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Park Marshall (1855-1946)

 

Obituary Nashville Banner - November 20, 1946

 

Funeral services for Park Marshall, 91, prominent Middle Tennessee lawyer, historian, author, and public official and the only man ever to act as mayor of both Nashville and Franklin, were conducted this afternoon at the Regan-Smithson Funeral Home, Franklin.

The Rev. Peyton R. Williams, rector of Christ Church, Episcopal, Nashville, officiated, and burial was in Mt. Hope Cemetery, Franklin.

Mr. Marshall died at 2:10 p.m. Tuesday at a Franklin hospital following a brief illness.

He was born in the old Marshall home in Franklin February 18, 1855, a son of the late John and Frances Crockett Marshall. His father was one of the state’s most distinguished lawyers.

Mr. Marshall was a great-grandson of two Revolutionary officers: Col Guilford Dudley of Virginia, and Maj. Robert Bell of North Carolina. Gen Thomas Eaton of North Carolina, another officer under Washington, was also an ancestor. His great-grandmother, the wife of Colonel Dudley, was the aunt of John Randolph of Roanoke.

He was reared and educated in Franklin, living then as in recent years in a 133-year-old brick house on Franklin’s Third Avenue.

Having been licensed to practice law in Nashville and Franklin, he entered politics in 1889 when he was elected to legislation affecting governing of the State Penitentiary. Four years later he became a state senator serving frequently as speaker pro tem of that house.

Park Marshall's home located on 3rd Ave. 

Park Marshall's home located on 3rd Ave. 

Mr. Marshall was secretary to the late U.S. Sen. William B. Bate and from 1892 to 1900 served as executive clerk of the Senate in Washington.

Returning to Tennessee from Washington at the turn of the century, he made his home in Nashville, being clerk and master of the Davidson County Chancery Court from 1901 to 1907, chairman of the Davidson County Board of Election Commissioners from 1910 to 1914, and mayor in 1915.

He moved back to Franklin in 1918 and the following year was elected mayor of that town, serving continuously in that capacity until 1939, with the exception of 1923-24.

Mr. Marshall was a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Franklin.

Mr. Marshall wrote several articles on the history of Williamson County and Franklin for the Williamson County News in 1917. He was a contributing writer for The Taylor-Trotwood Magazine and he was widely recognized for his work on the history of the Natchez Trace.


Park Marshall's history of Franklin and Williamson Co. was re-published in WCHS Journal Number 24.