(12 April 1825-16 March 1925), shantyman. Born in Montreal. Marsell, who began forest work at the age of 14, is reported to have been the model for Louis LeNoir, Ralph Connor’s Boss of the Ottawa in The Man from Glengarry. On Marsell’s death at just short of a hundred, the Toronto Globe wrote “Anthony Marsell’s early life was like a page from the story of the Ottawa Valley, for it was crowded with hardship, adventure and romance. For more than a quarter-century he was known throughout the length and breadth of the lower Ottawa and St. Lawrence districts as a capable, hardy lumberman, and the facts of his life, which were drawn upon by the novelist, would make a story of note, with its river feuds, plots, battles and friendships among the primitive men of his class.” Marsell died on his farm near Iroquois, Dundas County, nine children surviving him. Methodist. Not a GC native. As always with the identification of the originals of Connor’s characters, great caution is in order. He appeared as Anthony Marshall on the preliminary name list for Vol. 15 of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, but when published had no entry in it.
29-line obituary (undated clipping) * “A Man from Glengarry,” editorial, Toronto Globe, 21 March 1925, repr. Glengarry News 27 March 1925 * Miss E. Harrison of Chesterville, “Pioneers of Dundas County,” Cornwall Freeholder 19 Feb. 1930