HISTORICAL.
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CHAPTER I.
The earliest knowledge we have of the family is that ----- Arnold settled in the south part of North Carolina, from England, in the earlier part of the eighteenth century; tradition says about the year 1725. His occupation, it is said, was that of a farmer or planter. An incident corroborative of this was that their horses having escaped, they were compelled for lack of team, to dig holes to plant corn. It is also said they were land owners. This ----- Arnold was the father of a family of seven sons, all of whose names are lost excepting that of Butler Arnold, who was a surveyor of government lands in Kentucky; and John Arnold, who emigrated from North to South Carolina during the Revolutionary war. According to tradition the sons, whose names are unknown, mostly moved to Pennsylvania, but to what part is not stated.
The John Arnold, who moved from North to South Carolina during the Revolutionary War, purchased lands and settled in Newberry District of that state. His family consisted of seven sons and one daughter. Their names were as follows: (1) "GEORGE ARNOLD" who emigrated to Warren County, Ohio, in the year 1805; (2) "MOSES ARNOLD" who moved to the same locality in 1808; (3) "WILLIAM ARNOLD" who moved there in 1806; and (4) "JOHN", (5) "ISAAC"; (6) "JACOB" and (7) "JAMES", who remained in South Carolina; the (8) "daughter" whose name is unknown, married a William Jay and is said to have settled in Buncombe county, North Carolina, thirty or forty miles northwest of the Newberry District. Of the sons above mentioned as remaining in South Carolina, nothing is known. The sons of this John Arnold are described in personal appearance as being tall and straight, of reddish complexion and with brown or reddish colored beards. Another statement is that they were tall, straight, well built, of reddish complexion and presented a fine personal appearance in manners and dress. It is stated that no member of the family of John Arnold was addicted to drink or drank to excess, excepting one, whose name is unknown, who lived and died in South Carolina.
Moses Arnold, second son of John Arnold, was born in North Carolina, January 6, 1763. He emigrated with his father to Newberry District, South Carolina, and was married August 14, 1782, to Rachel Lynch. Their children were, Isaac, Aaron, William, Lydia, David, George and Mary. Moses owned land in Newberry District, situated two and one-half miles south of Newberry C.H. on or near a Saluda creek; mention is also made of Owl and Peach Tree creeks. He, with his wife and all his children, except his son Isaac, emigrated to Warren (now Clinton) county, Ohio, in the autumn of 1808. He remained there until June, 1817. At that time he moved to Darke county with all his family who had come with him from South Carolina, excepting William who had married and proceeded his father to that locality.
Moses Arnold's two brothers, George and William, who as before mentioned also emigrated from South Carolina, settling in Warren county, remained in that county, living to an old age, one being ninety years at his death. They were well situated in life, owning valuable farms and left descendants of whom little is known.
The emigration from South Carolina to Ohio was done by wagons, each drawn by four horses. The route taken was by Cumberland Gap to Cincinnati. This would take them from Newberry to Greenville, Asheville via Riverside, Parrotsville and Tazewell to Cumberland Gap, being along the French Broad River a portion if the way. William Arnold, son of Moses, mentioned that at one place they could look down into the river many feet below them. He also stated that they went a little out of their way to visit an uncle, who having gone to South Carolina did not remain but returned and settled in North Carolina.
Emigrants in those days camped out and much of the journey was made on foot - railroads and steam navigation not being thought of at that time. The Ohio river was crossed at Cincinnati on a ferry or flat boat.
We give the following sketch:
Of the children of Moses Arnold, Isaac, the eldest was born January 7, 1784. He assisted his father in moving to Ohio and then returned to South Carolina to team to Charleston one or two years, expecting to eventually come to Ohio to settle, but having married in South Carolina, he stayed there and later emigrated to Mississippi, locating in Itawamba county. He owned an estate of four hundred acres which had formerly belonged to Creek Indians. He also owned a family of negroes who farmed this land. About the year 1834 - before his removal to Mississippi, he visited his father and other relatives near Greenville, Ohio, making the whole journey by carriage. He died in Itawamba county, Mississippi, June 21, 1855. He left no sons and but one daughter, Elender (Riley), whose descendants live in Mississippi.
