CHAPTER IV. Part 2.
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It is as difficult to write a faithful biography as to paint a true portrait. It is doubly difficult to write a biography of our dear mother who has so lately left us.
The first obstacle which we meet is a lamentable lack of knowledge of her early life, and next comes the realization that whatever is best, loveliest and most worthy of admiration in her character is so closely and delicately interwoven with the sacredness of domestic ties that strangers may never know the full beauty of her life.
Our mother was the oldest daughter of William and Margaret Arnold. She was born at the old homestead near Greenville, Ohio, December 16, 1833. Her early childhood was spent at home, receiving her first instruction in the old school house which through its association is endeared to all members of the family whose first steps in learning were taken within its walls.
She has spoken frequently of those happy days when as children her brothers and sisters were her companions in school and home life. In her 22nd year she came to Indiana to help make a home for her brothers John and Jesse, at Springfield, now South Whitley, Indiana. She taught a term of school at Springfield, and during the school year of 1856 and 1857 she attended Fort Wayne Female College.
The latter part of the year 1857 and the greater part of 1858 she spent at home.
It was during her stay in Indiana that she became acquainted with Samuel V. Hopkins, whom she afterwards married on November 3, 1858, at the old homestead, one week after the marriage of her brother Jesse.
She came with her husband to Indiana and they began their life together on a farm a few miles from South Whitley, Indiana. Here followed fourteen years of tranquil life, whose quite was broken by the occasional visits of her mother, brothers and sister Lydia, and her visits to the old home. She was called home by the sickness and death of her mother in February, 1867.
In the spring of 1872 our parents moved to South Whitley, and in the fall of 1873 to North Manchester, Indiana, where we have since resided. While living on the farm two children were born. Her son, Lloyd Hopkins, was born June 13, 1862. He completed the course of study in the North Manchester Public Schools in June, 1880. The same fall he entered Asbury (now DePauw) University at Greencastle, Ind., and completed his freshman year.
In January, 1882 father having purchased the North Manchester Journal, Lloyd has since assisted in editing it, filling the position of local editor and manager with great ability.
Her daughter, Addie Hopkins, was born August 5th, 1865. She graduated from the North Manchester High School in June, 1882. In the fall of the same year she entered the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, and completed her sophomore years in June, 1883. She has since been engaged in teaching, holding a position in the Grammar Department of the North Manchester Public Schools.
After moving to North Manchester our father engaged in the hardware business, and later bought the "Journal" of which he is still possessor.
Our mother's general health was good, though for some time she was afflicted with rheumatism, which at intervals caused her great suffering.
In the summer of 1867 she spent a few weeks at Three River, Michigan, using the mineral waters. This greatly benefited her. The last few years of her life were especially happy. Having purchased and moved into a new home; her husband and children prosperous and happy; her health good; she took much interest in literature and always provided the family with the best books and periodicals.
Our mother was a woman of great energy of character and excellent natural endowments. At the close of an unusually happy summer, she was stricken with a violent attack of rheumatic fever, September 26, 1887. After a week of intense suffering she passed quietly away, October 2, 1887, leaving the family almost paralyzed with grief.
Lloyd and Addie Hopkins.
August 30, 1889.
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Life and memory of Henry H. Arnold, son of William and Margaret Folkerth Arnold.
I was born at the homestead, near Greenville, Darke county, Ohio, March 11th, 1836. My recollections date back to a time when I was about four years old. A circumstance occurred at that time which I can remember. It is this: Robert McIntire who lived on an adjoining farm east, moved with his family to Burlington, Iowa, in 1839. Mr. McIntire was an early settler of Darke county, and a long time friend and neighbor of father's. Our family all went to their house to see them start on their long journey to the then far west. My first remembrance of school is at the brick school house near Uncle Abraham Studabaker's, and my first teacher was Luther Geleff, a New York State Yankee. At this time and for many years after the district furnished a large school with an attendance of about forty scholars during the winter months. I have no recollection of anything worthy of much notice during the early part of my life. My time was spent on the farm in the summer season, doing such work as my age and strength would allow, and attending the district school in winter. Father always had his farm well stocked with cattle and horses, the feeding of which, in connection with my brothers, occupied my time morning and evening during the school months.
I taught school the winters of 1856-7, in the Joseph Long district, in Van Buren township, and in August, 1857, I went to the Ohio Wesleyan University to attend school. At the end of the first term my health failed and I did not return as I expected to do. I remained at home that winter and during the summer and winter of 1858-9. I was unable to do any work. My sickness was caused by congestion of a part of the right lung. It did not prove to be of a serious character and was fully overcome in a few years. I attended school the spring and summer of 1860, taught by Jacob Martz, in the Methodist church, near Jaysville, with the view to prepare myself better to teach. The fall and winter of 1860-1 I taught school in the Noah Arnold district, in Neave township.
I was at home the summer of 1861, working on the farm part of the time and not doing much of anything the other part. This was the first year of the War of the Rebellion, and the news was very exciting. We had a Cincinnati Gazette dropped from the mail train near our house, which we received about noon. Father took a deep interest in the news of the day, and I listened to the reading of the war news with feelings of deep solicitude, and when the papers were received announcing the great disaster to our army at the first battle of Bull Run, he felt very much discouraged. From the day of the beginning of the Southern trouble he was deeply interested in the news of the day. I can remember of his coming home from Greenville the day after the firing of Fort Sumpter and reporting the news that the war had begun between the North and South. He felt great interest in the attack and capture of Fort Sumpter from the fact that he was a native of South Carolina, and had often been in Charleston and knew something of the location of the fort and batteries mentioned in the telegraphic dispatches.
