Arnold, Reverend Jospeh

ARNOLD, PUCKET, HAWKINS

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Date: 5/23/2007 at 20:46:37

ARNOLD, Joseph

Proprietor Iowa House; Lynnville; born in Wayne Co., Ind., April 1, 1832; emigrated to Iowa with his parents in 1839; they settled where Salem, Henry Co., now stands; remained about a year and moved to Pleasant Plain, Jefferson Co., where they lived until 1844. About that time, Central Iowa was thrown open to settlers, and Mr. ARNOLD's father, Jesse ARNOLD, took his gun, knapsack and ax, and made a claim on the first day that white settlers were allowed to do so, two miles east of Oskaloosa; here in the timber Joseph lived, with his father, seven years, and learned the trade of carpenter and joiner; but his energy and ambition would not permit him to remain inactive at home, and in 1851, he, with a set of carpenter's tools, backed by a strong arm, courage and industry, made his advent among the few shanties of Lynnville, prepared to carve his way in the new country; soon after his settling here, his father followed him, and purchased the grist and saw mill at this place, and he at once engaged with his father at its operation. Before he was 22 years old, he held the position of Township Clerk and Postmaster, and since then has filled many offices of trust, and is new Mayor of the town. In 1866, on account of ill-health, he moved to Oskaloosa, for regular treatment, and remained until 1872, when he returned to this town; in 1869, he disposed of his interest in the mill property, and in 1875, engaged in his present business; he is an accommodating and hospitable landlord. In 1864, he was ordained a minister of the Society of Friends, of which body he was a member, and has discharged the duties of the office with honor to himself and the Society. ~ "Lynn Grove Township Biographies," The History of Jasper County, Iowa, (Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1878)
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Joseph Arnold, a prominent and influential resident of Lynnville, Jasper County, is a self-made man in the strictest sense of the word. He was born April 1, 1832, near Richmond, Ind., and is a son of Jesse Arnold, who in turn is a son of William and Celia (Fulghum) Arnold, natives of North Carolina. The great-grandfather of our subject was a native of England, and a farmer by occupation. William Arnold followed farming in his native state, and afterwards settled in Indiana, when his son Jesse was eighteen years old, where he died at an advanced age. His good wife died at the home of her son William, in Boone County, Ind. The father of our subject was reared to farming pursuits, and at the age of twenty-two was married to Mary Puckett, a native of the same state as himself. She was a daughter of the Rev. Benjamin and Catherine (Dunnegan) Puckett. Mr. Puckett was a preacher in the Quaker Church. In 1813, he moved to Ohio, and later going to Indiana, died near Indianapolis. The mother of our subject died in Lynnville when almost eighty years old. She bore her husband ten children, six of whom grew to maturity, but only three yet survive. Jesse Arnold came to the territory of Iowa in 1839, remaining on one place but a short time, until 1843, when he took a claim and improved it for nine years. At this date he traded his estate for a gristmill in Lynnville, carrying it on the remainder of his life. He was an active and valued member of the Friends' Church, and, a prominent man, was highly respected by all.

Joseph Arnold was reared and educated on the farm, having but very few educational advantages. When fourteen years of age, his father was employed in the manufacture of sash, doors and blinds, and with him our subject was engaged, continuing thus until he learned the carpenter's trade. He was with his father in the gristmill until his health failed, when he was compelled to seek medical treatment. In 1861,he was severely hurt, his escape from death being almost miraculous. He has been an in valid ever since.

The marriage of our subject with Miss Tacy Smith was celebrated November 28, 1853. Mrs. Arnold was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, and in 1867 she was called to the life beyond. She was the mother of six children, five of whom are living, and married: Mary E., Emma, Abbie, R. L. and Ardilla. In 1870, Mr. Arnold was married to Miss Sarah E. Hawkins, who is a native of Clinton County, Ohio. By this union three children were born, Flora E., Maud and Joseph Wickliff.

In 1864, our subject was ordained a minister of the Gospel in the Friends' Church, and has preached more or less in his own state and at other places. He has served his fellow-townsmen as Justice of the Peace for seven years, and was Mayor of Lynnville thirteen years. He is a stanch Republican in politics, and cast his first vote for John C. Fremont for President. Being of an ambitious disposition, Mr. Arnold was admitted to the practice of law when he was forty-five years old, and has succeeded fairly in his chosen profession. His example therein has been a stimulus to younger men. He is oftentimes called on for advice and counsel, and through his advice many vexatious cases have been amicably settled without recourse to law. He is a man always in favor of any movement to enhance the prosperity of his state and county, and is looked upon as a man of authority. His popularity is alike noted in business and social circles, and he has many warm personal friends, who fully appreciate his worth and natural kindness. He has always been an advocate for equal rights and liberty of conscience, and is an ardent lover of his country and home. ~ Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA; Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, IL. 1894. Page 667.
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Arnold, Reverend Joseph

Examples that impress force of character on all who study them are worthy of record, and the mission of a great soul in this world is one that is calculated to inspire a multitude of others to better and grander things; so its subsequent influence cannot be measured in metes and bounds, for it affects the lives of those with whom it comes into contact, broadening and enriching them for all time to come. By a few general observations may be conveyed some idea of the noble career of the late Rev. Joseph Arnold, for many years one of the best known ministers and attorneys of Jasper County, united in whose composition were so many elements of a solid, practical and altruistic nature as to bring him into prominent notice, who, not content to hide his talents amid life's sequestered ways, by the force of will and a laudable ambition forged to the front. His life was one of hard study and unselfish industry, whose laborious professional duties in the various relations in which he was placed, led to a high position in the esteem of the public, which gave evidence that the qualities which he possessed afforded the means of distinction under a system of government in which places of honor and usefulness are open to all who may be found-worthy of them. He passed over the troubled sea of life like a galleon through the phosphorescent Spanish main, leaving in its wake a pathway of illuminating radiance.

