Joseph M. Marshall (c. 1841-1885)
MSA SC 3520-13826
Extended Biography:
Joseph M. Marshall was born around 1841. At the age of nine he lived in Baltimore City, 3rd Ward, with his parents, John and Eliza Marshall, and one-year-old brother, George. His father was a shoemaker and continued in that trade throughout his life. By 1860 Joseph Marshall was an apprentice carpenter, though he still lived at home. The family had grown to include five-year-old John and three-year-old Catherine. Eliza Marshall most likely came into an inheritance between 1850 and 1860 that provided a real estate value of $2000 and personal estate of $300. In 1870 she worked at a dry goods store.
On February 28, 1865, twenty-four year old Joseph Marshall married Mary A. Parks. They soon moved to Annapolis and resided at 39 Hanover Street. In 1870 Marshall was involved in a mortgage case in the Anne Arundel Circuit Court (Marshall vs. Shipley). The court ordered that he receive compensation for a loan made to Ann and Frank Shipley. During 1877 and 1878, Marshall was involved in two more court cases that were eventually combined. Both concerned the lease of property at Maryland Avenue and Prince George’s Street to build a Masonic Temple for the Annapolis Lodge No. 89 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Marshall leased the property with a group of nine others—George M. Taylor, James H. Brown, Charles H. Hopkins, Spedden V. Wilson, Horace M. Pinkard, D. Claude Handy, Joshua Brown, Thomas V. Brundige, and the Annapolis Lodge no. 89 Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons—with the intent to build the Temple and rent out space for opera and society events. Taylor, Hopkins, Handy and James H. Brown were officers of the Lodge at the time. The cornerstone for what is now known as the “old” Masonic Hall was laid on May 17, 1872, by the Deputy Grand Master of Maryland. Building did not progress as quickly as planned; Masonic records indicate trouble during the 1870s to collect dues. Unpaid debts to the bank resulted in mortgage foreclosure and the sale of the rights to the lease and property (The Farmer’s National Bank of Annapolis vs. Taylor et al and Rowles vs. Taylor et al). By 1885 financial difficulties forced the Masons to move out of the Temple completely.
In his personal business, Marshall also encountered problems. On October 1, 1874, Marshall and his partner John Brady obtained a license to manufacture artificial stone patented by James L. Rowland of New York and Daniel M. Sprogle of Annapolis. It was to be an exclusive right within Anne Arundel County, on the condition of an initial payment of $100 and 10% royalty fee every six months. When Marshall and Brady claimed that too little profit afforded only a 5% royalty, Sprogle investigated and realized that their stone was not manufactured up to standards. He had arranged most of their major contracts and believed that they had not taken enough effort to find new customers, and driven away the ones they had with such poor quality work. In the spring of 1879 Marshall and Brady learned that Sprogle was superintending the construction of a house for Captain Silas W. Jerry, USN, using the same patented artificial stone. The business partners filed for a writ of injunction on May 1st. The court dismissed the case on May 28th on the grounds that Marshall and Brady could not maintain an exclusive patent while continually failed to uphold their side of the agreement. Sprogle had in fact notified them that their arrangement was null and void prior to his contract with Jerry.
Steady employment by the government in the midst of his legal troubles must have come as a welcome relief to Marshall. He was a carpenter and a contractor at the State House at Annapolis in the late 1870s and early to mid-1880s. He successfully won bids submitted to the Board of Public Works for major projects in and around the State House. In December 1874 he was paid for work done at Government House. The next year he fitted a room in the cellar of the State House for use as the State Library, laid pipe in and around the State House and fixed up the Comptroller's Office by hanging doors on new hinges and buying a new wash basin for it.
