Mesa County CO Archives Biographies.....Marsh, William A. February 9, 1856 - ?
************************************************

Copyright.  All rights reserved.

http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm

************************************************



File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net March 23, 2006, 7:17 pm

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     The interesting subject of this review, who is one of the leading business

men of Grand Junction, has had a varied and inspiring career.  Tried by both

extremes of fortune, he has never been unduly influenced by either, but at every

turn of the wheel has kept his faith with his manhood, his determined spirit,

his self-reliance and his inflexible integrity.  He was born on February 9,

1856, in Sonoma county, California, the son of Washington J. and Maria P.

(Smith) Marsh.  They were natives of New York.  In 1849 the father went to

California by the perilous and tedious route around Cape Horn, and the mother

followed him thither in 1852, she going by way of the isthmus and Lake

Nicaragua.  For a number of years the father followed mining and farming

successfully in his new home, then lost all his accumulations in a Los Angeles

real-estate boom.  He died on March 13, 1898, in Riverside county, California,

at a small town where he conducted a modest store and was postmaster for a few

years prior to his death.  His widow is still living there.  During the Civil

war the father was a member of a militia company which kept guns in secret ready

for emergencies.  The Judge lived in various counties of his native state and

Nevada during his boyhood and youth, and attended the district schools as he had

opportunity.  Later he was a student at the Collegiate Institute at Napa,

California, and was graduated there in 1879.  He then taught school one year in

California and one year in Nevada.  In 1881 he entered the law department of the

Michigan State University, and was graduated therefrom in 1883.  He came at once

to Grand Junction, this state, then a straggling village of five hundred

population.  Soon after his arrival he was appointed assistant cashier of the

Mesa County State Bank, and during the next seven years he held this position. 

In the fall of 1889 he was elected county judge, and at the end of his term of

three years he started the real-estate business which he is still conducting and

which he has built up into one of the leading enterprises of this kind in the

western part of the state.  He has succeeded handsomely in his operations, and

is now one of the substantial men of his section in a material way, and in

business circles has a wide and helpful influence.  In politics he is a

prohibition Republican, but is seldom an active partisan.  In church work he is

more energetic and the results of his labors in this field stand out prominently

to his everlasting credit.  He helped to organize the Sunday school of the

Methodist Episcopal church, and was elected its superintendent, a position he

has held continuously from the organization of the school until now.  Later he

aided greatly in effecting a church organization, of which he and his wife are

zealous members, and which through their efforts with those of others has grown

strong and effective for great good in the community.  Fraternally he is

connected with the Masonic order in lodge and chapter and has held high offices

in both organizations.  In July, 1886, he was married to Miss Rosa H. Harris,

whom he met while attending school at Napa, California.  She was born in Nevada,

the daughter of W.G. Harris, a mining man during the whole of his mature life. 

The Judge and his wife have four children, William E., Alice A., Mabel and

Walter W., all at home. In January, 1897, he was instrumental in organizing the

Home Loan and Investment Company, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand

dollars, and he has been its secretary and manager ever since its organization.

 He also helped to organize the first building and loan association at Grand

Junction, and in this association he has been chairman of the property committee

from its foundation.  In all the relations of life he has walked uprightly among

his fellow men, and in the means of developing improving and elevating the

material and moral welfare of his section of the country he has been potential

in enterprise, wise in counsel, conservative in action, and beneficial in every

way. 

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/mesa/bios/marsh369gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cofiles/

File size: 4.7 Kb