The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 194

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

[He is] an able and experienced writer-none more so, we believe,
in the South. Indeed, we consider him one of the best journalists of
the day, possessing in an eminent degree, the highest requisites for
that station-indefatigable industry, a sound, discriminatory judg-
ment aided by varied and extensive reading, and impelled by ardent
enthusiasm."
Born about 1826 in Charlotte County, Virginia, Marshall
became editor of the Southern Reformer, Jackson, Mississippi,
about 1846. He worked several years in the Treasury Department,
probably between 1846 and 1849, and about June, 1849, he be-
came co-editor of the Mississippian with G. R. Fall. He was still
co-editor with the December o20, 1850, issue; the title of the paper
became the Mississippian and. State Gazette in 1851, however,
and Marshall's name was not on the masthead of the January
17, 1851, issue.
In 1850 Marshall married Anna P. Newman of Jefferson
County, Mississippi. They had three children, two of whom sur-
vived. Clara, their daughter, later married W. S. Oldham, son of
Marshall's associate of the Gazette, Williamson S. Oldham."l
The Mississippian carried almost two full columns of praise
for Marshall when he became co-editor of that paper. The quotes
were from Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi newspapers. The
Louisville (Kentucky) Democrat called him "one of the ablest
political writers in the Southwest." A Vicksburg paper said he
was "one of the most talented and industrious editors ever con-
nected with the press in this State."12
In May, 1854, Marshall purchased Hampton's interest in the
Gazette. Editorial correspondence dated from New Orleans on
June 28, 1854, indicates that he was on his way to Austin at
that time.
Marshall was a Latin scholar and could read and write Spanish.
He obtained a license to practice law after arriving in Austin.
His son-in-law, Oldham, remembered him as "rather an under-
sized man, about five feet seven inches high, spare made, fair
complexion, aquiline features and an eye like an eagle's. He
o1Jackson (Mississippi) Mississippian, December 21, 1849, p. 2.
11W. S. Oldham, "Colonel John Marshall," Southwestern Historical Quarterly,
XX, 132.
12Mississippian, December 21, 1849, p. 2.

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