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Previous Page In 1868, several years after the close of the Civil War, Thomas H. and his brother William purchased their father's real estate holdings.  It appears that about this time he built his fine house, which is now a museum on State Street, Dayton. In 1867, Thomas H. Marshall was taxed on one horse and one cow, but he had no land. In 1868, assessments were made on 201 acres and one dog for him.  Thomas H. established a model farm. In 1884, he owned 520 acres of good farm land, which produced 4,000 bushels of corn,1000 bushels of wheat and 100 tons of hay. The story is told that in years when late frosts or drought reduced the harvests, in turn driving up grain prices, Thomas H. Marshall refused to sell his grain to speculators who were planning to extract the last cent they could from other people's necessity.  Rather, he kept his grain to sell at a fair price to those of his community in need. His herds of sheep and swine were among the finest in the county. Besides the farm, he operated a tannery in Dayton and butchered about 100 cattle per year. For some years, he also operated a lumberyard in Dayton and a lime quarry on the McElwee farm, later owned by his son David D. Marshall. Thomas H. also acquired considerable other properties, part of which consisted of lots in Dayton that were sold as the town grew. As a good citizen, Thomas H. Marshall undertook public duties. He had been reared in a Whig Party family and became part of the Republican Party at its organization in 1856. He greatly admired Abraham Lincoln. From 1864 to1874, he served as a Justice of the Peace and from that time forward was known as Squire Marshall.  He also served as a Dayton School Board Director. Even as a young man, Thomas H. took an active part in furthering education. He was a stockholder of Dayton Union Academy, which his father helped organize in 1852, and of the Dayton Soldiers Orphans School Stock Company in 1866. Thomas H. acted as treasurer of the Orphans School and handled as much as $30,000 a year. He contracted to quarry the foundation stones for the first building of the school and provided meat at Ten Cents per pound for the more than 200 children in the institution. The school closed in 1888 after a fire, and the remaining buildings were used as a Normal Institute and later part of the public school system. In 1880 he helped organize the Dayton Agricultural and Mechanical Association and leased property for the fair activities, which he later sold to the Association. Thomas H. joined the Glade Run Associate Presbyterian Church as a young man and continued his membership in the congregation throughout his life. In 1858, the congregation became part of the United Presbyterian Church of North America through a denominational union.  One year prior, the congregation moved into Dayton, but did not take the town name until 1860. Thomas H. was elected a trustee of the congregation and contributed liberally to the church.  According to the request of his wife, who died in 1906, he directed in his will that a brick manse for the use of the Dayton United Presbyterian Church be built as a memorial to his wife and himself. In 1880, Thomas H. Marshall became associated with the Enterprise Lumber Company in Barnett Township, Forest County, Pennsylvania; and in 1885, he helped organize the Maple Creek Lumber Company of which he owned one-half interest in the same geographic area. This company began its existence with 2300 acres of timberland which was soon increased to 5000 acres. This company was dissolved in 1896, and the firm of Thomas Hindman Marshall and Sons was then organized. Thomas H. continued his interest in the lumbering business even after his son Robert Neal Marshall began to direct the affairs. In 1901 he became a stockholder of the First National Bank of Dayton. While visiting at Redclyffe, Forest County, Pennsylvania, in regard to the lumber business, Thomas H. Marshall died unexpectedly on January 25, 1908.  His body was returned to Dayton and laid to rest beside that of his wife in the United Presbyterian Cemetery in Wayne Township, not many feet away from where his parents had also been buried. The same year in which Thomas H. Marshall died, the way of life in America was changed by the introduction of a new machine.  The Model T Ford gave a new mobility to people and did away with the unhurried life in rural America. The "pleasure carriage," for which Thomas H. was assessed in 1874, had become as antiquated as the one horse shay. Thomas Hindman Marshall contributed to the progress of his community in the areas of business, finance, agriculture, husbandry, education, government and religion. He was a man of high moral character and sensitive to the needs of his community. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, henceforth, that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them." Revelation 14:13 Previous Page   email info@daytonpa.org web host Steel City Webs