Editing Thomas R. Marshall (section)

===Education===
[[File:Thomas R. Marshall House in Columbia City.jpg|thumb|The [[Thomas R. Marshall House]] at Columbia City was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1983.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a|dateform=mdy}}</ref>]]

On settling in [[Pierceton, Indiana]], Marshall began to attend public school.<ref name = g281/> His father and grandfather became embroiled in a dispute with their [[Methodist]] minister when they refused to vote Republican in the 1862 election.<ref name = b7>{{harvnb|Bennett|2007|p=7}}</ref> The minister threatened to expel them from the church, to which Marshall's grandfather replied that he would "take his risk on hell, but not the Republican Party".<ref name = b7/> The dispute prompted the family to move again, to [[Fort Wayne, Indiana|Fort Wayne]], and convert to the [[Presbyterian]] church. In Fort Wayne, Marshall attended high school, graduating in 1869.<ref>{{harvnb|Bennett|2007|p=9}}</ref> At age fifteen his parents sent him to [[Wabash College]], in [[Crawfordsville, Indiana|Crawfordsville]], where he received a classical education. His father advised him to study medicine or become a minister, but neither interested him; he entered the school without knowing which profession he would take upon graduation.<ref>Gugin and St. Clair, eds., 2006, p. 233.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Bennett|2007|p=12}}</ref>

During college Marshall joined the [[Phi Gamma Delta]] fraternity, participated in literary and debating societies, and founded a Democratic Club.<ref name = g281/> He secured a position on the staff of the college newspaper, the ''Geyser'', and began writing political columns defending Democratic policies. In 1872 he wrote an unfavorable column about a female lecturer at the school, accusing her of "seeking liberties" with the young boys in their boarding house. She hired lawyer [[Lew Wallace]], the author of ''[[Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ|Ben-Hur]]'', and filed a suit demanding that Marshall pay her $20,000 for [[libel]].<ref name = b13>{{harvnb|Bennett|2007|p=13}}</ref> Marshall traveled to [[Indianapolis]] to find a defense lawyer and employed future [[United States President]] [[Benjamin Harrison]], then a prominent Indianapolis lawyer. Harrison had the suit dropped by showing that the charges made by Marshall were probably true. In Marshall's memoir, he wrote that when he approached Harrison to pay his bill, his lawyer informed him that he would not charge him for the service, but instead gave him a lecture on the ethics of making such charges public.<ref name = b13/><ref name = g234>Gugin and St. Clair, eds., 2006, p. 234.</ref> Marshall later recalled that he took the advice to heart, and was never again accused of making comments that could be considered libelous.<ref name = b13/><ref name=g234/>

Marshall was elected to [[Phi Beta Kappa]] during his final year at college.<ref name = g281/> He graduated in June 1873, receiving the top grade in fourteen of his thirty-six courses in a class of twenty-one students.<ref>{{harvnb|Bennett|2007|p=15}}</ref> Because of his libel case, he had become increasingly interested in law and began seeking someone to teach him. At that time, a common way to become a lawyer was to apprentice under a practicing attorney. Marshall's great-uncle Woodson Marshall began to help him, but the younger Marshall soon moved to [[Columbia City, Indiana]], to live with his parents. Marshall [[reading law|read law]] in the Columbia City law office of [[Walter Olds]], a [[List of justices of the Indiana Supreme Court|future member]] of the [[Indiana Supreme Court]], for more than a year and was [[Admission to the bar in the United States|admitted to the bar]] on April 26, 1875.<ref name = g234/><ref>{{harvnb|Bennett|2007|pp=19–20}}</ref><ref name = g282>{{harvnb|Gray|1977|p=282}}</ref><ref name=Jehs-222>Jehs, p. 222.</ref>