Mansion_rev8.qxd - National Park Service

Following the Revolution, the Ottauquechee River
valley was transformed by a rush of settlers, who
cleared the forests for farms, built roads, and established
villages. Charles Marsh was one of these new settlers;
he arrived in Woodstock in 1788 after finishing law
school. When he looked around Woodstock for a place to
settle that would allow him to farm and have ready access
to the village where he could practice law, his attention
would have been quickly attracted to James Cady’s fiftyacre
farm. It had fertile acres, proximity to the village, and
elevated land looking out over the broad intervale. In
January 1789, Marsh purchased Cady’s farm and over the
next several decades transformed it into a prosperous farm
and refined country seat, known locally as the Marsh Place
or Marsh Hill. 1 Here, the conservationist George Perkins
Marsh was to grow up and gain his earliest experience with
nature and landscape. It was not George, however, but
rather his younger brother Charles who would inherit the
place from his father and maintain it until shortly after the
Civil War.
THE CHARLES MARSH FAMILY
Charles Marsh was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in
1765, the eighth of Joseph and Dorothy Mason Marsh’s
twelve children. Like many southern New Englanders at
the time, the Marsh family moved to the frontier of
Vermont, and in 1773 settled in Hartford, a Connecticut
River Valley town about seven miles east of Woodstock. 2
Charles Marsh graduated from Dartmouth College in
nearby Hanover, New Hampshire, and completed law
studies in 1788. Soon after, he moved to Woodstock with
his new wife, Nancy Collins and opened the first law practice
in the young village while also developing his farm.
When Woodstock became the new Windsor County seat
in 1790, he headed up the construction of the courthouse,
where his portrait would later hang [Figure 2.1]. Marsh
quickly became a dominant figure in the county court,
and later held several high political offices, including federal
district attorney and Representative in Congress.
While publicly respected, he was apparently feared for his
sternness and hot temper. He remained a strong adherent
to his Calvinist faith and carried his strict views into all
matters of his public and family life. 3
II. THE MARSH PLACE, 1789–1869
Figure 2.1: Engraving of a portrait of Charles Marsh (Senior) by
Benjamin Franklin Mason, c.1846. The portrait hangs in the Windsor
County Courthouse, Woodstock.
In 1790, Charles and Nancy Marsh had their first child,
Charles, followed in 1793 by a daughter, Ann Collins.
Tragedy fell on the family when Nancy died after Ann’s
birth, leaving Charles a widower for the next five years.
During this time, Charles met Susan Perkins, who was
soon to be engaged to Josias Lyndon Arnold, a lawyer and
poet. Within the Arnolds’ first year of marriage, Josias died.
Susan soon became reacquainted with Charles Marsh and
they married in 1798. Over the course of twenty-two years,
the couple had five children: Lyndon Arnold in 1799,
George Perkins in 1801, Joseph in 1807, Sarah Burrill in
1809, and Charles (Junior) in 1821. The older Charles, son
from the first marriage, died in 1817. 4
With a respected legal profession and strong real estate and
philanthropic business in the village, Charles Marsh
quickly rose in prominence and wealth. He was a strict
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