4.John Marshall was born in a cabin in the northwest woods of Virginia near Germantown ( now Midland ), on September 24, 1755. The first of fifteen children of Thomas and Mary Keith Marshall. He had English, Welsh and Scottish blood in his veins. He was a distant cousin of Thomas Jefferson. John spent the first twenty years of his life near Virginia's frontier. As eldest son, John had to hunt and fish. He started to enjoy nature. Before dawn he would wake up and watch the sunrise. His father was a college-trained clergy man. Thomas wanted John to participate in public life and he knew that law profession was the right path for John. Law required an education and schooling was missing in the woods they lived in. At the age of twelve, Thomas had given John a taste of history and poetry out of a few books. At the age of fourteen, John was sent a hundred miles from home to attend a small boarding school ran by a Scotch clergy man. …
