Englanders were selecting their homes in the Western Reserve. At
Ashtabula the young man from Quincy market began the business of
supplying Boston and New York with beef and pork, making his shipments
via the Erie Canal.

But there was a farther West, and in the Winter of 1833-4 he proceeded
to Chicago, then a village of three hundred inhabitants, and began to
supply them, and the company of soldiers garrisoning Fort Dearborn, with
fresh beef; hanging up his slaughtered cattle upon a tree standing on
the site now occupied by the Court House.

This glance at the condition of society and the mechanic arts during the
boyhood of Sylvester Marsh, and this look at the struggling village of
Chicago when he was in manhood's prime, enables us to comprehend in some
slight degree the mighty trend of events during the life time of a
single individual; an advancement unparalleled through all the ages.

For eighteen years, the business begun under the spreading oak upon what
is now Court House square, in Chicago, was successfully conducted,--each
year assuming larger proportions. He was one of the founders of Chicago,
doing his full share in the promotion of every public enterprise. The
prominent business men with whom he associated were John H. Kuisie,
Baptiste Bounier, Deacon John Wright, Gurdon S. Hubbard, William H.
Brown, Dr. Kimberly, Henry Graves, the proprietor of the first Hotel,
the Mansion house, the first framed two-story building erected, Francis
Sherman, who arrived in Chicago the same year and became subsequent
builder of the Sherman House.

Mr. Marsh was the originator of meat packing in Chicago, and invented
many of the appliances used in the process--especially the employment of