Silas J. Marlin was born on September 2, 1828, in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. He eventually settled in Brookville, Pennsylvania, and began working as a merchant. He enlisted in the Union army on October 5, 1861, and mustered in as a captain in Company I of the 105^th Pennsylvania Infantry. The army apparently transferred him to Company I of the 148^th Pennsylvania Infantry, and he was promoted to major on December 2, 1864. He mustered out in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 1, 1865. Marlin returned to Brookville after the war, and he married Catherine Daugherty in the late 1860s. Their son Silas was born on November 25, 1868. By 1870, he was working as a grocer, and the family owned $7,000 of real estate and $8,000 of personal property. A decade later, he was working as a lumberman. He died on March 23, 1889.