The fall and winter of 1861-2 I taught school in the Henry Snell district, in Washington township, and the first greenback paper money issued by the government I ever saw was what I received in payment for my services as teacher in that school.
In April, 1862, I visited brothers John and Jesse at South Whitley, Indiana, remaining until July, when I returned to Greenville. I remained at home until the last of August, when I removed permanently to South Whitley, taking a position as clerk in the store of John and Jesse Arnold. I continued clerking until March, 1865, when I bought an interest in the store, and the business was continued in the name of H. Arnold & Co., until March, 1878, when we sold the store to Barton Wyatt and Charles Guines.
In August, 1877, I went into the dry goods business, in North Manchester, with David Smith and Daniel Sala, and moved to that place in March, 1878. I sold out my interest in the dry goods business soon after I moved to North Manchester. In 1872 I bought the old Harter grist mill, at North Manchester, in connection with Daniel Strauss. We built a new mill in 1876 and abandoned the old one, which we operated until the spring of 1880, when I sold out to Mr. Strauss.
On the 1st of August, 1880, I moved to Huntington and engaged in the dry goods business having bought out the firm of D.A. Purviance & Bro. I have continued the business up to the present time.
I was married to Annie Cleveland, daughter of Thomas and Phoeby Cleveland, August 20, 1865. Charles Arnold, our only son, was born December 12, 1866, and since finishing his education has been clerking in the store and now has an interest in the same.
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Son of William and Margaret Arnold, born at Greenville, Ohio, April 5, 1840.
Susan V. Loring, his wife, daughter of Nelson and Ann Elizabeth Loring, born in Darke county, Ohio, May 3, 1842.
Isaac N. Arnold and Susan V. Loring married at Greenville, Ohio, March 26, 1883.
Ida Louelle, daughter of Isaac N. and Susan V. Arnold, born in Whitley county, Indiana, January 11, 1864. Ida Louelle Arnold and George Moses, married at Huntington, Indiana, April 28, 1886.
Ann Elizabeth, daughter, born in Whitley county, March 26, 1865.
Anna Gertrude, daughter, born in Whitley county, March 26, 1870.
Lucy Edith, daughter, born in Whitley county, April 2, 1872.
Soon after Isaac's marriage he moved on a farm on Eel River, Whitley county, Indiana, where he had a farm of 280 acres, mostly rich bottom land covered with a heavy growth of timber with large walnut trees. Arnold Station on the Nickle Plate Railroad, is located on his land with one of the largest gravel pits in Indiana. The pit was sold for $5,000 and the balance of his land for $14,000, preparatory to his moving to Huntington, where he is engaged in the milling business, with success. He was drafted during the war but furnished a substitute. His children are all girls.
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Youngest son of William and Margaret Arnold, was born on his father's farm, near Greenville, Ohio, April 5th, 1844. He remained on the farm working in the summer and going to the country district school in the winter, until September, 1861, when he went to the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio. He continued to attend the University until March, 1863, when he went to Bluffton, Indiana, and clerked in the store of his brother, George, April, 1864.
He then returned to his father's farm to assist in the farm work, as laborers, on account of the war, had become scarce, in fact, impossible to get. In the autumn of 1865 he returned to brother's store in Bluffton, Indiana. His brother, George Arnold, having sold his store about December, 1865, James T. and Henry C., sons of George Arnold and Jeffory Bliss, formed a co-partnership, under the name of Arnold, Bliss & Co., and purchased the general store of Daniel Gregg & Co., in Bluffton, and began business March 1st, 1866. He continued in this business until October, 1870, when the firm of which he was a member, bought a general store of Boon & Troibell, at Montpelier, Indiana, of which he became manager, and continued business there under the firm name of J.T. Arnold & Co.
May 18th, 1871, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Johnson, daughter of Dr. William Johnson, of Bluffton, Ind., and immediately began house-keeping in Montpelier.
On August 10th, 1873, their first son, Robert J. Arnold, was born. On February 2d, 1877, their second son, Henry C. Arnold, was born; and their third son, James S. Arnold, was born November 5th, 1878.
October, 1878, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives of Indiana Legislature for two years. He continued the general merchandise business at Montpelier, adding thereto a saw mill, at Montpelier and one at Muncie, Indiana, both carried on under the firm name of A.L. Johnson & Co. A.L. Johnson being manager of the mills and lumber business.
On the 12th of September, 1883, his wife, Elizabeth J. Arnold, died at the Grand Hotel, at Indianapolis, where she had been taken for medical treatment.
His wife's mother, Mrs. Johnston, took his family of three small boys to her home in Bluffton, Indiana.
Finding his home broken up, he resolved to dispose of his interests in the business in Indiana and seek a new location.
After visiting several points in search of a desirable location, he finally bought an interest in the firm of Loomis, Hart & Co,, Chattanooga, Tenn., and engaged in lumber and furniture manufacturing, of which firm he became a partner November 1st, 1884. February 1st, 1885, having disposed of his business in Indiana, he went to Chattanooga, Tenn., leaving his children with their grandmother, Mrs. Johnston, at Bluffton, Indiana.
On the 14th of July, 1886, he married Miss Lettie Cleveland, of Goshen, Indiana, and in December of same year moved his family to Chattanooga, where they still make their home.
It is rather a remarkable fact that among such a large family of boys that none of them use tobacco or whiskey, except perhaps that one or two of them smoke an occasional cigar. Their habits and temperaments are moral, and most all of them are regular attendants at church, and not addicted to the use of vulgar or profane language of any kind.