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Samuel Simpson Marquis
- Wayne State University Press
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Samuel Simpson Marquis 1866-1948 "Mr. Ford went into Dr. Marquis's office and said, 'Come on, Dr. Marquis, let's go down to the hospital and lay the cornerstone., " —Ernest G. Heboid* Although nominally an Episcopalian, Henry Ford was -TV perhaps basically an agnostic. He apparently placed some credence in reincarnation. For respectability, he attended church and built seven edifices of an interdenominational character. The one man most closely allied with Ford in a religious capacity was the Reverend Samuel S. Marquis. Samuel Simpson Marquis was born in Sharon, Ohio, on June 8, 1866. He was the son of John E. and Sarah P. Marquis. There had been generations of Episcopalian ministers in the Marquis family, and as Samuel himself confided, "They say that when I was born, my aunt looked at me and said to my mother, This is the homeliest baby I ever saw,, to which my mother replied, 'All right, then, he shall be the minister .". After a public school education, he was sent to Allegheny College in Pennsylvania to pursue ecclesiastical studies. He was expelled twice, "during periods of intense doubt about religion,,, and later reinstated to graduate with a bachelor of arts degree and honors in 1890. He next attended Cambridge Theology School in Massachusetts, where he earned a bachelor of divinity degree in 1893. Marquis married Gertrude Lee Snyder of Warren, Ohio, on August 23, 1894. After being rector of Trinity Church of Woburn, Massachusetts , from 1893 to 1897, and of Trinity Church in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, from 1897 to 1899, Marquis was transferred to Detroit as rector of St. Joseph's Church in 1901. With daughters, Dorothy, born in Woburn in 1895, and Barbara Lee, born in Bridgewater in 1897, they settled at 29 Lothrup Street in the St. Joseph area. In Detroit, a son, Rogers Israel, was born in 1901, and another daughter, Gertrude Lee, * From the oral reminiscences of Ernest G. Liebold. 205 Henry's Lieutenants in 1907. Marquis's alma mater, Allegheny College, in 1905 awarded him a degree of doctor of divinity. On May 15, 1906, Marquis became dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in Detroit. This was about the time Henry and Clara Ford, also Episcopalians, were to move into their new home at 66 Edison Avenue in Detroit. The Marquises called on them. Marquis was soliciting financial aid for the church. Clara Ford was particularly supportive of the Episcopal denomination . The couples became well acquainted and spent many evenings together. As a churchman, Marquis was especially interested in family economics and working conditions as well as church affairs. One of the major objectives of Marquis's ministry was a religion for the working man. This was a concept that appealed to the Fords. As dean of the newly constructed St. Paul's, Marquis worked long and hard and was near the point of exhaustion in early 1915. When his doctor advised him to take a year's vacation, Marquis's reply was, "A change in work would be more beneficial to me than being idle." Marquis arranged to work with John R. Lee as a volunteer in the Ford Motor Company Sociological Department. Ford was elated and remarked, "I want you, Mark, to put Jesus Christ in my factory." One of Marquis's earliest assignments was administered by Clara Ford. During late November 1915, Henry Ford had become convinced he might be able to stop World War I by joining leading pacifists and social evangelists to lead a peace mission to support the cause of "mediation." One of Ford's expressions at that time was, "Men sitting around a table, not men dying in a trench, will finally settle the differences." Ford chartered a ship and was planning to lead the expedition to Europe, but Clara Ford and Marquis did not think Henry himself should go. Until the final hour of departure, Clara Ford and Marquis tried to convince Ford that the trip was ill advised. When Ford, insisted on going to the very last, Clara Ford appealed to Marquis to accompany and protect her husband on the trip. Many on the ship were of questionable character. There were about eighty peace delegates, twenty-five students, thirty-five journalists, and at least two photographers. The entrances to Ford's suite on the ship were through either the cabin of Raymond Dahlinger or that of Marquis . After a trip of two weeks, the Ford peace party reached Oslo with its December temperature of twelve degrees below zero. Ford...