Joel Marsh Biography


	This biography appears on page 136 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				JOEL MARSH. 

	Joel Marsh, a Sanborn county pioneer and the owner of the 
Standard Stock Farm, was born in Grundy county, Illinois, November 6, 
1850, a son of William B. and Hannah Marsh. The parents were natives of 
Ohio and about 1840 removed westward to Illinois. In their family were 
five children. 

	Joel Marsh was the third in order of birth and was educated in 
the district schools and remained upon the home farm until he reached 
his twenty-first year, when he engaged in farming on his own account in 
his native state. There he remained in active business for about a 
decade, and in 1882 came to Dakota territory, where he took up a 
homestead and later acquired an additional quarter section. His three 
hundred and twenty acre farm is devoted to the production of 
diversified crops and annually he gathers golden harvests as the reward 
for the care and labor which he bestows upon the fields. He is also 
well known as a breeder of Percheron horses and shorthorn cattle, and 
from this branch of his business derives a gratifying annual income. 

	On the 17th of January, 1878, Mr. Marsh was united in marriage to 
Miss Oral Louise Cragg, who died in 1893, leaving two children: Louis 
B., who has the active management of the homestead farm; and William 
Arthur, who is now a ranchman of Meade county, South Dakota. The former 
married Emma R. West and has two children, George A. and Milton N. 

	In his political views Mr. Marsh has always been a republican 
where national issues are involved, but casts an independent ballot at 
local elections. For more than twenty years he has served as a member 
of the township board and his influence is always on the side of 
advancement and improvement. He belongs to the Methodist church and in 
various ways contributes to the county's advancement along material, 
intellectual, social and moral lines. He is a representative of the 
most progressive type of citizenship, belonging to that class of men 
who have been active in developing good roads, improving public schools 
and supporting all other progressive movements. He experienced the 
struggles and hardships of pioneer days, coming to the county before 
the building of railways, and, in fact, he was largely instrumental in 
securing the establishment of the railway through this point and helped 
to grade the road between Letcher and Woonsocket. At the time of his 
arrival his nearest market was at Letcher, twelve miles distant. He did 
not quail at the conditions which pioneer life imposes, however, but 
with resolute purpose set to work to establish a home and win success, 
and his prosperity is due to good business management and the 
utilization of modern methods.