Stephen “Marsh” Ripley

Bachelor “Marsh” is a temperance man who enjoys a plug of chewing tobacco. He and his brother Henry (who rents the “lower farm” from father) take responsibility for operating the large Ripley farm, the most valuable property in the township. Their father is a busy magistrate and often away. Marsh does “the choars” every day and in the appropriate season draws wood, gathers sap, cleans rye, loads hay, attends apple-paring bees and–on occasion–school. See his sister’s diary for the same years.