Bartholomew-Jennings County IN Archives Biographies.....Marsh, James N. 1844 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 21, 2007, 9:58 pm Author: B. F. Bowen (1904) JAMES N. MARSH. James Newton Marsh, one of the leading newspaper men of southern Indiana, and a prominent citizen of Columbus, was born on a farm in Jennings county, Indiana, on July 9, 1844, the son of Samuel and Minerva (Brown) Marsh. Mr. Marsh was reared on the farm and secured a common school education. In 1870 he became a member of the engineers corps of the Lake Erie, Evansville & Southwestern Railroad Company and assisted in constructing the road from Evansville to Booneville, a distance of sixteen miles, during 1872. He also assisted in running the preliminary line to Bellefontaine, Ohio. In January, 1873, he purchased the North Vernon (Indiana) Sun, a Democratic newspaper, which had been established as a campaign paper in September of the year before. This paper he conducted successfully for several years. In October, 1878, he purchased the Daily and Weekly Democrat, of Columbus, and for one year conducted both the North Vernon and Columbus newspapers. He then sold the North Vernon enterprise and a year later also sold the Daily and Weekly Democrat, and for three years was engaged in the retail grocery business in Columbus. When the Big Four Railroad built its branch into Columbus, in 1883, Mr. Marsh was appointed agent of the company, a position he held until July, 1892. In this year he began the publication of the Daily and Weekly Times, an independent newspaper. The Daily Morning Times made its initial appearance on Sunday, April 3, 1892, and from the first number has been a success. While a citizen of North Vernon Mr. Marsh was active in politics and was elected city clerk by a majority of ninety-eight votes, when the Republicans had a normal majority of one hundred and fifty in the city. While residing in North Vernon he, with thirteen other prominent Democrats, was arrested on the eve of the election of 1878 by United States marshals, charged with conspiracy to import voters into the fourth congressional district to elect the late Judge Jephtha D. New to congress. For this he was tried before the late Judge Walter O. Gresham and a jury in the United States court for thirty-eight days, but was honorably acquitted on the first ballot by a jury composed of six Democrats and six Republicans. Mr. Marsh has also been active in politics in Columbus and has twice been elected to the city council, and is now and has been most all of the time since coming to Columbus a member of his precinct campaign committee. Mr. Marsh was married on June 12, 1877, to Mary M., the daughter of Colonel Michael M. Gooding, of the Twenty-second Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. To this union three children have been born, namely: Josephine, who died at the age of four months; Charles, who died aged eleven years, and William E., now a student at the State University at Bloomington. He is a partner of his father in the ownership of the Weekly Times, a Democratic paper, and in college is business manager of the Daily Student, the official college paper. Additional Comments: Extracted from BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY INDIANA INCLUDING BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GOVERNORS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS OF INDIANA ILLUSTRATED 1904 B. F. Bowen PUBLISHER File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/bartholomew/bios/marsh728gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 3.8 Kb