[p. 451] president of the Home Trust Company, an important enterprise of the city of New Castle, is identified also with a number of the leading industries of this section. Captain Marquis was born March 15, 1830, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and is a son of John and Elizabeth (McMillen) Marquis.
The family of Captain Marquis is of Huguenot origin. His ancestors were driven from France during the severe persecutions that followed the Protestant Reformation. The date of their flight is somewhat uncertain. One tradition has it that it was just after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1689, but that is hardly probable, as the branch of the family that came to America was thoroughly anglicized when they emigrated here thirty-one years later, in 1720. It is also known that some time had been spent in Ireland before venturing to the unsettled world across the ocean. There is a persistent tradition, also, of a more or less extended residence both in England and Scotland, and of suffering persecution for their faith in both countries. It would seem from this that the date of the family's emigration from France must be put much earlier than 1689, possibly a hundred years earlier, or during the persecution that followed the Massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1582. It would also appear that the family, like most of the Huguenot exodus, failed to keep together on quitting their native France. Some, we know, went to the British Isles, others are reported in Germany, and the head of the family went to Switzerland, where his descendants occupy, to this day, a large estate called Le Chatelard Montreaux, near Chillon. It may be remarked in passing that Captain Marquis' daughter, Laura, is now (1908) on a visit to Switzerland, in company with the Rev. Marquis, of Beaver, and his sister, and during her tour abroad intends visiting the old family seat. The family seat is a magnificent old castle on a high bluff overlooking Lake Geneva. It ought to be added that the Swiss branch of the family has been a potent factor in the life of the little Alpine Republic for more than 200 years. One of its late members for a number of years was Grand Counsellor or Attorney General of the Republic. His widow and children are still living on the Montreaux estate.
According to the more probable of the traditions mentioned above, the family were Dissenters in England, as they had been Protestants in France, and when it was made uncomfortable for them there they removed to Scotland during the reign of James I., or Charles I. From there, in the course of time, they crossed to Ireland and settled in Letterkenny, County Donegal. How long they were there is not known.
The authentic history of the American branch begins with the year 1720, when William Marquis and his wife, Mary, emigrated from Letterkenny to Frederick County, Maryland, crossing the ocean in a ship called the Mayflower, named for its illustrious predecessor which brought the Pilgrims a century before. After living a few years in Maryland, they removed to Virginia and settled near the present site of Winchester, at a point called Opequon. The battle of Winchester, during the Civil War, is said to have been fought on the land taken up by them on their settlement in that state. After they arrived in America, William and Mary Marquis had born to them one son and one daughter. The latter married a man by the name of Wilson, who was somewhat noted in his day as a scholar and educator. James Marquis, the son, married and became the father of four sons and three daughters. The sons were named: William, John, James and Thomas. While these children were small the father was killed by a falling tree, leaving the support and training of his family to his sister and her husband, who were childless. Owing to their home in the Wilson household, the children received a much better education than most young men and women of their day. The two younger boys, John and Thomas, were members of the Virginia Colonial militia and took part, in 1774, in what is known in history as Lord Dunmore's Rebellion. The story of that campaign, with the treachery of the governor, his betrayal of part of his troops into the hands of the Indians on the banks of the Ohio, and the bloody battle of Point Pleasant that followed, is too well known to require repetition here. The governor, it seems, disappointed in his scheme to wipe out the Scotch-Irish troops in his colony, whom he cordially feared and hated, disbanded their regiments in the wilderness and allowed the men to make their way back to civilization the best they could. The two Marquis men set out together through what is now southeastern Ohio, the panhandle of West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania, in as straight a line for Winchester as they could follow. As might have been expected, they were hotly chased by Indians until they reached the Ohio River. At one period of their journey they ran almost continuously for five days and nights, with no food but the bits of dried flesh they could pull from their deerskin blankets, sometimes eating it raw, as they ran. After crossing the Ohio at the mouth of Cross Creek, near where Wellsburg, W. Va., now is, they followed the creek to its headwaters at Cross Creek Village, Washington County, Pennsylvania. Although this region was almost unsettled then, the brothers were so pleased with its appearance that they determined to return the next year and begin a settlement. This they did in the spring of 1776 or, possibly, in the autumn of 1775. They left their families in Virginia, but brought with them a company of hardy pioneers who were ready to hew out homes in the wilderness. The first things they needed in those days was a fort for protection against the Indians, and as soon as the party arrived they built two, Well's Fort, three miles west, and Vance's Fort, one mile north of what is now the village of Cross Creek. The remnants of the latter can still be seen on the farm of James Vance, a descendant of William Vance, a member of the Virginia expedition, who had married one of the three Marquis sisters.
It was near Vance's Fort that John and Thomas Marquis located. In the spring of 1777 they returned to Virginia for their families. The winter of 1777-78 was spent in the fort on account of the hostility of the Indians, and during the months of enforced inactivity, a notable thing happened. Rev. James Powers, said to have been the first Protestant minister west of the Alleghany Mountains, and who had been preaching to some of the older settlements east of the Monongahela, visited the fort and held services. A remarkable revival of religion took place in which the two Marquis men were converted. It changed the entire current of their lives. Before this they were types of that pioneer class called "border ruffians," with the virtues and vices of their kind, rough, hot-tempered, always ready for a fight and at home on the warpath; but brave, generous and loyal to their friends. The religious awakening which marked the inception of the settlement also determined its history. For a century and a quarter the community which sprang up has been noted for its sturdy religious and moral conviction. The younger of the two Marquis brothers, Thomas, later became a Presbyterian minister, and for thirty-three years was pastor of the church at Cross Creek, which grew out of the revival at the fort. He was one of the most conspicuous ministers of his day, a man of remarkable force and so eloquent of speech as to earn for him far and wide the title of the "Silver-tongued." His brother became an elder in the same church and among the descendants of the two are more than a score of ministers and elders of the Presbyterian faith. The two older of the four brothers, William and James, remained in Virginia, although not a few of their sons and grandsons found their way to Pennsylvania in the closing years of the eighteenth and opening decades of the nineteenth centuries. It would be impossible, in a sketch of this kind, to follow the family as such, further. Our purpose has been to trace its general history until its settlement in Pennsylvania. A curious change in the family name has taken place in the last eighty or ninety years. The two brothers who came from Virginia spelled their name Marques, as the southern branch do to this day; but, for some unknown reason, those who came north adopted Marquis. Which was the original form is uncertain.
