Marsh, James W. (James Wheelock), 1827-1860

Sidney Harper Marsh was born on August 29, 1825 at Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia. He was the son of James Wheelock Marsh and Lucia Wheelock Marsh. He had a brother, James Wheelock Marsh, and a stepbrother, Joseph Walker Marsh from his father’s second wife, Laura Wheelock Marsh, the sister of Lucia. He lived the early part of his life in Burlington, Vermont.

Mr. S. Marsh graduated from the University of Vermont in 1846, receiving a D.D. degree from the same school in 1862. Some of his classmates that he stayed in contact with from the university were Judge Jameson, of Chicago and Hon. H.O. Houghton, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mr. Sidney H. Marsh taught for two years at Leesburg Academy in Leesburg, Virginia. As part of the American College and Education Society, he relocated in 1853 to the Oregon territory to become principal of Tualatin Academy in Forest Grove. Shortly after, he became the President of Pacific University in 1854, which he remained president for 25 years. He was ordained as a Congregational clergyman during his early years in Oregon where he gave sermons throughout the Willamette Valley, from Forest Grove to Eugene.

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