Marshall Ayres was one of the founding pioneers of the Midwest, particularly around the Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 region.

Early years

Marshall was born June 28, 1807 in Truro, Massachusetts

Truro, Massachusetts

Truro is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, comprising two villages: Truro and North Truro. Located two hours outside Boston, it is a summer vacation community just south of the northern tip of Cape Cod, in an area known as the "Outer Cape"...

 (Cape Cod

Cape Cod

Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...

). He was the seventh child of nine born to father Dr. Jason Ayres and mother Betsey Holman who were married April 17, 1791. His father was the fifth generation of settlers to the New World, as a direct descendant of Captain John Ayres and Susanna Symonds of Ipswich, Massachusetts

Ipswich, Massachusetts

Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,987 at the 2000 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island...

, 1648.

Marshall Ayres married Hannah (Lombard) Ayers, who were native to Truro

Truro

Truro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...

 Cape Cod

Cape Cod

Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...

, Massachusetts. Marshall, was one of the pioneer residents of Griggsville, IL moving there in 1821.

There son Marshall Ayres, Jr.

Marshall Ayres, Jr.

Marshall Ayres, Jr. was an industrial financier.-Personal life:Marshall Ayres, Jr. was born on February 20, 1839, in Griggsville, Illinois, to father Marshall Ayres and mother Hannah Ayers, who were native to Truro, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod...

and future oil industrialist, was born on February 20, 1839

The two families were successful business partners in Illinois with the Ayres & Lombard Bank & Store, and also a steamboat ferry called Prairie State.