Marquis, Thomas

Marquis, Thomas a Presbyterian minister, was born near Winchester, Va., in 1753. His early life was subjected to many deprivations. He received an ordinary common- school education, prosecuted his classical studies, amid painful vicissitudes, at Buffalo and Canonsburg, and in April, 1793, was licensed to preach; labored one year as a licentiate, and in 1794 was ordained and installed pastor of the church at Cross Creek, Pa. In 1796 he became an active missionary to the Indians, traveling down the Alleghany, and the lower waters of the Muskingum and Scioto rivers. In 1802 he became a member of the executive committee of the Missionary Board west of the Alleghany Mountains. The remaining twenty years of his ministry were filled up with multiplied labors and varied but unusual success. He died Sept. 27, 1829. Mr. Marquis was a laborious and faithful pastor, eminently wise in counsel, and apt in introducing and enforcing religious duty. As a preacher he was composed and earnest, extremely logical in style, and entirely perspicuous in the expression of thought. See Wilson, Presb. Hist. Almanac, 1864, p. 171, Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 4:83-89.