Eleanor Marsh was born in rural Winnebago County, Wisconsin, in 1896, the youngest of
Albert and Elizabeth Merkley's seven children. She was raised on the family farm in rural
Neenah, Wisconsin. As a young woman she aspired to be a nun and later a schoolteacher, but
was unable to pursue either apparently because of her father's disapproval. In 1917, she
married Elwin Marsh in a union that lasted for over fifty years.
The couple spent their early years living and working around Neenah. They spent a year
managing a farm in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, before returning to Neenah. The Marshes
eventually moved to Eleanor's childhood home where they helped her parents run their farm
for almost ten years. Their only child, Dorothy, was born in 1928 and in 1929, the Marshes
bought a small farm near Eureka, Wisconsin. Eleanor Marsh's mother, Elizabeth Merkley, moved
in with the family in 1931, after her husband's death, and lived there until her death in
1942.
Eleanor's husband died in 1969, and she continued to live on the farm past her 100th
birthday. She spent many winters in her daughter Dorothy's home to save money on heating
oil. She also rented the farmland and its buildings during those years, but for the most
part she continued to live semi-independently in her home in Eureka.
