At age 17, he was able to begin a more-formal education at the Franklin Academy in Harford, PA, where he spent three years.

Throughout his career, he was a Democrat in an area dominated by the Republicans; at various times, he ran unsuccessfully for District Attorney, the state legislature and the US House of Representatives.

At the time of his election, that court had a two-year backlog of cases; Justice McCollum was successful in eliminating it.

After ten years in that position, he successfully ran for a seat on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in the election of 1888.

[4] Another obituary attributed his death to asthma, and noted that he had been unable to complete the last court term that he attended.