Page 30 - 14 Wabash County Visitors Guide

North Manchester
native served 2 terms
as vice president

By Joseph Slacian House.
Although he served in the
The Wabash County town of North Manchester lays claim to
being the home of former Vice President Thomas A. Marshall. position, Marshall wasn’t overly
Marshall, who served as vice president under President fond of the position. In fact,
Woodrow Wilson, served one term as governor of Indiana according to author Mark O.
before moving to the White House. Hatfield in his book “Vice Presidents
of the United States, 1789-1993”,
The son of Daniel and Martha While growing up, he attended Marshall claimed “that most of the
Marshall, Thomas was born on high school in Warsaw and Fort ‘nameless, unremembered’ jobs
March 14, 1854, the second of two Wayne, eventually being accepted at assigned to him had been concocted
Marshall children. An older sister, Wabash College in Crawfordsville, essentially to keep vice presidents
Susan Elizabeth, died in infancy at from where he graduated in 1873. from doing any harm to their
1853. After graduation, he began studying administrations.”
law under the tutelage of a Columbia
Daniel Marshall moved to North City attorney and, in 1875, was Marshall and Wilson had
Manchester in the early 1850s, appointed an attorney. an ideological rift during the
and was appointed as postmaster administration’s first term,
in 1853. The family moved from Marshall practiced law from eventually causing the president to
North Manchester in 1856, headed 1876 until 1909. During this time, he move the vice president’s office off
for Rantoul, Illinois, after Martha became heavily involved with the the White House grounds.
Marshall developed a case of Democratic Party. His popularity
tuberculosis. Her husband felt and name appeal in the state, largely In his book, Hatfield asserts that
the prairie air might be better for gained by stumping for other Marshall’s disdain for the position is
her. From there the family moved Democratic candidates, led him to largely found in his attitude toward
to Kansas, then LaGrange, Mo., be elected Indiana’s 27th governor attending Cabinet meetings.
eventually returning to Indiana in 1909. His popularity among
in 1860. The family purchased Democrats, and the fact that Indiana “Vice President Marshall stopped
property in Pierceton in 1862, and was considered by many to be a going after a single session,” Hatfield
eight years later moved to Columbia swing stated in the 1912 presidential wrote. “When asked why, he replied
City, where he practiced medicine election, Marshall was tabbed to be that he realized ‘he would not be
until his death in 1892. Wilson’s vice presidential candidate. listened to and hence would be
He served in the position during unable to make any contribution.’”
Thomas Marshall spent his both of Wilson’s terms in the White
formative years in Pierceton. Many of Marshall’s comments
throughout the years also proved his
displeasure with the office.

“I do not blame proud parents
for wishing that their sons might be

30 | WABASH COUNTY GUIDE