Charles Wesley Marsh was an American inventor, manufacturer, and editor.
Background
Charles Wesley Marsh was born on March 22, 1834 on the old Marsh homestead near Trenton, Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, on the north shore of the Bay of Quinte. He was the son of Samuel and Tamar (Richardson) Marsh and was descended from William Marsh of Kent County, England, who emigrated to Connecticut about the middle of the seventeenth century and whose grandson, born in Vermont, became a "United Empire Loyalist" and after the outbreak of the Revolution emigrated to Canada where he invested largely in lands. When he was eleven his parents sold their farm and moved to Illinois. On the way, at Coburg, Canada, his father was converted to the Second Adventist teachings of William Miller with the result that the family migration was delayed for four years. When he was fifteen years old his family resumed its journey and after an overland trip by way of Chicago, took up late in 1849 a quarter section of government land near Shabbona and De Kalb in De Kalb County, Ill. During the succeeding decade he lived with his parents and experienced all that pioneer farming entailed, the building of a home, clearing and cultivating the land, and harvesting the crops.
Education
Marsh received his primary education at home and in the district school and helped in the farm labors after the age of six. Then, Marsh attended St. Andrews School for one and one-half years and then Victoria College in Coburg, winning prizes for scholarship in both institutions.
Career
In the course of time agricultural machinery was gradually added to the farm equipment including in 1856 a Mann reaping machine. With this Marsh and his younger brother William harvested grain for two consecutive years. The machine was of the side-delivery type with an endless belt which delivered the grain into a receptacle from which it was discharged in gavels onto the ground ready for binding into sheaves. In the course of working with the new machine the brothers were struck with the idea of binding the grain on the machine, and throughout the winter of 1857 and the following spring they conducted many experiments toward that end. In June 1858 they applied for a patent. Meantime they refitted their Mann reaper in accordance with their plan and successfully used it in the harvest of that year. Their patent for a "reaping machine" was granted on August 17, 1858, No. 21, 207. The machine was the first practical hand-binding harvester, furnishing the foundation for the modern harvesting machine in that it was the first and only machine to which self-binding devices could be successfully attached. From 1858 to 1863 Marsh divided his attention between the farm and the harvester, refining the latter and taking steps toward its later manufacture. He unsuccessfully undertook the construction of twelve machines in 1860, but he built in 1861 a single machine which had all the qualities required for field work.
In 1863, in connection with Lewis Steward, he established a manufactory for the harvester at Plano, Ill. , and began building machines in a small way. Twenty-five were made and sold for the harvest of 1864. They performed so successfully that manufacturing licenses were applied for by others and within a few years Marsh harvesters were being made at two establishments in Illinois and at one in Ohio. The plant at Plano was enlarged from year to year and machines were manufactured under the firm name of Marsh, Steward & Company. In 1865 a financial interest in the establishment was secured by Gammon & Deering, which organization finally purchased the entire property. Then in 1869 Marsh established the Sycamore Marsh Harvester Manufacturing Company at Sycamore, Ill. , and successfully operated that for seven years. In 1876 he sold a controlling interest in this enterprise to J. D. Easter & Company and retired the following year. Easter & Company failed in 1877 and deeply involved the Harvester Manufacturing Company at Sycamore. Marsh, who still possessed a large financial interest there, endeavored to prevent a complete collapse of the business. In the course of the succeeding three years, however, matters went from bad to worse. In 1879 the original patents for the harvester expired as did also the manufacturing licenses, so that eventually in 1881 Marsh was compelled to close out the Marsh Company. He then founded the Marsh Binder Manufacturing Company, using the same plant and facilities at Sycamore, and endeavored to develop an automatic binding machine. Inventors were employed and inventions purchased for this purpose, but the attempt failed completely in 1884 and Marsh lost everything. In 1885 he became the editor of the newly formed trade journal Farm Implement News, the first number of which appeared in April 1885. The paper was successful from the start and became one of the leading farm machinery trade papers of the world. In the course of time Marsh was made president of the publishing company and continued to serve in this office, though retiring as editor at the age of seventy. Marsh went abroad in 1870 and demonstrated the machine in Austria and Hungary. He participated in a number of competitive trials and in Hungary won the first prize. In 1868 he had served in the lower house of the Illinois legislature and two years later one term in the Senate. He also served for twenty years as a trustee of the Northern Illinois Hospital for the Insane.
Achievements
Connections
He was twice married: first, on January 1, 1860, to Frances Wait, and after her death to Sue Rogers on January 10, 1881. He was survived by his widow and by three children of the first marriage.