Marshall Trimble's
roots are rich in American, military, Native American, and lawman history. His
ancestors were officers in the Revolutionary army, fought under Andy Jackson at
the Battle of Horseshoe Bend and the Battle of New Orleans.
During the 1830’s,
his great-great-grandfather, Moffett Trimble, was a sergeant in the U.S. Mounted
Rangers under Colonel Henry Dodge. He rode with Captain Jesse Bean’s company
of rangers out of Ft. Gibson Oklahoma in the 1830’s. He moved to Texas around
1840 and during the Mexican War, was a Texas Ranger under the legendary Sam
Walker. Since that time each generation of Trimble’s has carried on the Walker
name. His great-grandfather, Sam Walker Trimble served in a Texas cavalry
regiment during the Civil War and later fought with John Ford's Texas Rangers in
the Indian wars, taking part in the Battle on the Frio, in 1866. He was
later a peace officer, professional gambler and stockman in Texas.
Trimble's ethnic roots are mostly Scots-Irish on his father’s side and
Irish Catholic from his mother’s side. Five brothers named Trimble
immigrated to America in the 1720's from Northern Ireland. They settled in
Virginia. His branch of the family then wested to Arkansas, finally arriving in
Texas in the 1830's.
His mother’s family, the O’Murphy’s and the Mulvihill’s immigrated from
Ireland during the great Potato Famine of the 1840’s.
A maternal great-grandmother, Rebecca Nolan was a full-blooded Creek Indian. As
a young child, she was among the Creek Indians removed from Alabama around 1840
and marched in shackles and chains to Oklahoma on the infamous Trail of Tears.
While passing through Arkansas her parents, unable to care for her, gave her to
a sympathetic family named Nolan. The Nolan’s adopted several Creek children
from the refugees and raised them as their own. The number of Nolan children
listed on a census was 28. His paternal grandfather, Wesley Walker Trimble, was
an engineer on the Del Rio-Eagle Pass Railroad during the Mexican Revolution of
1910. His father, Ira Walker Trimble was raised in Del Rio and Langtry, Texas on
the Rio Grande during the revolution. As a child he witnessed several battles
between Carranzistas and Villistas.
Charlie Small, the notorious Texas border gunman was his great-grandfather’s
half-brother. Small, was a notorious gun for hire along both sides of the Rio
Grande around the turn of the century before he was shot and killed by a Texas
Ranger at Langtry. During those lawless times along the Rio Grande, the Charlie
Small had a reputation as a fearless borderland Robin Hood who operated on both
sides of the law.
Marshall’s
maternal grandparents packed up the family and left Arkansas around 1918 and
moved to Tempe. About that same time his paternal grandparents arrived in Tempe
from Del Rio, Texas. A few years later his father, Ira, returned to Langtry,
where he met and married Leta Gobbell, daughter of the town marshal, Bart
Gobbell. Gobbell worked with the legendary Judge Roy Bean, the so-called
"Law West of the Pecos." Trimble and Gobbell had a son, but the
marriage failed and he returned to Arizona. Settling in Tempe, he began courting
Margaret Juanita Rogers. They married in 1935 and eventually had four sons. One
died in infancy and the other three, Charlie, Marshall and Dan survived.
The family was living on a small livestock ranch south of Tempe when Marshall
was born in 1939. Later they lived on a small ranch at Lehi, where Marshall
attended the first grade.
After World War II, his father sold the cows and hired out with the Denver and
Rio Grande Railroad in Colorado. They lived in Clifton, Colorado for several
months before returning to Arizona where he went to work for the Santa Fe
Railroad. From 1947 to 1955, the Trimble family lived in the northern Arizona
town of Ash Fork, on the Santa Fe mainline. Times were hard as his father
didn’t have enough seniority to work steady. To make ends meet his mother went
to work as a waitress in a road house café. The first three years were spent
living in a small, two room trailer house with a lean-to porch and an army
surplus tent with no running water or plumbing. Marshall considers those
hardscrabble years in Ash Fork as "character-building." He still
considers Ash Fork his hometown and returns there often to assist in community
projects.
