homas Riley Marshall was
the twenty-sixth (person to serve as) Governor of the State of Indiana. He
was born at North Manchester, Indiana, on March 14, 1854. His father, Daniel
M., was a physician and a direct descendant of Chief Justice John Marshall.
His mother, Martha A. (Patterson) Marshall, belonged to the same family as
John Carroll, of Carrollton, who was one of the signers of the Declaration
of Independence.
The early education of Thomas Riley Marshall was received in the public schools of his native town. Sometime afterward Marshall entered Wabash College at Crawfordsville and was graduated in 1873, when only nineteen years of age. He received the degree of Master of Arts from Wabash in 1876 and Doctor of Laws in 1909. The latter degree was also conferred upon him by the Universities of Notre Dame, Pennsylvania, Maine, North Carolina and other institutions.
After his graduation I 1873 he removed to Ft. Wayne and began the study of law under Judge Walter Olds. When he was twenty years of age he took up his residence at Columbia City, Indiana, and on his twenty-first birthday he was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law in Columbia City, continuing in two partnerships until 1909. On October 2, 1895 he married Lois I. Kimsey, of Angola.
In 1880 he was nominated by the Democratic Party for Prosecuting Attorney in what was then a strong Republican district and was defeated. In 1896 and 1898 he was Chairman of the Twelfth District Democratic Committee.
He acquired a widespread reputation as a public speaker throughout the state and in 1908 was nominated for Governor and defeated James E. Watson, the Republican nominee. He entered upon the duties as Governor in January following his election in November of 1908. As Governor he was respected for his executive ability and qualities of leadership.
He sought to secure a new state constitution to be voted on as an amendment, the so-call Marshall Constitution, but was prevented by adverse decisions in the courts. He conducted investigations upon which later laws were based providing for vocational education and inheritance tax. The liquor question was put upon the basis of local option with the township as the unit.
In 1912 and again in 1916 he was elected Vice President of the United States on the ticket with Woodrow Wilson. He was the only Hoosier who ever served two terms as Vice President of the United States. As a presiding officer of the United States Senate he was always just and deliberate in his decisions and won the esteem and friendship of all those with whom he came in contact. He classed himself as an old-fashioned Democrat who adhered strictly to constitutional principles.
Marshall served for many years as a trustee of Wabash College and attained the supreme honorary thirty-third degree in Scottish Rite Masonry.
Marshall's death occurred on June 1, 1925, at Washington D.C. His remains were brought to Indianapolis and were kept there until the Marshall mausoleum was completed at Marion, Indiana, where he is now buried.*
Tom Davis notes that Governor Marshall is interned in the family mausoleum at Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis ... he was transferred to the family mausoleum on September 6, 1927, four days after his parents and two children were brought from Marion on the 2nd ... Governor Marshall may or may not have rested in his home town, but he most certainly has his final rest at Crown Hill Cemetery.
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