Marsh, Sidney H. (Sidney Harper), 1825-1879

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.

As the President of Pacific University, Mr. Sidney Marsh worked tirelessly to promote education in the West and to gain subscriptions in the East to help fund the school from 1859-1860 and 1875- 1876. During this time, he sent many letters to his wife Eliza and children James Wheelock, Mary and Lucia. Throughout his life, Mr. Sidney Marsh devoted his services to the Pacific University and his ministry to the Congregational church. His devotion to the college and belief in education encompassed his life to the end, as noted in his obituary in the Free Press, “He worked for it to the last, making a journey to Portland, Oregon, on business for it, but ten days before he died, and he gave it almost his last thoughts and breath.”

He died on February 2, 1879 at the age of 81. He was married to Eliza Haskell from Bloomfield, Ohio in 1860 and had eight children, three died young. Surviving children were James Wheelock Marsh, Mary Henrietta Marsh, Lucia Marsh, George Haskell, Winifred Marsh.

From the guide to the Sidney H. Marsh Papers, 1817-1943, (Pacific University Archives)