George W. McCullough
George W. McCullough, a veteran of the Civil War who has for years been engaged in the retail meat business at Yellow Springs, has been a resident of Ohio since he was four years of age. He was born at Rumley, in Hampshire county, Virginia, April 13, 1842, son and only surviving child of John and Mary (Smarr) McCullough, both of whom also were born in Virginia, of Scottish descent, and whose last days were spent in Ohio, they having come out here more than seventy years ago, locating in Clark county.
John McCullough was born at Rumley, Virginia, and there received his schooling and grew to manhood. He married there and began farming in his native county of Hampshire, continuing thus engaged there until 1846, when he disposed of his interests in that county and with his family came to Ohio and settled on a farm in Clark county, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1883. John McCullough was twice married. By his marriage to Mary Smarr he was the father of three children, Frank, who was born in Virginia and who died when seven or eight years of age; George W., the subject of this biographical sketch, and Anna, who died when ten years of age. The mother of these children died in 1848, two years after coming to Ohio, and John McCullough later married Margaret Ann Kitchen, of Clark county, and to that union were bom three sons, Charles, who is now living in Nebraska; Isaac, of Detroit, Michigan, and Erasmus Jackson McCullough, a farmer in the vicinity of Clifton, this county.
Reared on the home farm in Clark county, George W. McCullough received his schooling in the neighborhood schools and after his marriage in the summer of 1862 began farming on his own account. A year later, in June, 1863, he enlisted his services in behalf of the Union cause and went to the front. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. McCullough returned to the farm and there remained until 1873, in which year he moved down to Yellow Springs and there became engaged in the butcher business, in which line he has been engaged practically all the time ever since. For three years also, years ago, Mr. McCullough was engaged at Yellow Springs in the livery and undertaking business, a member of the firm of Littleton & McCullough. Years ago he took a trip West, thinking to better his condition, but after a few years of experience there returned to Yellow Springs and resumed his butcher business, in which he ever since has been engaged. Mr. McCullough is a Republican, has for years been a member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic, present commander of the same, and is a Mason and an Odd Fellow and has filled all the chairs in the local lodges of both of those orders. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. McCullough has been twice married. On June 15. 1862, he was united in marriage to Louisa Rhoades, of Clifton, this county, who died in 1867, leaving one child, a daughter, Mrs. Hattie M. Green, who is now living at Sedalia, Missouri, a widow. On December 31, 1870, Mr. McCullough married Mary A. Polling, who was bom in Clark county, where her parents also were born, and to this union seven children have been born, namely: Effie, who married Fred Sharp, now living at Gage, Oklahoma, and has three children; Blanche, who married Walter Stansberry, of Yellow Springs, and has three children; Mrs. Grace Straus, who died in 1916; Frank, now living at Springfield, who married Nellie Marshall and has one child; Edward, who married Stella Runyan and now lives at Wichita, Kansas; Charles, who is married and has two children, and George, who died at Springfield when twenty-three years of age.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918