About Us > Senator McLean

George P. McLean (1857-1932) was born in Simsbury, Connecticut on October 7, 1857. The McLean farm, called the "Homestead" was located on Firetown Road. It was built in 1809 by Allen McLean (1781-1861), pastor of the Congregational Church and George's grandfather, who had moved from Vernon, Connecticut. What is now Hopmeadow Country Club's clubhouse was the Homestead barn, and the home, called Holly Hill, now is home to Governor's House Nursing Home.

George McLean attended grade school in Simsbury and graduated from Hartford Public High School in 1877.

After working as a newspaper reporter and then as a bookkeeper at Trinity College, he worked and studied law in the law offices of Henry C. Robinson in Hartford and was admitted to the bar in 1882.

He was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives by the citizens of Simsbury for the session of 1883-84, served as U.S. Attorney for Connecticut from 1892-96, and was elected Governor of Connecticut, serving from 1901-1903.

From 1911 until 1929 Senator McLean served three successive terms in the U.S. Senate. During this period his deep interest in wildlife conservation inspired one of his many Senatorial triumphs, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. In 1929 he retired to his home in Simsbury, where he died June 6, 1932.

In his will the Senator created the McLean Fund. The original trustees were his friends Joseph F. Ensign of Simsbury, Charles A. Goodwin, a prominent Hartford lawyer and Chairman of the Metropolitan District Commission; William G. Cheney of South Manchester, Barclay Robinson of Robinson & Cole and Richard H. Cole, also a Robinson & Cole partner and his personal lawyer.

Senator McLean's love of nature and wildlife led him to establish the McLean Game Refuge so that others might find there "the peace of mind and body that I have found".