San
Joaquin County
Biographies
OSCAR MARSHALL
A man of genius, of most interesting
personality, and the worthy representative of a pioneer, historic family, the
late Oscar Marshall was highly esteemed as a man whose honor was above reproach
by his generation, in which he was widely known, and will be long and
pleasantly remembered by posterity as a Californian who did much to make in
truth the Golden State, and as a distinguished citizen of Stockton in
particular. He was born at Davenport,
Iowa, on March 17, 1847, the son of Thomas and Rebecca (Butterfield) Marshall,
the former a native of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and the latter of New
Hampshire, now both deceased. Thomas
Marshall emigrated to Iowa in early days, and from
there, in 1849, started across the plains for California. Early in the spring of the next year he
arrived here, and soon bought some land from Captain Weber, on the Calaveras
River. There he farmed to grain and
raised cattle in the Delta district; and in later years, or during Governor
Haight’s administration, he was a deputy in the Secretary of State’s office at
Sacramento. In 1856 he bought a house at
the corner of American and Sonora streets in Stockton, which had been brought
around the Horn by Captain Taylor, and is still standing there, in a good state
of preservation. Four children were born
to this worthy couple. Mrs. Sarah Hall
of Berkeley and Oscar were born in Iowa, and Mrs. Eureka Washburn, deceased,
and Mary P. were born in Stockton.
Coming to California so early, Oscar
Marshall was educated in the Stockton schools, and during the building of the Southern
Pacific Railroad, he helped in the survey.
He spent a deal of his time on the islands in the Delta district working
with his father and enjoying hunting and fishing. He was a born genius, a great lover of nature
and a close student of natural resources.
He built a catamaran which ran for many years between Stockton and
islands upon the San Joaquin River. He
was an authority on soil conditions, and opposed to the building of the
diverting canal, having made a thorough study of the Delta waterways. He was a very progressive man, with
brilliant, practical ideas, but was ahead of his time. In early years he joined the Stockton police force,
when that efficient and faithful body was small, and he served for many years,
or until he was retired, as one of the first men to have been appointed. He was frugal in habits and believed in the
future of Stockton and invested wisely in real estate which has greatly
increased in value in the passing years.
Mr. Marshall and his sister, Mary
P., were close companions, for our subject never married; and before his death,
in May, 1911, he willed his estate to his sister who makes her home at 1035
North Edison Street, in a home she had built according to her own ideas. She is fond of outdoor life and has a fine
collection of birds, the pheasant and finch in particular being well
represented. She takes a keen interest
in California history, and is proud of the fact that Grandfather Marshall built
for his residence what was the first frame house in Stockton, and which has
been in the possession of the family ever since.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
386-387. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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