Hon. Henry M. Marvin

HON. HENRY M. MARVIN.

Henry Martyn Marin was born in Putnam County, New York, on the 6th day of November, 1821. His birthplace was on a farm and dairy, which occupation he followed until nineteen years of age, when he went to New York City and engaged in the grocery business for two years, or until he was twenty-one years of age, and in April, 1843, started for Indiana, the then “far west.” At that time the railroad extended from New York City through Philadelphia to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; then packet boat on canal to Holidaysburg; thence portage railroad, twelve miles over the Alleghenies, to Johnstown; thence by canal packet to Pittsburg; thence by steamboat to Cincinnatti [sic], Ohio; thence by stage coach to Connersville, Fayette County, Indiana; thence afoot four miles to Harrisburg, Fayette County, where he made his home until he married and moved to Boone County, on the 5th day of February, 1845. There were no railroads west of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1843, and all kinds of travel was of the slow order. Times financially, when he came to Indiana, were very hard. Indiana was fifteen millions of dollars in debt, and could not pay principal nor interest. Almost everybody was in debt; it was trade and barter, no money. He worked for thirty-seven and a half cents per day in the month of June hoeing corn, on the White Water Valley, in 1843. Worked one month in harvest for thirteen dollars, when work was of the hardest, but very little farm machinery being in use at that time. He taught school for six months at ten dollars per month, and boarded around and collected the money at the end of the term for himself, and received every dollar of it; not one delinquent. Then he taught nine months for one hundred and twenty dollars, and boarded among the scholars and collected every dollar. He considered the White Water Valley at that time one of the finest countries in the world. When he came to Boone County, in 1845, it was a new country. If you wanted to look off to any distance, you had to go out in the Michigan road and look north or south, or up in the sky. It was woods everywhere – north, south, east, west. What land was cleared was eighteen inches and under, and dead trees were scattered over all the fields, and every wind tumbled them down, making hard work for the farmer all the time. He has cleared one hundred acres of heavy timber since he came to Boone County; ditched twice over; fenced ever so many times. Built house and out-houses that took twenty-four thousand feet of lumber, and hauled the logs to the mill, and the lumber from the mill. Put out two orchards, and tried to fix a home comfortable to live in. In the fall of 1845 he threshed a load of wheat with horses (for there were no threshing machines then), loaded up his wagon and went to Lafayette, twenty-five miles distant. Was gone three and a half days, slept in wagon, took grub for self and horses; expenses, not a cent, and got forty-five cents per bushel for wheat, but got a barrel of salt for a dollar and a quarter. Wildcat money; no two bills on the same bank.

In the spring of 1850, one morning in April, in going along the road on his farm, he met John L. Koms and his son Absolom, going to Lebanon. He said, “Ain’t you going to Lebanon?” He asked him what was going on at Lebanon. He said that there was to be a Democratic convention, and that they were going to nominate Marvin for the legislature, and for him to go and get his horse and go with them. And sure enough he was nominated and elected by thirty-eight majority, at a cost of less than five dollars. Those were glorious, Democratic, honest times. There were twenty-two candidates for office in Boone County that year, and you would have smiled to see them all on horseback, Indian file, going through the wet prairies in Harrison Township, from one grove to another, where speaking was done by candidates for the constitutional convention, and for the legislature. Mark A. Duzan and William E. McLane were the Democratic candidates, and Judge Cason, Bill Bowers, and Stephen Neal were the Whig and Independent candidates for the convention, and John H. Nelson and Henry M. Marvin were the candidates for the legislature on the Democratic ticket, and Joseph F. Dougherty (the best posted man on politics I ever knew), and the Rev. Keath, were the Whig candidates. Colonel Kise was elected clerk of the Circuit Court by a very small majority that year.

As Marvin looks back over life’s journey of over forty-two years in Boone County, he has no regrets, no mistakes to rectify, does not want to live one day of his life over again, but is thankful to God for the many blessings that have been bestowed upon him. He has seen the county grow from a wilderness, with its impassable swamps and cross-rail roads and log cabins, to one of the finest, richest counties in the state, with the best gravel roads, comfortable school houses and fine dwelling houses and barns; with good churches all over the county, and good, substantial public buildings; with railroads passing through the county east and west, north and south, everything to make man comfortable and happy. And Marvin flatters himself that he has contributed his part in bringing this all about up to this present period. You talk about pensioning soldiers for their services to their country, which is all right and proper, but where is the man more deserving than the farmer who has cleared up 100 acres of heavy timber and made it blossom as a rose, who made the country while they fought to defend it. In Washington Township, Wayne County, Indiana, on the 1st of December, 1844, was married Henry M. Marvin to Emma E. Elwell, and they left the paternal home on her nineteenth birthday for their future home in Boone County, where a large family of boys and girls were born to them and where many days of joys and sorrows have passed and gone. Zelia, the oldest, married Wm. H. Dooley, April 4, 1866, and died March 6, 1867, aged twenty-one years. Laura, the second, died November 14, 1864, sixteen and one-half years of age. Eli, the third, was born August 9, 1850, and married Jennie Snyder, daughter of John Snyder, Esq., of Clinton County, Indiana. They have one son, LeGrand, eleven years of age. Martha Bell was born December 23, 1852, and died at six and a half years of age. Joseph Miner was born December 22, 1855, and died September 13, 1882. Jesse Bright was born April 4, 1858, and married Anna Spahr, daughter of John Spahr, ex-sheriff of Boone County. They have one daughter, Helen. Ida June was born July 3, 1861, and died October 18, 1862. Charles Henry was born November 20, 1864, and Cord Emma, the ninth, was born the 16th of August, 1867. The last two are living with their parents at the present time. So you see that Marvin has fulfilled the scriptural injunction to increase and multiply. In fact, he has tried, in his poor way of doing his duty to God and his fellowman, and he feels thankful that he cast his lot among this people, who have always been kind, considerate and obliging, and he has a pleasant home among them where he expects to spend his days with his companion under as pleasant circumstances as usually fall to the lot of poor human nature. Thanks to this family for favors.

Source Citation: Boone County Biographies [database online] Boone County INGenWeb. 2007. <http://www.rootsweb.com/~inboone> Original data: Harden & Spahr. "Early Life and Times in Boone County, Indiana." Lebanon, Indiana. May, 1887, pp. 327-331.

Transcribed by: Julie S. Townsend - June 29, 2007