Lake County IN Archives Biographies.....Marvin, Eliza L. Fuller 1827 - 1904
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Author: T. H. Ball (1904)

MRS. ELIZA L. MARVIN.

    Mrs. Eliza L. Marvin, who passed from among the living July 31, 1904, was a
foremost representative of the remarkable pioneer women so few of whom remain in
Lake county from the days gone by. All history shows how conspicuous a part the
wives and daughters have played in the national development and material, social
and intellectual welfare of the country, and the pioneer class to which Mrs.
Marvin belonged is especially worthy of honor when the annals of a section of
country like Lake county are under consideration, as in this volume of
historical and biographical narrative. The women were often no less forward than
the men in blazing the way of civilization and making the wild country produce
of the fruits necessary to mankind. Mrs. Marvin had been a resident of Lake
county since 1847, and she could look back to the time when this part of Indiana
was in its virginity, and she had witnessed the wonderful development which has
transformed a profitless section of country into as rich an agricultural and
industrial community as can be found anywhere in the state. In her time the
great trunk lines of railroad have been thrown across the county, the
manufacturing plants of colossal size and importance have been established in
the Lake cities, and all the institutions of learning, religion and charity have
grown up.

    Mrs. Marvin was born in Wayne county, Michigan, August 13, 1827, so that her
life has spanned, with its seventy-seven years, the gulf from the most primitive
times of the middle west to the present phenomenal development of civilization
in the same territory. She was the eldest of seven children. four sons and three
daughters, born to Hiram S. and Mary W. (Holley) Fuller, and of these she had
just one brother living, Charles Fuller, who is married and resides at Salida,
California. Hiram Fuller was born in the old Green Mountain state of Vermont in
1801, and died in July, 1878. He was reared in his native state till he had
almost reached manhood, and his common school education was finished off at a
seminary. His parents moved to Whitehall, New York, and he resided there for
eight or ten years. From New York he came west to Michigan and settled at
Northville, in the pioneer days, and purchased some timber land and began his
career as a farmer. In those early days he often drove an ox team to Detroit for
provisions. He sold his one hundred and sixty acres in the fruit belt of
Michigan and in 1847 came to Lake county, Indiana, and located on a previous
purchase of four hundred acres of wild land in West Creek township. Their
settlement in the county was at an early enough date that the deer were still
plentiful, and Mrs. Marvin remembers having seen as many as ninety at a time in
the vicinity of the homestead. Mr. Fuller was for many years a Whig in politics,
but from the birth of the Republican party espoused its principles till his
death. He was a man of much decision of character, was a friend of education and
all interests conducive to the welfare of his community, was domestic in his
tastes and a lover of home and children, and his beneficent influence continued
to live in the noble womanhood of his daughter. He and his wife were members of
the Presbyterian church, and he helped found the church in West Creek township
and assisted in the building of the church edifice. Mrs. Marvin's mother was a
native of York state, and was born in the Genesee valley in September, 1808, and
died in 1878, having been reared and educated in New York state. She was a kind
and affectionate mother, and the spirit of her teachings and her character is
still potent in the world.

    Mrs. Marvin was a young lady of about twenty-one years when she came to Lake
county, and her education had already been completed in the common schools and
an academy in Michigan. She was an assistant in the Northville public schools
for about two years and also followed the profession of teaching after she came
to Indiana.

    On December 6, 1851, she was united in marriage with Mr. Charles Marvin. He
was born in the state of Connecticut, and died June 16, 1892. He was reared by
his uncle and aunt and received a good education. His younger years were spent
in the capacity of a salesman in the south, being in New Orleans for six months,
after which he came north. Much of his life was spent as a merchant, but after
his marriage he became an agriculturist. He was thrifty and a good financial
manager, and at the time of his marriage he owned about six hundred acres of
land in West Creek township. He was a strong anti-slavery advocate, and followed
the banner of the Republican party until his death. He was a very successful
stock-raiser and farmer, and was known and admired throughout Lake county for
his firm integrity and prominence in the affairs of citizenship. He was reared
in the Presbyterian faith.

    At her husband's death Mrs. Marvin had to assume a large business
responsibility in the management of the estate left her, and during the
subsequent years she displayed an acumen and sagacity rarely found in those of
the gentler sex. She was a genial and cordial lady, and had many friends. Her
bright mind delighted to wander among the scenes of early days, and on the page
of her memory was written a record of many events and scenes of the first half
of the past century. She had seen the city of Chicago when teams were stalled
along the business thoroughfares of Lake street on account of the mud and mire,
and she also knew the city with its population of nearly two millions. She was a
woman of charitable and generous instincts, and never failed to respond to
benevolent causes worthy of her consideration.

    Mr. and Mrs. Marvin had no children of their own, but in the goodness of
their hearts they adopted a boy and a girl, named Edward Prosser and Ellen
Rollins, and reared and educated them, surrounding them with the best of
influences and comforts. The former died after reaching young manhood, and the
latter married Philip Stuppy, a farmer of West Creek township. Mrs. Marvin
retained until the last the active management and oversight of the estate of
three hundred acres, part of which is located in Illinois, and she had a
beautiful home in which to pass the final years of so useful and noble a career
as had been vouchsafed to her.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

ENCYCLOPEDIA
OF
Genealogy and Biography
OF
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA,
WITH A COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY 
1834—1904

A Record of the Achievements of Its People in the Making of a Commonwealth and
the Founding of a Nation.

REV. T. H. BALL
OF CROWN POINT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO   NEW YORK
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1904


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