In 1955, during his
senior year in high school, the Trimbles moved back to the Valley where Marshall
attended West Phoenix High School. Following his senior year he played baseball
for the Glendale Greys semi-pro baseball team. In 1956 the team was runner-up
for the Arizona semi-pro championship. In 1957, he dropped out of college and
joined the U. S. Marine Corps for a tour of duty and considers that experience
among the most meaningful and significant of his life. He was one of three in a
75-man platoon to win a meritorious promotion upon graduating from boot camp.
The Marines gave Trimble a strong sense of duty, ethics and patriotism that
continues to this day. The Marines instilled in him that through hard work and
persistence he could become anything he wanted to be.
After the Marines,
Trimble returned to Phoenix College where he played on the 1958 baseball team
that was ranked fifth in the nation. In 1999, the Phoenix College Alumni
Association selected him as a charter member of the Phoenix College Alumni Hall
of Fame.
Marshall bought a
used Gibson guitar for $5 in 1958 and learned to play while listening to Elvis
Presley, Buddy Holly and Johnny Cash records. A year later he traded the Gibson
and $25. for a well-worn Martin guitar. In 1959, he attended a Kingston Trio
concert and was hooked for life on folk music. That same year he met Travis
Edmonson of the popular folk duo, Bud and Travis. The chance meeting was a
determining factor in his becoming a folksinger. A long friendship with Travis,
a fellow-native Arizonan, greatly influenced Trimble’s music. Trimble often
performs some of Travis’ patented style of Mexican songs in his shows. Other
performers whose music has been a great influence in his career were Ian Tyson,
Bob Shane, John Stewart and Gordon Lightfoot. Today he performs frequently with
Arizona State Balladeer, Dolan Ellis, an original member of the New Christy
Minstrels.
In 1963, he
helped form a folk group called the Gin Mill Three. The group cut four records
and played Las Vegas, Reno, Lake Tahoe and San Francisco. Performing in the
scenic tourist towns in the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada exposed Trimble to
the colorful history of the Old West for the first time. He developed a deep
interest and love in the subject that has never waned. After the group cut four
records, a promoter temporarily changed their name to the Prairie Boys in hopes
it would present a cleaner image. About that time acoustal folk music was being
replaced by the loud electrical sounds of Rock and Roll. The group broke up
after two years when one member got drafted, another got married and the
promoter absconded with all the royalties from the records.
Trimble dropped out
of the folk music scene in the mid-60's got married and settled down for a few
years. That didn’t work out and after spending what he calls the "Lost
Years," Trimble found himself in Montana in 1968 working on a cattle drive
near Miles City. He visited the site of Custer’s Last Stand and was so moved
by the experience he decided to dedicate his life to teaching, singing, and
writing stories about the American West. A year later he was teaching at
Coronado High School in Scottsdale and in January, 1972, he began teaching
Arizona History at Scottsdale Community College.
In 1970, he returned to music, forming a folk duo called Donnery and Rudd.
"I don't know whether I was Donnery or Rudd." he says, "We
borrowed the name from the label on a bottle of scotch."
At the urging of his
college students, he began to write his first book. In 1977, "Arizona: A
Panoramic History of a Frontier State," was published by Doubleday and
Company of New York. The book was a huge success and was the first of several
books that ranged from coffee table books, tall tales and folklore to
gunfighters to history of Arizona and the West.
As a result of his
successful books, Trimble became a popular speaker on the banquet circuit. His
experience as a folksinger enabled him to include music with his yarn spinning
and stories of the colorful Old West. Soon he was back on stage performing.
During the late 1970's he began including old time cowboy songs and
reciting cowboy poetry in his shows. In 1988, he wrote "Legends in
Levis," as a tribute to the working cowboys in the Old West. Trimble's
cowboy poetry has been published in national magazines such as The American
Cowboy. Today, he performs both in concert and before national and local
convention groups.
During the academic
year he visits dozens of schools around the state playing his guitar, yarn
spinning and teaching Arizona history. Growing up in a small town left a deep
impression on this native son and is reflected in the homespun humor and stories
he writes and tells. An avid outdoorsman, he's seen most of the state's scenery
from the back of a horse. Today, along with being a performer and writer,
Arizona’s favorite native son enjoys the reputation of being the state's most
colorful and prominent historian.
In 1996 a group of Arizona history teachers prevailed upon Governor Fife Symington to appoint Marshall Official State Historian. The following year the appointment was made. When asked by a reporter what he would do as state historian, Trimble replied, "Same thing as I've been doing for the past thrity years.