JOSEPH L. MARSHALL
The
Norton Daily Telegram, Monday, Feb. 21, 1916
The funeral services for J. L. Marshall were conducted at the family residence
on West Main Street Sunday afternoon at 2:30 o’clock with Rev. U. S. Brown of
the First Methodist Espiscopal church in charge, assisted by Rev. T. J. Duvall
of the Baptist church. Mr. Brown selected as a text for the funeral
address, the 26th verse of the 5th chapter of the book of Job. The music
was furnished by a male quartet composed of Messrs Myers, Robison, Funk and
Rouse and the selections rendered was “Nearer My God to Thee,” “Rock of
Ages,” and “Going Down the Valley.” The body was followed to the
grave in the Norton cemetery by an entire automobile procession consisting of
twenty-five cars. Mr. Marshall was a highly respected citizen and a
familiar figure on our streets who will be greatly missed not only by the
immediate members of his family but also by his friends on the church, his
comrades of the Grand Army of the Republic and the citizens of Norton. The
following obituary was read at the service:
Joseph Laughlin Marshall was born in Dayton, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania,
March 31, 1833 and died in Norton, Kansas, February 18, 1916, aged 82 years, 10
months, 17 days. His boyhood days were spent in his native state where at
the age of fourteen years he was left an orphan. Early in life he studied
photography but later learned the carpenter’s trade which occupation he
followed for many years.
In 1857 he came west and located at Fort Scott, Kansas, where he resided until
1861 when he enlisted in the 6th Kansas Volunteer Infantry and served his
country for four years. At the close of the war he returned to the old
home place in Pennsylvania for a short time but again started west in 1866
locating in Knox county, Illinois. On February 22, 1871, at Yates City, he
united in marriage with Anna K. Mathews and for five years they made their home
in Paxton. On son, Dr. William H. Marshall was born to them.
In 1878 Mr. and Mrs. Marshall removed to Nemaha county, Kansas, where for thirty
years they nobly bore their part in the development of the place they learned to
love. Seven years ago, feeling that it would be better for them to be near
their son, they came to Norton which has continued to be the family home.
Mr. Marshall was of quiet and unassuming disposition but was intensely progressive in thoughts and actions. He had a longing desire to make the world better for his having lived in it and was always willing to plan for another’s reaping. He was of Old School Presbyterian stock and early in youth he accepted Jesus Christ as a personal savior and for sixty years he was a most faithful member of the Presbyterian church. A significant fact concerning the family is that he has one brother, two nephews and twenty two cousins who were Presbyterian ministers. On their removal to Norton Mr. and Mrs. Marshall united with the First Methodist Episcopal church and on last Sunday morning he occupied his place among the worshippers at the morning service. At 5:20 o’clock on Friday afternoon he fell asleep and the spirit moved out of the tenement house of clay to take possession of a “Mansion not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” He was the last of his father’s family and leaves as immediate mourners, the widow, the son and wife and one grandson.