Spencer Randolph McCulloch

Ever so often I come across a photo like this one of a McCulloch and get intrigued to research them and their family. 

It is currently listed on eBay here and the verso of this card contains some small details to help the researcher:

Machine Transcription: N461295 WRITER TESTIFIES AT-SENATE CIVIL LIBERTIES HEARING WASHINGTON, D.C.-SPENCER MCCULLOCH OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH WHO WROTE AN ARTICLE LAST YEAR IN WHICH HE DESCRIBED TOM M. GIRDLER'S METHO S WHEN GIRDLER WAS HEAD OF THE JONES & LAUGHLIN STEEL IS PICTURED AS HE TESTIFIED BEFORE THE SENCERTLES COMMITTEE AT ITS HEARING HERE, AUGUST |/TH. HE SAID THAT HE HAD TALKED THE TOLD HIM ARTİCLE OVER WITHA NEAR GIRDLER AND THAT GIRLDER HAD IT WAS PERFECT PICTURE. CREDIT LINE(ACME) 8/11/38 NY CL YGSTA STLS

So we know Spencer was alive and working in 1938, as a writer for the St Louis Post Dispatch and presumably married (from the ring finger).

According to Wikipedia, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is a regional newspaper serving the St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area and was founded in 1878.

So we have some details but not quite enough to make a genealogical search. A wide internet search revealed this library article dated 15th December 1957. 

This provides some interesting new facts. Spencer had a middle name initial “R”. He was married to Susan at the time of death on 3rd December 1957 and Spencer had previously had a heart attack and had another which was sadly the cause of death. 

Looking at the photo again, we could estimate age at perhaps 40 in 1938 and therefore a birth year around 1900. A search of the US census returned a good match: Spencer R. McCulloch living in St. Louis, Missouri born around 1901. It also indicates Spencer was 28 at time of first marriage (about 1927).  

A search of the US World War II draft cards, returned another good match: Spencer Randolph McCulloch, employed by St. Louis Post-Dispatch with next of kin Susan. Two key bits of information were also included - Spencer’s date of birth: 18th Aug 1900 and place of birth: Webster Groves [a suburb of St. Louis].

Searching for Spencer Randolph McCulloch with the date of birth returned his Grave Record and more clues to his family including his father’s name, John Frederick McCulloch. This connected Spencer through a line of 4x John McCulloch to a line known as McCulloch of Bohemia Manor. 

The town Bohemia Manor (now Chesapeake City, Cecil County, Maryland) was originally named by Bohemian colonist Augustine Herman, the Village of Bohemia or Bohemia Manor but the name was changed in 1839 after the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (C&D Canal) was built in 1829.

This McCulloch line are believed to have landed in Maryland after a short period in Ulster (Northern Ireland) and originally from Galloway and the Myretoun McCulloch branch.