An Illustrated History of Central Oregon, Western Historical Publishing Company,
Spokane, WA. 1905, page 307-308.

JOHN M. MARDEN, who came to The Dalles, Wasco county, about the time of the
admission of the state of Oregon into the union, is now retired from active
business. He was born in Georgetown. D.C., November 30, 1838, the son of
Nathaniel M. and Mary A. (Lutz) Marden, the father a native of Virginia, of an
old southern family, the mother having been born in Georgetown, The father died
in the eighties, aged sixty-four, the mother passed away in 1853 at the age of
fifty-six years.     

In his youth our subject attended private schools and a preparatory school
connected with Columbia College, Washington, D.C. Later he learned the carpenter
trade, and April 2, 1849, he joined a party of sixty-four men, known as the
Washington City & California Mining Association, and crossed the plains with
mule teams. He arrived at Lassen's ranch, California, October 13, 1849, and here
he mined on Bidwell's Bar until January 1, 1850, going thence to Sacramento in
the hope of receiving letters from home. In February he went to Marysville and
assisted in building the first frame edifices in that town. He soon went to
Shasta with a pack train, thence to Scott's Bar, Weaverville, and back to
Marysville. Here he disposed of his mules, in the spring of 1856, returned to
Shasta and filed on a placer claim on the headwaters of Whiskey Creek, where he
panned out considerable coarse gold and many large nuggets, one of which was
worth eight hundred dollars. That fall he left for Marysville, and thence north
up the Yuba river, to Trask Bar, where for six years he remained mining
success-fully. In July, 1858, he went to Fraser river, during the excitement
incident to that period, with three other men in an Indian log canoe, from
Victoria, B.S., as far as Fort Langley, B.C. Finding nothing there worth their
time they paddled clown into the Sound to Olympia, and from there he went to
Monticello, Oregon, at the mouth of the Cowlitz river, where he took a steamer
for Portland. and thence to the Cascades. The following March he came to The
Dalles since which time he has lived in Wasco county. In the autumn of 1859 he
filed on a pre-emption claim, where for thirteen years he made his home. During
the Snake Indian uprising he had some experience in savage warfare, when
buildings were burned at the Warm Springs Agency, and Briggs and his Sons were
massacred, at Barlow's Gate, in 1860. With his family Mr. Marden came to The
Dalles in 1883, where he engaged in the mercantile business with R.F. Gibbons
and A.S. MacAllister, mentioned in another portion of this book. When they were
burned out in 1891, our subject and Mr. Gibbons settled up the affairs of the
company and engaged in the real estate and insurance business which was
continued until July, 1902, when they dissolved partnership. Mr. Marden has two
brothers, Henry F. and Thomas S., the former a farmer in Prince George county,
Maryland, the latter a machinist in Washington, D.C. At The Dalles, February 13,
1869, Mr. Marden was married to Harriet A. Reed, daughter of Calvin Reed. Her
parents came to Oregon in 1850 and located near the present site of Troutdale,
Multnomah county. Mr. Marden is a member of the California Pioneer Association,
of San Francisco; the A.F. & A.M., and is a Royal Arch Mason. Politically he is
a Democrat and has served one term as county commissioner of Wasco county and
delegate to county conventions.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2005 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. 
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.