Solomon H. Arnold
Solomon H. Arnold, proprietor of the "Golden Ridge Stock Farm," which is located in sections 9 and 10, Jackson township, is one of the representative self- made men of this locality as well as an honored survivor of the Civil War. Mr. Arnold was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, 12 miles east of New Philadelphia, August 10, 1843, and is a son of Hickman and Martha (Garree) Arnold.
The grandparents of our subject were Solomon and Barbara (Stonebrook) Arnold, who were born in Pennsylvania. They were early settlers in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, where the father entered land and also followed his trade of cabinet-making. The family is of German extraction. Hickman Arnold, father of Solomon H., was born in 1820 in Tuscarawas County, and died on his farm there in 1848. He married Martha Garree, who was born in Coshocton County, Ohio, March 16, 1827, and still survives residing in the vicinity of Beaver Dam. She is a daughter of Joseph and Margaret (Cochran) Garree, the former of whom was born near Yorkville, Pennsylvania, and the latter in Scotland. They had two children viz: Solomon H. and Joseph. The latter died May 12, 1903, in Fulton County, Indiana, where he was engaged in farming. During the Civil War he served one year in the 151st Reg., Ohio Vol. Inf.
After a period of widowhood Mrs. Arnold, mother of our subject was married to Samuel Fackler, and they had these children: Philip, of Union County, Ohio; Catherne (Welch), of Hardin County, Ohio; Isaac, of Richland township; Simon W., of Beaver Dam; Eva (Hesser), of Larue, Ohio; Henderson, of LaFayette, and three children, who died in infancy. Mr. Fackler is now deceased.
Solomon H. Arnold remained on the farm on which he was born until his father died and his mother subsequently remarried, when he was about six years old. The family then located on a farm five miles south of New Philadelphia, where Solomon remained until he was 10 years old, when his stepfather purchased a farm of 160 acres at Beaver Dam and removed the family thither. When but 14 years of age the youth began to care for himself by working for the neighboring farmers, and as he was economical and thrifty, by the time he was 18 years old he had sufficient capital to warrant his purchasing a farm of 100 acres of timberland, which he finished paying for from the proceeds of his day labor.
Early in 1864 Mr. Arnold located in Bureau County, Illinois, and in March entered the employ of the firm of Moss & Fettro, who operated flouring mills there, but he resigned this position on May 6th in order to enlist for service in the Civil War. He entered Company A, 139th Reg., Illinois Vol. In., under Capt. E. R. Virden, Col. P. Davidson and General Meredith. The regiment was mustered into the service at Peoria, Illinois, on June 6, and was ordered to Cairo where it relieved the 122d Regiment. The command to which our subject was attached was then transferred to the commissary department and later was assigned to the duty of transporting prisoners up and down the river, continuing in this employment until the ranks were thinned by measles to which our subject fell a victim in August. He also injured himself by carrying a heavy box of guns and was therefore placed on the sick list.
Mr. Arnold was entered at the Cairo hospital and was detained there under medical care until his regiment was sent in pursuit of Bragg, who made his last stand at Pilot Knob. Our subject did not accompany that expedition, but was dismissed from the hospital and ordered home on a furlough. He was honorably discharged at Peoria on October 28, 1865. Having profitably spent his furlough at Princeton, Illinois, he returned there and engaged as a carpenter with the firm of Archer & Robbins, but in the following November he returned to Allen County.
On January 25, 1866, Mr. Arnold was married to Sarah Emeline Millikin, who was born August 27, 1843, in Richland County, Ohio, and died June 5, 1904. She was a daughter of Thomas B. and Elizabeth (Moore) Millikin, the father a native of Washington County, Pennsylvania, and the mother, of Monroeville, Ohio. The children of this marriage were: Thomas, of Bath township, who married Alma Cramer and is the father of Mabil, Madge, Harley, Wava and Herbert; Emmet B., of Marshall County, Kansas, who married Belle Robison and has three children Stanton, Maud, Hazel, Joseph and Minor; William A., of Jackson township, who married Eva LeRue, and has these children- Roy, Thurman, Genevieve and Merrill William; Joseph, who married Dile Ransbottom, has had two children (now deceased) and resides with his father on the farm; Carey C., who married Clara Heffner and resides near the homestead, and is the father of Rolla, Walter, Wilbur, Garold and Velma Levern; and Isaac Fremont, who died aged two years. The death of the mother of these children was a great blow to Mr. Arnold and family, and a matter of deep degret to all, who fully appreciated her as a kind neighbor and a faithful friend. With Mr. Arnold she took the most affectionate interest in her bright, intelligent grandchildren and her love was returned by them all.
After his marriage, Mr. Arnold removed to a farm of 100 acres two miles from the one on which he now lives. This he sold two years later and bought the 160 acres composing the homestead, for which he paid $6,000. Five years later he erected his present modern brick residence at a cost of $3,000, which was the first brick house built in the vicinity. He erected also a substantial barn, 57 by 40 feet in dimensions, and has added such other buildings as became necessary. Later Mr. Arnold bought 240 acre Milikin farm adjoining, 40 acres of which he sold to his son, and on this property he built a barn 40 by 60 feet, and made many improvements thereon, including the building of a wind pump. He has cleared 30 acres of each farm. He also owns an interest in a farm at Beaver Dam. He has been a very extensive dealer and raiser of fine stock and the results of the 10 large stock sales which he has conducted indicate that the products of the "Golden Ridge Stock Farm" have a first-class reputation throughout the State.
Politically, Mr. Arnold is a Democrat and cast his first vote, while in the army, for General McClellan. He has been township trustee, served six years as infirmary director and has been many times selected as as a delegate of his party to important conventions. He belongs to Mart Armstrong Post, No. 202, G. A. R. at Lima; is president of the Farmers' Institute, of Jackson township, and was a member of the local grange until the work of the order was discontinued in the township. He is a member and a liberal supporter of the Methodist Church, being one of the trustees; he was formerly Sunday-school superintendent and president of the township association.
Personally Mr. Arnold, like the other men of his family, is of fine presence and large and generous stature. He recalls his great- grand-father, John Garee, as of similar appearance, and remembers sitting on the latter's knee and listening to his tales of the War of 1812 and of the pioneer struggles with the Indians. Mr. Arnold's only brother, the late Joseph Arnold, weighed 229 pounds, was as large mentally as physically, and a very successful business man. The younger generation is also coming to the front, and the indications, are that Mr. Arnold will have reason to be as proud of his grandchildren as he is justified in being of his children. Mable, when a little miss of 10 years, successfully passed a very difficult examination at the Boxwell examination; she graduated from the Lima High School in 1905, and is now teaching in the Garfield School, Lima, as a substitute.