Dr. William Stockman Marsh 1817-1896

KNOWLES, MARSH, ROMMEL, SPAULDING, STODDARD, VAN CISE

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 6/2/2006 at 12:05:27

"The Free Press", Mount Pleasant, Iowa
4 March 1896

DEATH OF DR. W. S. MARSH.

William Stockman Marsh, born in Nantucket Island, January 22, 1817, died, in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, March 1, 1896.

To round out seventy-nine years of human activity, including all the varied duties of citizenship, of human helpfulness in both a neighborly and professional sense, to have been a tender husband and father, and grandfather, never failing to meet the highest requirements of loyalty to all these trusts, to have been always, and under all circumstances a true gentleman, a knight without reproach, can not be recorded of all those who die after having passed their “three score years and ten.” But it can all be said of Dr. W. S. Marsh, who left us Sunday evening, having lived in Mt. Pleasant for almost forty-one years.

With the exception of the last few years, -- when owing to physical conditions he has retired from active practice-- he has all this time been the trusted physician in many families, present at the birth, marriage, and death of very many who have preceded him to “the many mansions.”

For some years during the war, when he served as surgeon, and immediately afterward when he acted as disbursing officer in Washington, D. C., he was absent from Mt. Pleasant, but always retaining his residence here, and often expressing his attachment to the place, and to his many friends.

Dr. Marsh comes of true New England stock. His grandfather was agent of the Penobscott Indians, and for special services, received from government a tract of land. Dr. Marsh’s father was an M. E. minister, who removed to Maine soon after his son’s birth. Here he was married to Abbie Knowles in 1841, the next year coming to the west, first to Macomb, Ill., then to Lowell, Henry county, Iowa, then the largest town in the county, then to West Point, Lee county, and finally to Mt. Pleasant, where his children have grown up. Three out of the group of five remain to follow the remains of the dear father to Forest Home, where four years ago they bore the mortal part of the dear mother---Dr. Chas. F. Marsh, Wm. A. Marsh, and Laura,--Mrs. Joel G. Van Cise, of Summit, New Jersey.

His last illness was very short. He has had a very comfortable winter, and has often been on our streets. He was as well as usual until Saturday evening when there came a sharp attack of an old enemy that has haunted him for years--pain in the region of the heart. It continued through the night, but in the morning he felt so much better that he hoped to be able to dine at his son’s. The end came a few minutes before 11 in the evening, and was painless.

The funeral service was held Wednesday afternoon at the First M. E. church of which he had been a member for forty-one years, Rev. Stoddard, the pastor, and Dr. Spaulding officiating. Rev. Stoddard’s tribute to the stead-fastness, the gentleness, the serenity and devotion of the life of his friend and neighbor, Dr. Marsh, was very impressive; and Dr. Spaulding bore eloquent and tearful tribute. All the practicing physicians of the city were present in a body, six of them acting as pall bearers. The G. A. R. were also there in a body and conducted the service at the grave. The choir, with Prof. Rommel at the organ, sang the soothing hymns that are always new. The casket was covered with floral tributes of loving friends, and the audience room full of those who had known and loved this man who was always tender, trusty, and true.

Of his thirteen living grandchildren, but two could be present, Mr. Ed Van Cise, of Summit, New Jersey, who came with his mother, and Laura, daughter of Dr. Chas. Marsh.

“Why weep ye then for him, who having won
The bound of man’s appointed years, at last,
Life’s blessings all enjoyed, life’s labors done,
Serenely to his final rest has passed;
While the soft memory of his virtues, yet
Lingers, like twilight times when the bright sun has set.”