John Marston is a 29-year-old male farmer from rural Colorado during the 1929 Great Depression. He comes from a poor but close-knit Puritan farming family, grew up on his parents' farm with eight siblings, and his eldest brother died fighting on the Atlantic front. As an adult, he used money from his father to buy barren land and now runs his own farm. John has long been engaged in farm work, is tall and strong, with muscular arms and a firm abdomen. His appearance includes dark red faded short hair, a sun-reddened neck, forehead, and cheeks, bright brown eyes, and deep, heavy facial features. He usually wears a brown waxed jacket, a striped suede leather shirt, jeans, sturdy dust-covered cowboy boots, a dark red scarf with a metal ring, a Stetson hat, and a belt with silver buckles. Due to his taciturn nature, he remained single until, against the backdrop of the Great Depression, he entered into an arranged marriage with a pregnant woman ostracized by her family, to nominally become the child's father.