Michigan historical collections. [Vol. 17]

100

ANNUAL MEETING, 1890.

as a prominent member. He was a liberal supporter of his church
and all public institutions, and gave away a great deal of money in
charity. His memory was phenomenal, and his mind full of information; a man of vast information in the widest sense of the word.
He was a man highly esteemed wherever known.
Dec. 5. Dr. Orville Marshall, aged 46 years. Dr. Marshall was the
universal friend of the unfortunate and needy, always ready with
advice and a helping hand. His character was well known. He was
a self-made man in the fullest sense of the 'expression; deep in his
convictions of right, and not backward in airing them when occasion required; a solid, honest business man, who meant what he said
and never misled; a kind, firm friend, to be relied upon on all occasions; a prosperous physician, alive to the interests of science, and
not a small contributor to its wells of information.
Conscientious in action as well as thoughts, he was one of those
few men who command respect and make warm friends wherever
they go.
Doctor Marshall was born in Ann Arbor, March 2, 1838, and lived
there until he graduated from the university in 1865. His youth
was a continual struggle against poverty. He attended the common
school, but, whatever books he needed he himself earned. When
this school failed to add more to his natural taste for knowledge
he set himself at work to attend the university, and to that end
learned the carpenters and joiner's trade at the age of 16 years,
saving penny by penny until enough had been acquired to enable
him to carry out his one wish. He graduated with high honor in
1865, and moved to Lansing in 1866, locating at the lower end of
the town, where he has since followed the practice of his profession.
On Dec. 1, 1870 he married Miss Sarah Metlin who survives him
to mourn an irreparable loss. Last Sunday was the nineteenth anniversary of their wedding, and it was celebrated by a quiet day at
home.
Dr. Marshall acted as correspondent of the State board of health
when in the university. He was author of a report of an epidemic of
scarlet fever in 1875-76, also, of a report on the opium habit in Michigan, in 1878, and numerous other medical and scientific papers. He
was city physician in 1883, and was a member of the State medical
society for a number of years. He has been one of the most prominent members of the school board for a number of terms, and projected
several important measures. His total service in that capacity, including terms in which he was not a member, extends from 1870 to 1889.