Born in Hanover, Asher Marx was one of Frances and Jacob Marx’s seven children. When his father, the court physician to the Elector of Hanover, died in 1789, the family found itself in difficult financial circumstances and they left for America a few years later. While his brother Joseph, his mother and sisters settled in Richmond, Asher made his way to New York and there achieved great success as a merchant.

In 1808 he married Catherine Stout, the daughter of famed ship captain Jacob Stout, who had piloted the ship that first brought John Jacob Astor to these shores. Stout had insisted that Marx convert in order to marry his daughter, though she died three years later in childbirth. His second marriage was to Mary Cox, daughter of Isaac Cox, and they had four daughters and a son.

The latter, Henry Carroll Marx was a prominent figure in New York society, known as “Dandy” Marx for his exquisite and extravagant dress. Writing in The Old Merchants of New York City in 1865, seventeen years after Henry’s death, Joseph Alfred Scoville recalled: “This name [Dandy] was given him by a set of young fellows who were envious of his superior accomplishments in the dressing art. Dandy surpassed all the beaux of this day. He dressed the best. He was the originator of the waxed moustache. At one time, he was the only one who wore it in the city… All the fashionable tailors of the city were anxious that Marx should wear clothes of their make. They did not care whether he paid or not. If he would only say, ‘This is one of Wheeler’s,’ it was enough.”