Caroline and Peter Marsh, from South Carolina and Delaware, respectively, moved from Pennsylvania to Cartersville, Georgia, shortly before 1860. Peter was a bookbinder. They had a large family of girls, including Sarah or Sallie (b. ca. 1842) and Caroline or Carrie (b. ca. 1856), and a son, Clayton H. Marsh, who died in Savannah in 1864 from wounds received at Oconee Bridge, where he fought as part of the Georgia Military Institute cadets. His sister, Caroline, married Benjamin R. Padgett, an Atlanta architect and contractor.