Lyman, George D. John Marsh, Pioneer: The Life Story of a Trail-blazer on Six Frontiers. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1930. First Edition. [7858]
First printing (A).
Dark blue publisher's cloth with gilt titles, light bump top right, surface scratch to front, 6 x 8 3/4 inches. Map end papers, frontispiece portrait of Marsh, xii., (1), 394 clean pp. with bibliography & index, several b/w illustrations. Previous owner's ink name stamp on the top closed page edge. Good. Hardcover.
Howes L578.
"This biography of John Marsh is based entirely on source material: on old diaries, journals, faded letters, statements, reminiscences and memoirs found in many quarters..." - p. 339.
John Marsh (1799-1856) b. Danvers, Massachusetts; d. Vine Hill California. he was educated at the Phillips Academy in Andover, and at Harvard College, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1823. At first inclined to the Christian ministry, he became a medical doctor. He migrated west, teaching school in the Michigan Territory (now Minnesota), was appointed US Indian agent for the Sioux Agency at Fort Snelling, and was appointed Justice of the Peace over a vast area encompassing (now) southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and parts of Iowa and Minnesota. His status as Indian agent involved him in the Black Hawk War, during which he was blamed for Sioux massacres.
He moved into Illinois, was accused of selling guns illegally to some Indians, and fled to Independence, Missouri. He became employed by the American Fur Company and was moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico; shortly after (1836) he followed the Santa Fe Trail in to Southern California, then Mexican territory.
In California he again practiced medicine, and it is said that he charged outrageous fees. As a requirement of the Mexican authorities to purchase land, he converted to Roman Catholicism. He became very wealthy as a cattle & land owner. Marsh worked to advertise California to Americans in the East, and was active in helping his fellow Americans seize California as a United States territory.
