ARTHUR, Isaiah (1840-1906)

ARTHUR

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 5/30/2021 at 20:15:41

Isaiah Arthur
(February 13, 1840 - November 29, 1906)

I. Arthur & Son, hardware, furniture, harness and wagon dealers, of Arthur, Ida County. I. Arthur was born in York county, Pennsylvania, in 1840, a son of Samuel and Mary (Beck) Arthur, natives also of that State. The father, a weaver and farmer by occupation, died in his native county in 1890, and his wife departed this life in 1872. They were the parents of eight children, six now living, namely: Rebecca, wife of Joseph Frankenberger, of York County, Pennsylvania; Elizabeth, now Mrs. John Taylor, of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania; Henry, married, and resides in Virginia, Illinois; Jacob, married and resides in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania; Joseph, of Kansas; and our subject. The latter was reared and educated in his native county. In 1862 he enlisted in the late war, in the army brigade corps, and served eighteen months in that capacity in Virginia. After the close of his term of enlistment, Mr. Arthur resumed his trade of wagon-making in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1875 he located in Sac County, Iowa, and two years later came to Ida county, where he began farming on land lying in both Sac and Ida counties. In 1882 he embarked in the harness and wagon business in Arthur, Ida County, and in 1892, in company with his son, he also began the hardware and furniture trade, in all of which he carries a complete line of goods. Mr. Arthur has erected two business houses, the first 28 x 24 feet, and the second, erected in 1891, 39 x 24 feet, where the hardware and furniture business is carried on.
Our subject was married in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in 1860, to Mary Williams, a native of Lancaster county, that State, and a daughter of Joseph Williams, a member of a pioneer family of that county. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur have had six children, viz.: William, who married Miss Anna Johnson, a native of Iowa, is a resident of Odebolt, Sac County; Samuel, who was married in 1885, to Lula Love, a native of North Carolina and a daughter of John C. Love, is engaged in business with his father in Arthur; Grant, engaged in railroad work in Lake City; Ray, telegraph operator at Ida Grove; Eddie, at home; and Lawrence, who died at the age of nine years. Mr. Arthur is a Ruling Elder, and assisted in building the Church of God, of which his wife is also a member. He has resided in Ida County fifteen years, during which time he has always been one of the representative and leading citizens.
Source: Biographical History of Crawford, Ida, and Sac Counties, Iowa, 1893, p.423