J. G. Marvin

John Gage Marvin (1815–1855) was an American lawyer, known as a legal bibliographer and figure of the history of California.

He was born at Le Raysville, Pennsylvania, and was educated at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He then taught at Athens Academy, Athens, Pennsylvania from 1840. Three of his brothers attended the school, and a fourth worked the farm at Le Raysville.

In 1842 Marvin enrolled at Harvard Law School, from an address given as Towanda, Pennsylvania, and was there for four years, studying under Simon Greenleaf, Joseph Story and Charles Sumner. He graduated LL.B. in 1846, having served as Librarian. Marvin was the last beneficiary (1843–5) of a system of student librarians set up in 1830, who had a rent-free room in Dane Hall and some payment for their services to the Harvard Law Library.

Towards the end of the Mexican-American War Marvin left his Boston law practice for the West Coast. He was with the Quartermaster Corps of the United States Army. He left the military in 1849, becoming editor of the Sonora Herald, and settling in Tuolumne County. Known locally as "Judge Marvin", he became a prominent citizen and part-time official.

Marvin laid out the settlement of Empire City on the Tuolumne River in Stanislaus County, California (at that time in Tuolumne County). It became the county seat of the new Stanislaus County in 1854, and an army supply center.

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