John Marsh (pioneer)

John Marsh
John Marsh in 1852
Born	1799 Danvers, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	1856 Pacheco, California
Alma mater	Harvard
Occupation	Medical Doctor, Rancher
Known for	Early California pioneer
Spouse(s)	Abigail Smith Tuck

John Marsh was born in 1799 in South Danvers, Massachusetts and died in Pacheco, California in 1856. He was an early pioneer and settler in Alta California, the first Harvard graduate and the first to practice medicine there. He knew Hebrew, Latin and Greek, and was the first to compile a dictionary of the Sioux language. He became one of the wealthiest ranchers in California, and was one of the most influential men in the establishment of California statehood.

Marsh graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover in 1819. He attended Harvard University from 1819 to 1823 and received a bachelor's degree. Colbruno writes that Marsh was dismissed from Harvard for participating in a student uprising. He was readmitted in 1821, after promising not to engage in any further disturbances. He originally planned to study for the ministry, but changed his major to medicine after his readmission. He then studied medicine with a Boston doctor.

Marsh migrated west, living in the Michigan Territory, where he opened a school, the first in what is now Minnesota. Marsh then became an Indian agent for the Sioux Agency at Fort Snelling, At Fort Snelling, Marsh took a French/Indian mistress named Marguerite Decouteaux, who bore him a son named Charles. Territorial Governor Lewis Cass appointed Marsh to the position of Justice of the Peace in Crawford County (which included what is now southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and portions of Iowa and Minnesota), whereupon he became known as "Judge Marsh."

Marsh resumed his study of medicine, with a Dr. Purcell, post doctor for Fort Snelling, but never received a certificate because his mentor died before Marsh finished his studies. He lived in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, where he got involved in the Black Hawk War between the Sioux and their rivals, the Fox and Sauk, and was blamed for a massacre of the Fox and Sauk by the Sioux. As a result, he was forced to flee to , taking his mistress and small child with him. Leaving them there, he returned to Prairie du Chien. Marguerite, who was pregnant and pining for Marsh, tried to walk for several hundred miles to rejoin him. The journey exhausted her and she and the baby died in childbirth. Marsh then gave his small son, Charles, to a Painter family in New Salem to be raised, and once again became involved in Indian affairs. He was discovered selling guns illegally to some of the Indians and had to flee the territory, this time settling in Independence, Missouri, where he became a merchant. He visited his son once more, then his business failed and in 1836 he emigrated, in the employ of the American Fur Company to Santa Fe, New Mexico and thence to Southern California via the Santa Fe Trail.