Riley Co., KS AHGP-Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties-William B. Marshall
Portrait and Biographical Album of Washington, Clay and Riley Counties Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890
WlLLIAM B. MARSHALL. Could all the incidents in the life of Mr. Marshall, after his settlement upon the frontier of Northern Kansas, be properly detailed, they would form quite an interesting volume. He came to this section of the country when it was peopled principally by wild animals, before the advent of flouring mills, sawmills, railroads, or even a stagecoach. He planted, as it were, his banner in the wilderness, and through storm and sunshine kept its colors flying, and at length came off more than conqueror over all the
difficulties which beset him. He forms one of the prominent landmarks of Riley County, and is numbered among its most honored citizens. A lifelong farmer by occupation, his homestead is pleasantly located on section 1, where he built up from the wilderness a good farm and is now in the en-joymeiit of all life's comforts.
In going back to the early history of the subject of this sketch we find that he is of New England ancestry, being the son of Moody Marshall, a native of Bradford, N. H. His mother, Sarah (Beard) Marshall, was likewise a native of the old Granite Suite, and born in New Boston. She came of a hardy race�the Scotch Irish, of the North of Ireland. Moody Marshall traced his progenitors to England. After their marriage the parents of our subject settled in Ware, N. H., whence later they removed to Nashua, in that State, where they spent the remainder of their lives. Their family consisted of eight sons and one daughter, and all of the sons grew to man's estate. The daughter, a cherished plant, was taken from the household circle when three years old.
William B. Marshall was the fifth child of his parents, and was born in Ware, N. H., April 25, 1829. Until twenty years of age he remained on the farm of his parents, acquiring a common-school education.and becoming familiar with agriculture as prosecuted in New England style. The father gave to all his boys their time when arriving at the age of twenty years, and William B., when practically becoming his own man. employed himself as a farm laborer during the summer months and attended school during the winter for three years. He then entered a shoe manufacturing establishment and was employed in cutting uppers and sorting leather three years, when he was taken ill and obliged to relinquish it.
After his recovery Mr. Marshall being desirous of establishing a home of his own. was married in the latter part of February, 1855. in Andover, to Miss Anna J. Pillsbury. This lady was likewise a native of New Hampshire, and the daughter of the Rev. Stephen Pillsbury, a minister of the Baptist Church. On the 12th of March following, accompanied by his wife and her brother Leonard H., and his own brother Andrew, Mr. Marshall left New England in charge of the Emigration Aid Society, setting out for the Territory of Kansas, making the journey by rail to Alton, and thence down the river to St. Louis, thence from St. Louis to Kansas City, and the balance of the journey was was made overland by means of ox-teams, they arriving at Lawrence in the latter part of the above-mentioned month. Two or three days later Mr. Marshall set out for Riley County, and took up a tract of land in what is now Zeandale Township, where he established a homestead and has since remained. He was one of the very first men to locate in Riley County prior to the settlement of the Manhattan Colony in this region. He squatted on land which, four years latter he preempted, securing possession of 160 acres. He here maintained his residence during the trying times which followed, when "bleeding Kansas" was not only harrassed by political troubles, but suffered from grasshoppers, drouth, chinch bugs and other disasters. Mr. Marshall was not molested on account of his political views, being a man of sound, good sense, and making it a point to attend strictly to his own concerns.
Mrs. Annie J. Marshall the young wife of our subject, only survived her marriage one short year, dying in February, 1856, at the homestead in Zeandale Township. On June 21, 1861, Mr. Marshall contracted a second marriage with Miss Sarah A. Allen, a native of Columbiana County, Ohio, and born July 14, 1833. Benjamin Allen, the father of Mrs. Marshall, came to Riley County about 1865, and settled in Zeandale Township, of which he was a resident until his death. Of this union there were born five children: Anna A., the eldest, is the wife of Alfred Docking, and teaching in Spencer Academy, Indian Territory; John M. remains with his parents; Phebe died when an infant of six months, and William L. died at about the same age; Charles W., the youngest, continues under the home roof. Mrs. Sarah Marshall departed this life at her home in Zeandale Township, April 10, 1889. She was a very excellent woman, an affectionate and devoted wife and mother, a hospitable neighbor, and one always ready to take an active part, as far as possible, in all religious work. She had been for many years a member in good
standing of the Congregational Church. Her death was mourned not only by her own family but by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.
Mr. Marshall, in his religious views, is a Congregationalist, and during the early years of his residence in Kansas, served as a Commissioner when Riley was a part of Davis County. He was elected Justice of the Peace, but not desiring the office, failed to qualify. He was in Lawrence during the bogus election which was held in the spring of 1855, and witnessed the stirring incidents which followed. He has always been recognized as a liberal-minded and public-spirited citizen, and as a member of the agricultural community he occupies a position second to none in the county. He has been greatly prospered as a tiller of the soil, and gradually added to his landed possessions until he is now the owner of 480 acres of land which is devoted to general farming and stock-raising. His dwelling is a substantial stone structure, adjacent to which is the barn and various other outbuildings required for the shelter of stock and the storage of grain. The whole career of Mr. Marshall is one worthy of record in a work designed to perpetuate the names and deeds of those men who ventured upon the frontier during the early days, and to whose courage and perseverance Kansas is indebted for her present position among the prosperous commonwealths of the great West.