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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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George F. Marshall Mr. Marshall was
born ten miles east of Glasgow, Scotland, on June 15, 1858.
He is the son of Robert and Mary (Forsyth) Marshall, the father born in
the same vicinity as was the subject on November 10, 1831, and the mother was
born in Ayreshire, Scotland, on October 17, 1837. They grew up, were educated
and married in Scotland, and there the elder Marshall worked in the coal
and iron mines. He went to New
Zealand in 1863 where he prospected for gold, and was very successful, finding a
fortune in nuggets, but unfortunately it was stolen from him, and he was then
compelled to work a year in order to get money enough to pay his expenses home.
He returned to Scotland in 1866 and in June of that year he immigrated
with his family to Monroe, Iowa, and bought forty acres in Fairview Township,
Jasper County, and eight years later he bought two hundred acres farther east
and there he and his son George F. operated a coal mine for fifteen years, often
employing twenty men. They enjoyed a good income from this source, but later Mr.
Marshall turned his attention to his farm.
He raised large numbers of Poland China hogs. He was a union labor man
and politically a Democrat later in life. He
was a member of the Methodist Church. Accumulating a
competency, he retired from active life in 1906 and moved to a commodious home
in Monroe where he still resides. His
family consisted of six children, namely: Maggie, Mrs. Robena Nolin. Mrs. Betsy DeMass and Mrs. Mary
Smith; William J., of Fairview Township, this County; and George F., of this
sketch. Only the sons and Robena
live in this Township. George F.
Marshall being the eldest of the family, he had to work hard when a boy
assisting in developing the mine and farm, but he found time to attend the
Enterprise district school and the Monroe high school.
He remained under his parental rooftree until he was twenty-three years
of age. Then he rented his father's place for three years, then bought sixty
acres in Elk Creek Township in l885. Selling
this, he bought sixty acres in Fairview Township and moved thereto and here he
still resides. He has added to his
original purchase until he now has one hundred and ten acres.
He has kept his place well improved and under a high state of
cultivation, and in connection with general farming he has raised thoroughbred
Poland China hogs for the past thirty years.
He won the grand sweepstakes silver loving cup for best hogs, open to all
breeders, at the Iowa state fair in 1899 and 1900.
Winning two years in succession entitled him to keep the cup.
No one else has been able to do this.
He has bred Poland China hogs longer than any other man in Jasper County
and he is one of the largest breeders of this famous blood in Iowa.
Some of the blood of his herds has entered nearly every herd in Iowa of
Poland China stock and he ships to every state in the corn belt.
He raises about one hundred and fifty stock hogs annually. Owing to the superior quality of his hogs they always find a
very ready market whenever offered for sale.
No small part of his competency has been earned thereby, and he is today
one of the substantial men of his locality. Politically,
Mr. Marshall was a Republican, then a People's party supporter, and now he votes
with the Democrats. He is a member
of the Methodist Church. Mr. Marshall was married on
March 3, 1883, to Ulissia A. Tool, who was born September 21, 1864, in this
Township, the daughter of James A. Tool, a native of Virginia, who came to this
section in pioneer days with his father, Adam Tool, one of the first three white
settlers in Jasper County, this being in March 1843.
The father of Mrs. Marshall died on October 15, 1910. A full history of
the Tool family is to be found on another page of this work. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Marshall, namely: Florence; Mrs. Beatrice Balmer, of Fairview Township; Ada R., deceased; Winifred; James R. is at home; Frances, Geneva and Hubert. The Past and Present
of Jasper County, Iowa, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-in-Chief, 1912, B. F.
Bowden & Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. |
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