Joseph Arnold, son of Jesse and Mary (Pucket) Arnold, was born at Arba, Wayne County, Indiana, April 1, 1832, and there he spent his early boyhood, removing to Henry County, Iowa, where the town of Salem now stands, in the year 1839; later moving to Jefferson County, and in 1843 located in Mahaska County where his father took a homestead on the first day that lands were thrown open to settlers, two miles east of the present city of Oskaloosa, his stock of farming utensils consisting only of an axe and an old-fashioned flint-lock gun; but he was a brave, hardy, persevering pioneer, who, in due course of time, established a good home in the wilds. In 1851 as a carpenter Joseph migrated to the Lynn Grove settlement in Jasper County to carve out his fortune. In the year 1853 he received from Franklin Pierce, then President of the United States, his appointment as postmaster of Lynnville, and in the same year was married to Tacy Smith, of Palmyra, Warren County, Iowa. To this union were born six children, two of whom are deceased.

Up to the year 1861 the active business life of Joseph Arnold was one of marked success, at which time he received an injury to the spine, by being thrown from a wagon, from which he never wholly recovered. Being thus deprived of physical strength, but having a strong mind, he turned his attention from business matters to the ministry, and in 1864, after having prepared himself for this new work during a time of great physical distress, he was ordained as a minister of the gospel in the Society of Friends, of which church he was a birthright member. He continued taking treatment of the best physicians of the country, but with little improvement, and he finally moved with the family to Oskaloosa in 1867 for the purpose of being continually under the care of a specialist. His wife died while living there in the year 1869, and he was subsequently married to Sarah E. Hawkins, of Oskaloosa, to whom three children were born. In 1852 he had purchased an interest with his father in the flour and saw mills at Lynnville, which interest he retained, and in 1872, having somewhat improved in health, the family returned to Lynnville and Joseph Arnold was the miller there for some time until he traded his interest for the property which was known as the Iowa House. The humdrum life of a landlord in a small town was not to his liking, however, so, while looking after the wants of his guests, serving the town as mayor and the township as justice of the peace, he studied law, devoting himself so assiduously to the same that in eleven months after he began to read Blackstone he successfully passed the required examination and was admitted to the Jasper County Bar, besides performing his duties as minister of the gospel. He was very successful from the first and soon enjoyed a satisfactory clientage, being known throughout the country as "the Quaker lawyer-preacher," and in his law practice the policy of Mr. Arnold was largely governed by the principle of arbitration, even to the frequent sacrifice of justly earned regular attorney fees. He was an earnest, persevering, cautious and unbiased advocate, thoroughly grounded in the principles of jurisprudence and as a speaker, whether at the bar or in the pulpit, he was forceful, persuasive and not infrequently truly eloquent. Something of his popularity in his home community and the confidence in which he was held by the public may be gained from the fact that he was for fourteen successive years chosen mayor of Lynnville and he served a subsequent term of two years. During his long administration he did much for the upbuilding and permanent good of the town. He was not a politician in the usual acceptation of the term, but when an emergency arose he was always ready with his influence and personal efforts, indorsing all movements calculated to be of general good to the community and County.

Illustrative of Mr. Arnold's early tenacity for freedom and the rights of man, reference is made to his active part for the abolition of slavery for he was one of the first stockholders, directors and conductors on the underground railway, which made it possible for the transportation of many slaves toward Canada and freedom. Again, when the campaign was on for the prohibition amendment he left his business and went out to stump the southeastern part of Jasper County for the cause of the home and right. His utterances on the peace question were so clear and well defined that he was made secretary of the American Peace Society and frequently represented the state of Iowa in the great peace conferences of the several states and thus he enjoyed a wide acquaintance throughout a vast amount of territory. He was regarded as one of the prominent ministers of the society in the United States and his services were often in demand in settling legal questions in which the churches were interested.

From the year 1851 until he was summoned to take up his work in a higher sphere of action, on September 7,1904, Mr. Arnold was closely identified with the public history of the County. In January 1881, he drew up the organization papers for the Old Settlers Association of Central Iowa, and continued as its secretary and most active member until his last illness in 1902. He was very proud of this organization for it was the first of its kind in this part of the state, and by far the largest. In all his business career he never allowed anything to interfere with his attendance at the mid-week service at the church, but would lock his office and attend divine worship.

Mrs. Joseph Arnold, a woman of beautiful, Christian character and praiseworthy attributes, is still living at Lynnville, having attained the age of sixty-eight years. The children of this family were named as follows: Jesse died when three years old; Mrs. Abbie A. Ratcliff died in 1896 at the age of thirty-seven years; Mrs. Mary E. Styles lives at Brentford, South Dakota; Mrs. Emma A. Dryden is a resident of New Sharon, Iowa; Raford L., of Newton, Iowa; Mrs. Ardilla Cattell lives in Pasadena, California; Mrs. Flora Gregory lives in Chicago; Mrs. Maud Gause makes her home at Lynnville; and J. W. Arnold is a resident of Hoisington, Kansas.

Throughout his entire career Joseph Arnold was animated by lofty motives and he made every personal consideration subordinate to the higher claims of duty. Broad and liberal in his views, with the greatest good of his fellow men ever before him, his conduct was that of the lover of his kind and the true and loyal citizen, withal a man of the people, who stood among the leaders of thought and molders of opinion and whose career was fraught with great good to the people of Jasper County and the world. Page 663.