Marsh was influential in encouraging wagon trains of settlers to come to California and also in its obtaining independence from Mexico.

He was murdered by a disgruntled employee, and as a young woman, Alice received a large inheritance, which she used to purchase the Camron-Stanford house from its builder, Samuel Merritt.

He was appointed to a vacant seat on the Oakland City Council, and later became a member of the California State Assembly.

He is best known for donating one of the golden spikes used in the celebration of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869.

[8] In 1907, the city of Oakland purchased the Camron-Stanford house and other private residences bordering Lake Merritt.