love, the aged Christian, in his declining years, had the sweet consolation of the services of the sanctuary brought to his very bedside or to his invalid chair, and his hours of weariness and pain were lightened thereby, and his heart made glad by the songs of Zion and the words of gospel cheer, every Sabbath, though the songs were sung and the Word preached ten miles away.

Mr. McCullough was survived by his wife, in addition to the children above mentioned. She was ever his faithful and well suited help-mate, sharing his joys and sorrows with a kind womanly sympathy and love. She, too, commanded the love of her children and of a wide circle of friends. Mrs. McCullough died May 24, 1905, aged seventy-five years.