Post-war Years
After the war, McCook resumed his studies at Kenyon College and graduated in 1866. He entered the Harvard Law School and graduated in 1869, and later received honorary law degrees from Princeton University and the University of Kansas. He passed his bar exam and established a prosperous legal practice in New York City in the celebrated firm of Alexander & Green, eventually becoming a senior partner. He joined the New York State Bar Association and served on the boards of directors for several prominent insurance companies, railroads, and financial institutions. He was also a trustee of Kenyon College, as well as being a director of the Princeton Theological Seminary. He was instrumental in establishing a formal statute for an intercollegiate system of academic costume, and provided the money in 1892 for the University of Kansas's first athletic stadium, McCook Field, which was in service for thirty years.
The Santa Fe Railroad went into receivership in December 1893, due to rapidly declining stock prices and the failing health of its president, and McCook was one of three men appointed as directors to oversee the struggling railroad as it returned to financial stability.
McCook declined an offer to serve in the first Cabinet of President William McKinley. During the Spanish-American War, he chaired the Army and Navy Christian Commission. He became a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt.
Read more about this topic: John James Mc Cook (lawyer)
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