Marshall, Thomas A.

Born: 1817-11-04 Frankfort, Kentucky

Died: 1873-11-11 Coles County, Illinois

Thomas A. Marshall was named after his father, a prominent attorney and judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals. While he was young, his parents moved their family to Paris in Bourbon County, Kentucky. Marshall attended Kenyon College until 1833, studied law at Transylvania University, and joined the bar in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1837. Later that year, Marshall began a law career in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Two years later, Marshall moved to Coles County, Illinois, where he continued to practice law, and by 1841, he lived in the county seat of Charleston. As early as 1846, Marshall began a law partnership with Usher F. Linder. In 1853, Marshall became the cashier of a bank in Charleston, and he remained in the banking profession through 1860. In 1850, Marshall owned real estate worth $5,760, and by 1860, he owned real estate worth $20,000 and personal property worth $30,000. Marshall was a member of the Whig Party and was a delegate to the Illinois constitutional convention in 1847. He later helped to establish the Illinois Republican Party, and attended the 1860 National Republican Convention as a delegate. He won election to the Illinois Senate, serving from 1858 to 1862. In 1861, he served as president pro tem of the Senate and as acting lieutenant governor. When the Civil War broke out, Marshall became colonel of the First Illinois Cavalry, serving from July 1861 until he mustered out in July 1862.

The History of Coles County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1879), 526; Arthur Charles Cole, ed., The Constitutional Debates of 1847, vol. 14 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, Constitutional Series (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1919), 2:970; The Republican (Charleston, IL), 28 August 1846, 4:1; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Charleston, Coles County, IL, 26; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Charleston, Coles County, IL, 189.