preachers and founded the stalwart Sandy Baptist Church, which has persisted well into the 21st Century. Mack and Emma Jean's only child, Samuel Matthew Marsden, was born in 1879. Stock Trading Business Mack came from a family of lead and tin miners in England, who immigrated to America and were successful in mining at Galena, Illinois, a town named for the ore that produces lead. His grandparents came to Missouri about 1840 after the discovery of lead deposits there. Mack's father Samuel devoted himself to mining and engineering in Jefferson County, but Mack chose to become a livestock trader, dealing in hogs, cattle, and horses, buying them from local farmers and driving them to markets along the Mississippi River on the outskirts of St. Louis. Legal Problems Mack was first associated with crime in the fall of 1881, when a reclusive farmer, Anson Vail, was found dead in his cabin after it was destroyed by fire. Although there was no evidence of foul play, the sheriff was certain Vail had been murdered. Mack admitted to visiting Vail on business on the evening of his death. He was arrested for the killing in 1882, stood trial, and was acquitted for lack of evidence. Also beginning in 1881, Jefferson County farmers suffered from a series of livestock thefts, particularly hogs. The sheriff questioned Mack about those thefts, as well as about the murder of prominent merchant Joseph Yerger in the town of Antonia. The local newspaper, The Democrat, repeatedly accused Mack of various crimes, stated he was the leader of a gang of thieves, and labeled him a "desperado". A local vigilante committee even tried to lynch him. Yet in all that time there was no evidence and no witness to tie Marsden to any crime. In the spring of 1883, Mack was arrested after selling some stolen hogs to a butcher in Carondolet. Although he had a bill of sale to prove he'd bought the hogs, he and several other men were indicted for livestock theft. With their trial approaching, all of the men were out of jail on bond. One of them had turned state's evidence, intending to name Mack as the leader of a gang of thieves. Mack planned to testify similarly against the man who accused him. Death On August 29, 1883, Mack was returning from a trip selling livestock in St. Louis with his brother-in-law and constant