MARSH, John, clergyman, born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, 2 April, 1788; died in Brooklyn, New York, 4 August, 1864. He was graduated at Yale in 1804, and then studied theology under his father, of the same name, but did not begin preaching until 1809. In 1818 he was settled as pastor of the 1st Congregational church in Haddam, Connecticut Meanwhile he had become interested in the temperance movement, which at that period was attracting great attention throughout the state. In 1828 a county society was organized, of which he became one of the officers, and in 1829 a state organization was effected, of which he was made secretary. He delivered temperance lectures throughout the state, among others " Putnam and his Wolf," of which 150,000 copies were sold before it passed into the hands of the American tract society, which subsequently distributed many thousands more. In 1833 the American temperance union invited him to become one of its agents in Philadelphia, and after three years of labor he was called to accept the secretaryship of that society in New York city, and became the editor of its organ and publications. In this capacity he was sent to the World's temperance convention in London in 1846. In 1865 the society was reorganized and new officials were appointed. Later he became financial agent of Yale theological seminary and raised $10,000 for that institution. He received the degree of D.D. from Jefferson college in 1852, and, besides editing the "Temperance Journal," published " Epitome of Ecclesiastical History" (New York, 1838)" "Half-Century Tribute to the Cause of Temperance" (1840)" "The Temperance Speaker" (1860); "Temperance Recollections" (1866)" and "Prayers from Plymouth Pulpit " (1867).