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,Californians uncover portraits of Marshall founder’s parents By JOHN J. COLLINS Special to the Chronicle A remarkable pair of early 19th Century paintings of interest to Marshall have turned up in California. Done in May 1827, the subjects are Seth Ketchum and Lydia Keyes Ketchum, the parents of Marshall’s founders, Sidney and George Ketchum. The information and photographs of the paintings came from Gloria Ketchum Kearns of Lake Forest, Ill., a great-granddaughter of George Ketchum. Seth was born in Wilton, Conn., on Feb. 23, 1764, while Lydia was from Ashfield, Mass. born on Sept. 11, 1772. They were married in Saratoga County, N.Y... on Oct. 4, 1792. Their son George was born in Palmer, Saratoga County, in 1794. Sidney was born in Peru, Clinton County, N.Y. in 1797. The actual paintings are both 22 by 27 inches in size. Son Sidney, a land surveyor by profession, obtained grants for the Marshall area in 1830. He returned to the Marshall area in August, 1831, with brother George and 15 pioneer families, naming the settlement for then U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall. In his list of pioneer settlers in the book “A History of Marshall,” Dick Carver indicates that Seth (and we suspect Lydia) also came to the Marshall settlement in 1831. Both of the parents are buried in the Ketchum plot at Marshall's Oakridge Cemetery. Seth died here on Feb. 25, 1839, and Lydia on Oct. 17, 1842. Sidney founded the county's first bank (Calhoun County Bank) in 1836, built and donated Marshall's first Methodist Church, and built what is now Marshall House Antique Centre in 1838. 1 was then the largest hotel between Detroit and Chicago. His home, called “The Mansion House,” was built in 1837 and was the reason for Mansion Street being so-named. The site is now the location of Oaklawn Hospital. Sidney died in Marshall on Sept. 17, 1862. George Ketchum was originally a contractor for the Ohio and Canal. Arriiing in Marshall, he built a log cabin and saw mill on Rice Creek (now Ketchum park). He was the first Marshall postmaster (1832-33). In 1850 he went to California after the Gold Rush as a civil engineers, planning new mountain highways George died in Sonora, Calif., on June 29, 1853, but is memorialized on the Ketchum marble shaft at Oakridge Cemetery ‘ll have a painting. Our personal “Ketchum connection” started in April of 1981 at Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Ill. We had gone there to do our presentation on “Five Areas of Community Involvement in Marshall, Michigan” as part of a preservation program at the college. Before the program started, I was greeted by an older lady who showed me a copy of Marshall's 1930 Centennial program , acknowledged it with interest, but went on preparing my slides. As that exasperated at my lack of attention, the lady yanked my sleeve and said, “I am the widow of George Ketchum's grandson. I have a panting that I think you'd like to have! Marie Ketchum was so right. She had the painting of George Ketchum that Harold C Brooks had looked for for so many years. He had a painting of Sidney Ketchum (which he left to the historical society when he died in 1978) but only a photograph of George's painting Lee KETCHUM’S on page 5A Seth Ketchum Lydia Keyes Ketchum
Newspaper Details
Marshall Chronicle
Marshall, Michigan, US
Sat, Feb 05, 1994
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Rebecca W.
USA 16 Jun 2026
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