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1907 Past and Present Biographies

David and Elizabeth Arnold

David Arnold

Elizabeth Sommers Arnolde

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David Arnold, well known as a representative of the farming interests of Paton township, is living on section 24 where he carries on general agricultural pursuits. He was born in Warren county, Pennsylvania, on the 16th of October, 1840. His father, George Arnold, was born in Alsace, Germany, and was married in that country to Saloma Rieg. Emigrating to the United States he took up his abode in Warren county, Pennsylvania, where he followed the occupation of farming, continuing in that line of business until he had reached the evening of life. He died at the age of eighty-six years, having long survived his wife, who passed away about 1855 when her son David was fifteen years of age. In their family were fourteen children but only three are now living, the brothers of our subject being John and Daniel Arnold, who are residents of Chicago.

David Arnold was reared on the old homestead farm in Pennsylvania and is indebted to the public-school system of his native county for the educational privileges he enjoyed. He came to the middle west when a young man of about twenty-one years, making his way to Cook county, Illinois, in 1861. There he worked at farm labor until the 23d of November, 1861, when he put aside all business and personal considerations and offered his ald to the government, enlisting as a private of Company G, Fifty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted to the rank of corporal, afterward became sergeant, and following the battle of Shiloh was made orderly sergeant. Eventually he was commissioned first lieutenant and was mustered out with the rank of captain of his company after serving in that capacity for four years. He was a brave and loyal soldier, being ever faithful to his duty whether it called him to the lonely picket-line or exposed him to great dangers upon the firing line. He participated in various important battles, including those at Shiloh, Corinth and Fort Donelson, and marched every step of the way from Chattanooga, Tennessee. to the Atlantic coast with Sherman and thence on to Washington through the Carolinas and Virginia. In the capital city he participated in the grand review, where thousands of victorious Union troops marched through the streets of the city under a banner which read “The only debt which our country can never pay is the debt she owes her soldiers.” He was never wounded but became ill at Corinth and for some time his life was despaired of. He now receives a pension of twelve dollars per month in recognition of the aid which he r endered his country in the darkest hour of her history.

When the war was over Mr. Arnold returned to Cook county, Illinois, and later went back to Pennsylvania, where he worked at the carpenter’s trade. He was married there and later returned to Cook county, where he engaged in farming, following agricultural pursuits in that locality until 1886. He next made his way to Greene county and here invested his capital in two hundred acres of land, which he purchased in connection with his brother-in-law, Martin Wessling. They afterward divided their property and Mr. Arnold now has one hundred acres of rich and productive land, which is well improved. He has made all ‘of the improvements upon the place himself and here are now found good buildings which stand in the midst of well tilled fields, giving promise of abundant harvests.

Arnold Home
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Mr. Arnold was married in Pennsylvania in 1868 to Miss Elizabeth Sommers, who was born in Warren county, that state. They became the parents of four children: Beatrice, the wife of Jasper Russell, of Snyder, Colorado; Maud M., at home; Rhoda C., the wife of N. F. Moore, a resident of Missouri; and one who died in infancy.

In his religious faith Mr. Arnold is a Methodist and is serving as trustee of the church to which he belongs, while in its work he is deeply interested and to its support he contributes generously of his means. In politics he is an earnest republican, who at the present writing is filling the position of township trustee, in which capacity he has been an incumbent for some years. He is also a member of the school board and is the present township school treasurer. His time and energies are mostly given to general farming and he has made an excellent reputation as a business man, being reliable in all of his dealings, possessing laudable ambition to win success.

Transcribed from "Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent and Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead,"
by E. B. Stillman assisted by an Advisory Board consisting of Paul E. Stillman, Gillum S. Toliver,
Benjamin F. Osborn, Mahlon Head, P. A. Smith and Lee B. Kinsey, Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907.

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