Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

lisher endeavored, by the offer of a general
sales agency, to dissuade him from
following his chosen vocation. Neither
opposition nor allurement, however,
availed to swerve him from the path he
believed he was called to tread, and in
the year of his graduation from the theological
school he was ordained, becoming
rector's assistant of St. Andrew's Church,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the end
of a year he was ordained priest and ac-
cepted a call to St. Peter's Church, Hazel-
ton, Pennsylvania.
This was a rough mining town, but Mr.
Marks met the people on their own
ground, going into the mines with them
and winning their hearts and their cooperation.
He remained with them two
years, which was a longer pastorate than
had been held by any of his predecessors,
and in 1882 accepted a call to the rector-
ship of the Holy Apostles' Church, St.
Clair, Pennsylvania. In this new field
of labor Mr. Marks served about seventeen
and a half years. In that time he
organized five missions, three of which
became parishes, built their own churches
and are today in a flourishing condition.
In 1896 Mr. Marks, Sr., was attacked
by what was thought to be his final ill-
ness, and his son, Charles A. Marks,
eventually resigned his pastorate in order
that he might be free to return home and
care for his father. Careful nursing pro-
longed the father's life until 1905, and for
some years preceding the son gave him
his undivided attention. As the father
partially recovered his health, Mr. Marks
went into the office of the business in
New York City, becoming corresponding
clerk. During this period of his life, Mr.
Marks resided in Sound Beach, Connecticut,
taking an active interest in town
affairs. He was a charter member of
the hose company, and for four or five
years belonged to the school board, serv-
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
16
ing all that time as its chairman. The
old farmers of the town were much opposed
to a movement headed by Mr.
Marks for a new school house, voting
down the proposition every time it came
up for consideration. In this emergency
Mr. Marks and his father canvassed the
women of the town and succeeded in persuading
them of the advantages of the
project. Then they secured the franchise
for the women in school matters, and with
the women's vote they carried the day.
In view of the present status of women
with regard to the franchise this episode,
apart from the matter which was the
cause of its occurrence, possesses peculiar
and exceptional interest. On August 26,
1907, the citizens of Sound Beach presented
Mr. Marks with a beautiful gold
watch and chain, suitably inscribed, as
a token of their esteem and of their ap-
preciation of his disinterested public
service.
In 1907 Mr. Marks went to Wilton,
Connecticut, as rector of St. Matthew's
Church. The parish was organized in
1802, and in the twelve years during
which Mr. Marks was rector he presented
to the bishop for confirmation one-third
of all the candidates presented during the
one hundred and seventeen years of the
church's history, performed one-half of all
the marriages, one-fifth of all the bap-
tisms, and one-fourth of all the burials.
In 1914, when the world was astounded
by the outbreak of what was destined to
prove the greatest war in history, Mr.
Marks applied to the government at
Washington for a Red Cross charter for
the town of Wilton. At first the request
was refused, but later a charter was
granted, there being at that time only
two others in Fairfield county. When the
United States entered the war Mr. Marks,
with that initiative and alertness to human
need of which he had before given