Mr. Marsh was born in Chatham County, North Carolina, on November 25, 1799, and was the son of William Marsh, a soldier in the American Revolution for whom the William Marsh chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (in La Fayette, Georgia) is named.
Ruth and Spencer Marsh reared their six children in this large, imposing house, and sometimes rented rooms to boys who wished to live in La Fayette during the week and attend Chattooga Academy, the brick school just south of the Marsh House.