The mill was built on the Chattooga River about twelve miles south of La Fayette. Andrew P. Allgood, who married the eldest Marsh daughter, Mary Ann, and Spencer Marsh were some of the wealthiest men in northwest Georgia. By 1857, they each had equal interest in Trion Factory. The factory operated under the name of Marsh & Allgood by the eve of the Civil War. Today the Trion Mill operates under the name of Mount Vernon Mills. Marsh was born in Chatham County, North Carolina, on November 25, 1799, and was the son of William Marsh, a soldier in the American Revolution for whom the William Marsh chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (in La Fayette, Georgia) is named. About 1835, Marsh moved his family to "Chattooga," Georgia. Soon after his arrival, the name of the small settlement was changed to La Fayette. In 1835, Northwest Georgia was still Cherokee territory and remained so until 1838, when the Native Americans of the area were removed and settled west of the Mississippi River. By 1835, the Cherokees were a friendly, peaceful people, and the Marsh family befriended many of them. Ruth and Spencer Marsh reared their six children in this large, imposing house, and sometimes rented rooms to boys who wished to live in La Fayette during the week and attend Chattooga Academy, the brick school just south of the Marsh House. One of the boys who lived with the Marsh family was John B. Gordon. Years later, Gordon became a well-known and respected person in Georgia and throughout the South. During the American Civil War, Gordon served as one of Robert E. Lee's officers and was the officer Lee chose to surrender what was left of the Army of Northern Virginia. After the war, Gordon served the people of Georgia as governor and U.S. Senator. In 1863, when the Civil War moved into Northwest Georgia, the Marsh family moved south to Cassville, Georgia, in what is today Bartow County, Georgia. General Braxton Bragg plotted his strategy September 17–19, 1863, for the Battle of Chickamauga under an old oak tree which stood just to the south of the Marsh House in front of the Chattooga Academy. While the family was away, the house was occupied by Union troops and was a focal point during The Battle of La Fayette in June 1864. After the war, the family returned home to find that all of their furniture and household items had been taken.