Edward Carrington Marshall

Early life

The youngest son of Chief Justice John Marshall and his wife, the former Mary Willis Ambler (both families being among the First Families of Virginia), Edward Carrington Marshall was born in Richmond. His first and middle names reflect Edward Carrington, husband of John Marshall's sister. Like his brothers Thomas Marshall (1784-1835), John Marshall (1798-1833) and James Keith Marshall (1800-1862), Edward Carrington Marshall attended Harvard College). However, he was the only one of them to actually graduate (in 1826), and he outlived all his siblings.

On February 12, 1829, he married Rebecca Courtenay Peyton (1810 - 1888). They had seven children who survived them: John Marshall (1830 - 1902), Mary Lewis Marshall (1831 - 1891), Rebecca Peyton Marshall Marshall (1833 - 1895), Elizabeth Lewis Marshall Newton (1841 - 1888), Jaquelin Ambler Marshall (1844 - 1917), Courtenay Norton Marshall Marshall (1847 - 1922). Their son James K. Marshall (1839 - 1863), a Confederate officer, died at the Battle of Gettysburg).

Career

Marshall served as Fauquier County's delegate in the Virginia General Assembly 1836-1838, serving alongside Elias Edmunds in 1836-37 and alongside Edward Digges in 1838; the pair succeeded William R. Smith and Absalom Hickerson (who served one session) and was succeeded by Elias Edmonds and Josiah Tidball (who also served only a single session). His uncle Thomas Marshall had held one of the county's pair delegate seat for several terms from 1830 until 1835, and his brother James K. Marshall and Robert Eden Scott were twice elected (1839-41).

Two prewar riding accidents restricted his mobility and caused him to use a cane or various contrivances--that in 1836 caused a severe ankle injury and another caused 13 years of confinement, although E.C. Marshall was determined to remain active, including traveling 6 miles to church to teach Sunday School.

Marshall envisioned linking the farms of the Shenandoah Valley and his Piedmont region at the Manassas Gap with both the port of Alexandria, Virginia and Richmond, Virginia. Marshall became the president of the Manassas Gap Railroad, which obtained a charter from the Virginia General Assembly in 1850. That year Marshall also sold the home constructed for him and his new wife after their wedding, Carrington, and moved to a farm about a mile away in Markham near the new line). The railway would link Strasburg, Virginia to Tudor Hall (a/k/a Manassas Junction, later renamed Manassas, Virginia), where it joined with the Orange and Alexandria Railroad (O&A), which thus linked the piedmont and Shenandoah Valley farmers to the ports of Alexandria, Virginia and Washington, D.C. as well as Richmond, Virginia.

Construction began, and by 1854 the line extended from Mount Jackson, Virginia to Manassas. Towns also grew on the route, including Markham, Fauquier County, Virginia near Marshall's home. To reduce lease payments to the O&A, the MGRR began raising funds to construct an alternate line between Gainesville, Virginia and Alexandria. However, opposition of some landowners delayed construction, until the Panic of 1857 made financing difficult.

During American Civil War, Confederate troops embarked in Delaplane, Virginia to the First Battle of Manassas. Portions of the unfinished MGRR Independent Line also served as earthworks for Confederate troops at the Second Battle of Manassas. Both armies used the railroad to transport troops as well as supplies. Sections of the line were destroyed many times; none of its rolling stock survived the war. Furthermore, his son James Keith Marshall was commissioned a Confederate officer and died at the Battle of Gettysburg.

In 1867, Marshall sold the remaining assets of the Manassas Gap Railroad to the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, which completed and rebuilt it before being absorbed into the Richmond and Danville Railroad, which expanded into a multi-state system of over 3,000 miles. After his death (and the railroad's bankruptcy after the Panic of 1893, it was absorbed into the Southern Railway.

Meanwhile, Marshall built a new home, Innis, in 1871-1872, and continued farming.

Death and legacy

Marshall died at home, Innis, in 1882, and was buried in the cemetery of Leeds Episcopal Church. Some of his correspondence is archived at the Virginia Historical Society and the University of Virginia archive. Both Carrington and Innis survive today, and since 2007 have been designated contributing buildings in the John Marshall Leeds Manor Rural Historic District.