Born in Woodford, Vermont, Park studied law as a teenager, and attained admission to the bar at age 21, as soon as he was legally eligible.

Park returned to Vermont in 1864, and continued to practice law and pursue investments in a variety of businesses while also maintaining a residence in New York City.

Park was a candidate for the 1874 Republican nomination for Governor but withdrew in favor of Asahel Peck, who went on to win the general election.

[7][8] Originally a Whig, at the founding of the Republican Party, Park became an active member, serving as a delegate to several state conventions.

[22] English citizens invested millions of pounds, and in 1876 and 1877 his partners and he were accused of defrauding the group that purchased the mine.

[22] Park was a candidate for the 1874 Republican nomination for Governor, but withdrew in favor of the eventual nominee and general election winner, state Supreme Court Justice Asahel Peck.

[23] The same year, Park purchased controlling interest in the Panama Railway and was elected its president, succeeding Russell Sage.

[24] During the rest of the 1870s he engaged in a well-publicized contest with rival financier Jay Gould for control of Pacific Mail, the company that shipped cargo between the eastern and western United States by moving it overland across the Isthmus of Panama.

[26] Active in civic affairs, Park was a member of the committee that oversaw design and construction of the Bennington Battle Monument,[27] and was a trustee of the University of Vermont.

[33] His funeral took place at New York City's Collegiate Reformed Church, and he was buried in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery.

Trenor L. Park died during surgery for an intestinal ailment, and his friends and family believed his decline had been hastened by despondence over the death of his nine-year-old daughter Elliot, who had been killed in an accident earlier that year.

[37][38] Laura Hall Park (1858–1939) married Frederic Beach Jennings (1853–1920), a Bennington and New York City lawyer and businessman.