Thomas R. Marshall

Whitley County has few eminent personalities to its credit and Thomas. R. Marshal is definately one of them. He was an active American democratic politician and later elected as the 28th Vice President of United States who served under the President Woodrow Wilson from 1913–21. Marshall is known for his provoking humor and is remembered for few quotes he made regarding politics. One of his most humorous and famous quote is ‘What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar’, made in a U.S Senate discussion on what the nation needs.

Marshall was born on 14th March 1854 to Indiana couple Daniel M. Marshall, who was a doctor by profession and Martha Patterson. Due to Marshall’s mother’s ill health, his father moved to different places in United States. So his education was done in different schools at places like Illinois and Fort Wayne. He graduated from Wabash College, Fort Wayne in 1873 and later practiced law for two years under guidance of Judge Walter Olds. At a young age of 21, on April 26 1875, Marshall was appointed as a lawyer in Whitley County and later developed a law firm partnership. Later, in 1876, he moved to Columbia city to live with his parents. He solved many judicial cases with his partner and had become a prominent lawyer in Columbia city. Marshall began to concentrate more on elections, but after getting defeated in 1895, he continued with his law practice. He actively participated in rallies and campaigns and became the governor of Indiana in 1909 and that was end of the partnership. During his term as a governor, he mainly concentrated on the progressive agenda and was against anti corruption and child labor in the state. Marshall has no looking back and finally his party won the 1913 elections and he became the Vice President of United States. He was known for nobility and was against women suffrage and a great supporter of nonaligned status in the World War I.

Marshall’s autobiography Recollections of Thomas R. Marshall: A Hoosier Salad (published in 1925) is based on his meeting with the U.S. Senate candidates Stephen A. Douglas and President Abraham Lincoln in a debate held in Illinois State.