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Was born in South Carolina, June 17, 1784, and was married to Ruth Summers, March 22, 1812. He visited Ohio in July and August, 1834, coming in a one-horse wagon by the way of Cumberland Gap. He had a strong inclination to move to Ohio after his return home, but for some cause it was abandoned. His oldest daughter, Elender, having married and moved to Mississippi, he concluded to emigrate to that state in the fall of 1841, where he lived until June 21, 1855, when he died, aged 69 years. Ruth, his wife, died October 29, 1856. His eldest daughter, Elender, was born August 4, 1813, and was married to Moses Riley, January 24, 1833, and moved to Mississippi in the fall of 1840, her husband dying July 4, 1855. Mrs. Riley is still living at this writing, in 1889, spending most of her time with sister's daughter, Rachel, who married Mr. James M. Armstrong whose post-office address is Richmondlee, Lee county, Mississippi. She has been a widow for thirty-four years, but left with considerable property. She was the mother of nine children, six girls and three boys, one son and one daughter, being dead.
Rebecca, second daughter of Isaac Arnold, Sr., was born September 22, 1814, and married D.S. Black about 1837, dying in 1840 leaving two children, both boys, living in Mississippi.
Elizabeth, the third daughter, was born September, 1816, and married John Riley in 1839; moved to Mississippi the same year and died January, 1841, leaving no children.
Rachel, the fourth daughter, was born February 27, 1819, and died in 1840. Lydia, born November 1821, and died October, 1822.
Mary Ann Arnold, the sixth daughter, was born May, 1827, and married James M. Armstrong on the 19th day of September, 1844, and died September 9, 1860, leaving six children, four boys and two girls. The youngest is dead, one in Texas and the other four near Richamondlee, Miss.
After Mary's death, in 1860, Mr. Armstrong married Miss Rachel Riley, by whom he had six children, five boys and one girl. How members of the same family become scattered in a few years.
Our recollections of Isaac Arnold are that he was not a very large man, perhaps five feet and ten inches high. He impressed us as being very gentlemanly and kind in disposition. He held a few slaves during most of his life, but was not a very large slave holder.
Aaron was born December 4, 1785, and died near Greenville, Ohio, in 1839, aged fifty-four years, leaving children as follows: William, Rachel and Henry.
William was born March 12, 1789, and died near Greenvillle, Ohio, February 12, 1875. His children were Delilah, Noah, George, John, Mary and William by his first and Isaac, Jesse, Maria A., Henry, Isaac N., James T. and Lydia by his second marriage.
Lydia Arnold was born January 11, 1791, married to James Townsend, and died near Greenville, Ohio. Her children were Rachel, Noah, John, George, Elizabeth and William. Her husband, James Townsend, died December 21, 1847, aged about fifty years. His disease was inflammatory rheumatism.
David Arnold was born April 1, 1792, and died near Greenville, Ohio, January 13, 1833, aged thirty years. His children were Thomas, living in Warren county, Indiana, 1841; Jesse, living in Clinton county, Ohio, in 1842, and Eleanor, living in Clinton county, in 1837 - then unmarried.
George Arnold, Sr., was born March 2, 1800, and died near Greenville, Ohio, April 1882, aged eighty-two years. His children were Emilie, Lydia, Chambers, Rachel and Mary, four daughters and one son, who know occupy the old homestead of Moses Arnold.
Mary Arnold was born July 31, 1804; married to Allen Pearson, and died near Greenville, Ohio, August 22, 1881, aged 77 years and eight months. Her husband survived her, dying May 1888, at the age of eighty-two. Her children were Martha (Snyder), Lydia (deceased), Edna (Eddington), Maria (Albright), William (died in the army), Susan (Martin), Mary Ann (Bender), and Wesley.
Moses Arnold died April 1, 1850, near Greenville, Ohio, aged eighty-seven years, two months and twenty-five days. His wife, Rachel Lynch, was born March, 1765, and died in Darke county, Ohio, in 1826. The Lynches were of Welsh decent.
Moses Arnold is described in personal appearance as being five feet eleven inches in height, with florid complexion, brown beard, reddish hair and black or very brown eyes, small and keen in expression, a Roman nose with a hooked form. He was temperate in eating and regular in habits, but later in life was not able to attend to active business. He was not much of a scholar, but read easily and much, especially the Bible. He was a Methodist from the time he lived in South Carolina and was strict in attending to religious matters, observing the Sabbath scrupulously, not permitting ordinary work on that day under any circumstances. His disposition was kind and amiable and he was universally respected. He never remarried, and the last twenty years of his life he passed with his youngest son, George, who occupied the old homestead which descended to his heirs and is now occupied by his son, Chambers.