Levin R. Marshall | |
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Born | October 10, 1800 Alexandria, Virginia |
Died | July 24, 1870 |
Residence | Richmond |
Occupation | Banker, planter |
Spouse(s) | Maria Chotard Marshall Sarah E. Elliott Ross Marshall |
Children | 12, including George M. Marshall |
Parent(s) | Henry Marshall |
Relatives | George Matthews Marshall (son who lived at Lansdowne Plantation) Stephen Minor (grandfather) |
Levin R. Marshall (1800-1870) was an American banker and Southern planter in the Antebellum South. He was a founder and President of the Commercial Bank of Natchez, Mississippi. He owned 14,000 acres in Mississippi and Louisiana, and 10,000 acres in Arkansas.
Levin R. Marshall was born on October 10, 1800 in Alexandria, Virginia. His father, Henry Marshall, was from Maryland, and related to Chief Justice Marshall. His maternal grandfather, Stephen Minor, was a prominent planter.
He started his career as a banker for the United States bank in Woodville, Mississippi. In 1831, he moved to Natchez, Mississippi, where he worked as a banker for the United States bank. He then established his own bank, the Commercial Bank of Natchez. He also owned the Mansion Hotel in Natchez.
He worked for the commission house, J. B. Byrne & Co. of New Orleans, Louisiana as well as Marshall, Reynolds, and Co. of Natchez.
He owned many cotton and sugar plantations in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. Indeed, he owned five plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana which spanned 14,000 acres, and 10,000 acres in Arkansas. By the 1850s, he produced more than 4,000 bales or more every year. In 1860, he owned 817 African slaves. He also owned a large livestock herd.
In 1825, he led a group of local children to welcome Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette to Natchez.
He married Maria Chotard (1807-1834), the daughter of John Marie Chotard, in 1826 in Woodville, Mississippi. They had four children. Only one of them survived: George M. Marshall, who married Charlotte Hunt, the daughter of planter David Hunt and resided at the Lansdowne Plantation. Indeed, a portrait of Levin R. Marshall and George M. Marshall painted by Louis Joseph Bahin hangs in the dining-room at Lansdowne.