On March 30, 1876, Governor James Black Groome signed into law an act appropriating $32,000 for repairs and improvements to the State House. After delays while the Board of Public Works focused on the House of Correction and State Normal School, George A. Frederick, architect for the repairs to the State House, was finally instructed to contract with various builders in April 1877. He signed on Joseph M. Marshall as carpenter, choosing him over a bid from Daniel Caulk. In the Report of the Select Committee appointed by the House of Delegates, January 9th, to Investigate the Repairs upon the State House 1878, Marshall was called the "resident Superintendent of the State House Improvements." He employed many carpenters and laborers to help him with the various projects, including bricklayer Joseph T. Jewell, excavator James H. Vansant, painter J.W. Kalmey, and plasterer George G. Watkins. Marshall was responsible for the repairs in the absence of Frederick and oversaw hourly workers. A year later the entire project was under investigation by the House of Delegates for overspending over $70,000. During the investigation of the Select Committee Marshall stated that he followed Frederick’s orders and completed the job as economically as possible without sacrificing safety. When asked to evaluate the general character of the repairs on the State House, he testified, “Everything is first-class. The prices are reasonable.”
With the approval of John E. and William A. Marshall, whose firm Marshall & Son superintended the construction of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and advised the Board of Public Works on State House repairs after the investigation, Frederick contracted with Joseph Marshall in 1879 to repair the dome. It was completed by July 11th, on which date Frederick and Joseph Marshall submitted written guarantees of its soundness. On February 11, 1880, the House Select Committee on State House Repairs questioned both Joseph M. and John E. Marshall on the process of repairing the State House dome. Some question arose whether Joseph won the bid for the repair because he had prior knowledge of John E. Marshall’s assessment to the government not to pay more than $12,000 in repairs. Joseph Marshall’s bid came in just below this number at $11,985. Both denied having ever met, much less passing information. While Joseph Marshall did not admit even familial relation to Marshall & Son, John E. Marshall testified that they were related only “through Adam.” The report did not mar the Board of Public Work’s trust in Joseph Marshall. From 1882 to 1883 he was commissioned to work on the exterior of the State House, landscaping the grounds, paving the circle around it, building a front porch (or portico), and finishing repairs to the dome.
Joseph moved to 631 Gilmor Street in Baltimore early in 1885 with his wife Mary and his seven children Mary E., John Milton, Clinton Walton, Annie Brady, Joseph Parks, Charles Archibald, and Sophia Stewart. The carpenter spent time in Washington, D.C., in association with the supervising architect of the Treasury headquartered in the Corcoran building.
Marshall died in Jackson, Tennessee on June 11, 1885, in a tragic construction accident. He had gone to Tennessee under contract to erect a government building. While the stone and brick were being hoisted for the work, the "derrick" swung around quickly and unexpectedly struck Marshall in the head. He remained conscious long enough to dictate his last will and testament, leaving all of his property to his immediate family, and to express his dying wish to see his wife once more. Although she rushed to be by his side, she arrived in Jackson three hours too late to see her husband before he died. On June 16th, the day of his funeral, the Evening Capital reported, “[Joseph M. Marshall] was a master mechanic, having built several public buildings in this and other cities. His death is a sad loss not only to his family, to whom he was a devoted husband and father, but the community in which he lived.” He was buried in Loudon Cemetery in Baltimore.
His widow continued to live on Gilmor Street in Baltimore Street, raising their seven children. In 1900 she resided there with their two single daughters, Annie and Sophie, her mother Mary J. Parks, and a servant, Mary E. Larkins. Sadly, within the next two years she would lose two of her sons, Charles and Joseph. Weaking from ovarian cancer, in 1907 Mary Marshall issued a will leaving almost her entire estate to her unmarried daughter Sophia. Certain personal belongings—a China set, bric a brac cabinet, and figurines—were divided between her other married daughters (now Mary E. Young and Annie Brady King), but the rest of the furniture and the house itself on 1926 West Lanvale and Appleton Streets was left to Sophia. A trust with the Safety Deposit and Trust Company of Baltimore would maintain the estate for five years or until Sophia married, whichever occurred first, and then divide the estate equally among her children. Two hundred dollars each were left to her grandchildren Mildred C. and Leroy Marshall, children of the late Charles Archibald. Mary died on May 17th, 1908, and three days later was buried next to her husband who had been interred twenty-three years before.
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