From Washington County, the grandfather of Captain Marquis, Samuel Marquis, crossed the Ohio northward, about the close of the eighteenth century, and located in the western part of Beaver County. This region was then an utter wilderness, where the pioneer struggle to make a home had to be fought out. The traditions of the family do not mention any trouble with the Indians in the new home, as their fathers had a generation before in Washington County, but there was many a battle with wolves and bears that would make thrilling reading in these days. Samuel Marquis, with all its hardships and privations in this wilderness, reared a family of ten children, six sons and four daughters.
John Marquis, the fourth son and the father of Captain Marquis, was a boy just old enough to ride horseback when the emigration from Washington County took place. John Marquis grew to a hardy manhood in the free air of its woods, and, in the course of time, married Miss Elizabeth McMillen, a name much revered in Western Pennsylvania. To them were born five sons and one daughter, namely: David, James, Samuel, William H., Milton S. and Martha. All these children were reared in Beaver County and from there entered on the careers of their choice. David, the eldest, practiced medicine in Eastern Ohio and died not many years since at New Lisbon, where he is survived by a son, who is also a physician. James, Samuel and William were river men and two of them located at New Orleans and one at Mobile. The only sister, Martha, married Josiah Putney, and died in 1869.
Captain Marquis is the sole survivor of his parents' family. He resided in Beaver County until he was twenty-five years of age, attending the public schools of New Brighton until he was fifteen years old, when he went on the river and "keel-boated" between Beaver and Pittsburg. As a boy, he showed the energy, perseverance and enthusiasm for work that made him so successful in later years. At seventeen, he took employment on the old "Cross-cut Canal," between Pittsburg and Cleveland, beginning as a driver and rising rapidly, being appointed captain at nineteen. He was put in charge of a boat owned by John Reeves, carrying both freight and passengers, and called the Ashland Farmer. When it is recalled that the trip from Pittsburg to Cleveland by canal boat required four days, and that he would have in his charge fifty passengers and thousands of dollars' worth of freight, the scope of his responsibility and the confidence placed in him can be understood. He was but a boy of nineteen and his position was one that men of mature experience coveted. Captain Marquis remained on the canal and the Ohio River for twenty-eight years, rising from an employe to one of the largest owners of vessels then plying their waters. At one time he was part owner of a fleet of fourteen boats, on the canal, and part owner of a steamer on the river. In the meantime he did not confine himself to his river and canal enterprise, but was a pioneer in the development of the coal and limestone interests about New Castle, Pa. He was equally successful in these, and when the canal closed in 1867, he disposed of his boats and enlarged his coal and limestone enterprises and founded a new mercantile establishment which became very profitable. In all these ventures, both on the canal and later, he was associated with many men as partners and colleagues, but with one the partnership was so intimate and prolonged that it deserves mention. Capt. O. H. P. Green was his partner for thirty-eight years, and between the two men a friendship rare and beautiful grew up.
In 1855 Captain Marquis settled at New Castle, which became the scene of most of his activities after leaving the canal. In 1885 he purchased the interests of his partners in their limestone enterprises and continued thereafter to manage them alone. About this time he established a brick manufacturing plant, which was then one of the largest in the country, having a capacity of 100,000 brick a day, which was a phenomenal output at that time. In this business he continued until 1901, when his health became infirm, and on the advice of his physicians he withdrew from active participation in the enterprises which he had built up. For eighteen months he traveled through the South and West and the West Indies. After regaining his health, he established the Home Trust Company at New Castle, of which he is still the head. His remarkable energy and public spirit made him a factor in almost every great industry located in the growing and prosperous region in which he resides. He has been a founder and builder all his life, and in this generation of successful business men and large enterprises, he has been a leader.
On August 8, 1854, he led to the altar Miss Martha Stoffer, who still survives after more than fifty years of happy wedded life. To them were born eight children, one dying in infancy. Elizabeth, the eldest, became Mrs. Frank Biddle, and is now a widow, living at Morgantown, W. Va. Misses Laura and Ida M. are with their parents at New Castle. William H. married Carrie Elizabeth Jones and is associated with his father in business, as is his brother, Frank. Grace G. married Charles Greer, and, with her husband, resides near the old home at New Castle. Charles, a most promising young man, died not many years ago in the bloom of early manhood.
In middle life, Captain Marquis became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at New Castle, and has been active and devoted in his Christian life and services ever since. He is an earnest advocate of the rugged principles of Methodism as preached by the Wesleys. His religious life, ever since he made a profession of his faith, has been very marked, and he has thrown himself into the services of his church and his Lord with the same energy and devotion he gave to his business. In politics he was identified with the Republican party until the organization of the Prohibition party, when he went over to it and has been one of its stanchest and most liberal supporters in its history. He will long be remembered by those who know him, not only as a clear-headed, successful business man, but chiefly because of his tender heart and Christian devotion. Wherever he has lived he has been known as the friend of the poor and the pattern of the young. No young man willing to work hard and meet life bravely has ever gone away from Captain Marquis without an encouraging word and a helping hand.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
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