My Genealogy Hound

JOHN R. MARSHALL, postmaster, and manager of Montour store, Imperial, was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, March 5, 1856, a son of William and Dorcas (Reed) Marshall, former of whom was a son of Robert and Elinor (Hayes) Marshall, of Washington county, Pa. Dorcas (Reed) Marshall was born in Allegheny county, Pa., a daughter of John and Lilly (McCracken) Reed, both Pennsylvanians, and members of the Presbyterian Church. John Reed was a native of Westmoreland county, Pa., and died in Mercer county, Pa., aged fifty-eight years; Lilly (McCracken) Reed was a native of Lancaster county, Pa., and died at West Salem, La Crosse county, Wis., aged ninety-six years; she was a daughter of Alexander and Margaret (Marshall) McCracken, of County Armagh, Ireland, who came to America in 1780, and settled in Allegheny county, Pa.; he died in Guernsey county, Ohio, at the advanced age of one hundred years, his wife in Montgomery county, Ohio, when sixty-five years old. William and Dorcas (Reed) Marshall were members of the Presbyterian Church; they had one child, John R. In 1859 the father died, at the age of fifty-seven, and the mother then came to Allegheny City, where she joined her sisters; she died in West Salem, Wis., at the age of sixty-six. The subject of this sketch attended school in Allegheny until ten years of age, when he commenced for himself. He worked in the bookstore of Mrs. M. J. Arnold, Allegheny City, three years; then clerked for a like period for a merchant tailor at Pittsburgh, and in 1872, with his mother, opened a grocery store in Allegheny, Pa. Two years later he sold out and took a course in telegraphy and book-keeping in Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. Subsequently he returned to Allegheny City and clerked in a grocery store until December, 1879, when he came to Imperial as clerk in the Montour store, of which he was appointed manager in 1881. That same year he was appointed postmaster by Postmaster-General James. Mr. Marshall married, Oct. 6, 1881, Mary E. Crawford, a native of Allegheny City, and a daughter of Andrew I. and Martha J. E. (Knox) Crawford, natives, respectively, of Allegheny and Juniata counties. Mr. Marshall is a member of Royal Arcanum Lodge 100, Allegheny City, and he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church at Imperial. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall have two children, Elnetta M. and John K.