Shooquanahd, chief of the Tsimpshean tribe living at Fort Simpson, British Columbia, became in 1856 the first convert of William Duncan, an English missionary. Duncan moved with his converts to Old Metlakatla, several miles from Fort Simpson. Shooquanahd was baptized Samuel Marsden; his son, Edward, was born in Old Metlakatla in 1869.

Marsden attended school in Sitka, AK, and in 1891 moved to the United States. He attended Marietta College and Lane Theological Seminary. In 1898 he was ordained by the Presbytery of Athens (Ohio) and assigned as a missionary to the Tlingits at Saxman, AK. He married Lucy Kinninook, daughter of the chief of the Tongass tribe, who worked with him as his interpreter. In 1920 the Presbytery of Alaska organized a congregation. Marsden oversaw the building of the church and became its pastor, a post which he held until his death in 1932.