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THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST September 19, 1991 WHEN THEN WAS NOW By Wayne A. Guyant The material for this story is taken from an old Waupaca newspaper, dated October 4, 1906. The story started out by commemorating the 100th birthday of Mary Marshall, who was a member of the Wis-consin Veterans Home, King. In 1906 she was one of the very few widows of soldiers of the Mexican War, whose names were on the pension roll. She herself was a nurse in both the Mexican War and the American Civil War. She quoted that her life had spanned the most remarkable 100 years in all of the world’s history. She witnessed the rise and development of our American republic from the 13 original infant colonies to it becoming the most powerful nation in all the world (1906), whose brilliant and sublime achievements, both in the arts of war and peace, were supreme. She would be amazed today, in 1991, if she could see the advancements our country has made since 1906. She may have never in her wildest dreams thought of television, radio, automobiles, aeroplanes, atomic bombs, computers and the “confisticated” equipment that was recently employed in Desert Storm. Mary Marshall was born October 1, 1806, in Gunnon, Ireland, and had been a resident of these United States for 70 years in 1906. In volume 6, page 217 of the death records, it shows her father as Patrick Skivewkon and her mother was unknown. She married Andrew Marshall at Toronto, Canada, in 1822. He was a British soldier there at the time. They moved to Milwaukee in 1849, and there Andrew became engaged in business. He served in the Mexican War for 17 months. During their married years they had nine children, of which two sons went into service of his country during the Civil War and never did return. I could not find any mention as to when and where her husband, Andrew Marshall, died or is buried, but Mary E. Marshall died December 14, 1908, aged 102 years old at the Wisconsin Veterans Home hospital at King. She is buried at the WVH Cemetery. |