~1812 - 1882 or 92
Virginia - Maryland - Ohio - Indiana - Iowa
Almost alll the information I have about Daniel comes from the censuses. He was born in about 1812 in Virginia. I have looked for Daniels in Virginia in 1840 (he would have been 28 then) and the closest match is in Harrison County, in what is now West Virginia:
1840 Virginia Harrison Co - p. 128
Daniel 00101001 00030001
1 male 10-15 b 1825-30 Male A
3 females 15-20 b 1820-25 Females B, C, D
1 male 20-30 b 1810-20 Male E (= Daniel 1812?)
1 male, 1 female 50-60 b 1780-90
Our Daniel could be the male 20-30, one of three 15-20 year old females could have been his wife - or they all could have been his sisters. The old couple could have been his parents.
It isn’t much. I need to do some deeper searching.In 1830, in Harrison Co - Arnell, Daniel (western dist) 100011 010001 1790-1800
1 male under 5 b 1825-30 Male A
1 female 5-10 b 1820-25 Female B (missing C and D)
1 male 20-30 b 1800-10 Male E? b ~1810
1 male, 1 female 30-40 b 1790-1800
Other Arnolds in Harrison County in 1840 (on the same page):
Joseph 001110001 00000101 (male 20-30, male 60-70)
Abraham 10001 20001 (male 20-30)
There were other Daniels in the Virginia indexes for 1840, but none of the others match up (quite so well) in age, although the one in Hampshire County is not bad - but I am pretty sure he (the Daniel in Hampshire in 1840) is one of the Dunker Arnolds (Daniel b 1768), and his son Daniel was born 1798.
1840 Virginia
Hampshire Co - p. 200
Sarah 001 013001
Benjamin 000001 10011
Solomon 000001 10001
Daniel 0001010001 000100001 (males aged 15-20, 30-40, 70-80)
Harrison Co - p. 128
Joseph 001110001 00000101
Daniel 00101001 00030001 (males aged 10-15, 20-30, 50-60)
Abraham 10001 20001
Wheeling Ward 5, Ohio (22)
Danl Arnold 2000001 100001 (males aged under 5, 40-50)
Botetourt 277
Daniel Arnald 000000001 00000001 (male aged 60-70)
One reason Harrison County is an attractive possibility is that it is in north central West Virginia, about equidistant from Maryland and Ohio - and Daniel's wife Margaret was born in Maryland. And just to make things nice and easy, Hampshire County shares a border with Maryland.
There are no Daniel Arnolds in Maryland in 1840 (in the online census indexes).
Our Daniel was married in 1840 (according to his wife's obit). His wife was also an Arnold, Margaret A, born in 1823 in Maryland. Their first (living) child, Alonzo, was born while they were still in Virginia, in about 1841. In 1842 or 1843 (again, according to Margaret's obits), the family moved to Ohio, and in 1846 to Indiana. Second son Seymour was supposedly born in about 1843 in Maryland, although that could have been a visit to her parents instead of a move. Son Franklin was born in Indiana in 1846.
The first document I have for them is the census for La Porte County, Indiana in 1850:
1850 Indiana La Porte Wills p. 223b line 38 - taken 23 Nov
David crossed out Daniel J Arnold 39 farmer VA
Margaret A 27 MD
Alonzo 9 VA
Seymour 7 MD
(Empty space)
next page 224 line 1
Franklin Arnold 4 Ind
Wills Township is just east of Kankakee, so they were about as far as you could get from the lake (in an easterly direction anyway). Our next ancestor, Martha Arnold was born in Indiana in July 1851. Her sister Mary J was born the next year (1852) and brother William B was born in about 1855. Shortly after that, they moved to Iowa.
According to Margaret on the 1900 census, they had 7 children, 2 still living at the time. That means there another child, name unknown, who was never recorded on any census. And according to Margaret's obit, the seven children were 5 sons and 2 daughters, so the missing child was a boy.
In 1856, they were in Decatur County, Iowa. Other Arnolds in the county were Silvanus from New York, and Moses from Virginia. I originally thought they were not related (none of the online genealogies give either man a son or brother Daniel or a daughter Margaret) but in 1860, William Arnold of Maryland had appeared - and he was Margaret’s father - and it turns out he was alsoMoses's brother.
1856 Iowa State Census - Decatur County, Center Twp
Daniel J Arnold 40 VA (indexed as IA)
Margaret 30 MD
Alonzo J 14 Va
Martha M 5 Ind
Mary J 4 Ind
WNC 1 Ind
Mary J 22 NY1860 Iowa - Decatur - Burrell p. 75 taken 10 July - line 10 543-519 -
Daniel J Arnold 48 farmer Va
Margaret A Arnold 37 Md
Alonzo ? Arnold 19 Va
Martha Arnold 10 Ind
Natty? Kathy? WB Arnold 5 m Ind
I don’t think farming was an easy life (There is a nice account of early farming methods at the Decatur County GenWeb site.), and by 1866 - the year after William-of-Maryland’s death - they had moved to Des Moines, where Daniel and Alonzo worked as teamsters. They were still in Des Moines In 1870.
1866/67 Des Moines City Directory (from the Polk County GenWeb site)
Arnold D. J., teamster, h South Coon, Indianola Road
Arnold Alonzo, teamster, South Coon, Indianola Road1870 Iowa - Polk - DesMoines 1st ward, Image 5/32 p. 142a
Arnold, Daniel 58 teamster Va
Margaret 46 Md
William 15 Ind
By 1870, all their children but one were gone. At one time I thought Martha was married - there was a marriage for a Martha C Arnold and Vincent W Knapp in 1868, but I haven’t found them in the 1870 census. [At one point I thought I had, but it involved a bit of a theoretical stretch, and then I found some contrary evidence, so.] It is still possible, but if it did occur, then something happened to Vincent because in 1875, Martha married Charles Pattee (back in Des Moines), and by 1876, they had moved to Nebraska.
Seymour and Franklin and Mary J were missing from the 1860 census, so perhaps something happened to them - they were really too young to be on their own. Daughter Martha lost 5 children at a fairly young age (for the children, not for her as such), so maybe they were a congenitally sickly crew?? It’s a sharp contrast with some of Mom’s relatives, who had 14 children, each of whom had 11 children, and so on. But there it is, it seems the Arnolds were unlucky with children.
Alonzo is the other person missing in 1870, and he would have been old enough to have been on his own. He would have been 29. There is, however, a marriage for an Alonzo Arnold in 1864. It is in Warren County, the next county south of Des Moines (and the next county east of Madison), so it is a possibility:
Alonzo P Arnold - Caroline C Campbell - 24 Sept 1864 - Warren Co, Iowa
from the Ancestry.com marriage database.
But I have not found him on later censuses (the last trace of him is a listing in the 1866 Des Moines City Directory), so. And Caroline C Arnold married Doc Beem in Warren Co on 2 Oct 1868. They are in the 1880 census: 1880 Ia Warren Washington SD3 ED231 page 25
226-232 Beem, Doc 32 Oh Oh MD
Caroline 32 Wi Pa Ind
William 11 / Minnie 9 - both b IA
Frank 7 b Neb / Benjamin 5 / male baby b April - both b IA
Campbell, Charles 26 b/law Wi Pa Ind // Welton, Martin 18 IA Can Oh]
In 1880, Daniel and Margaret were still in Des Moines, and Daniel was still a teamster. They had two grandchildren living with them.
1880 Iowa Polk Des Moines
First Ward - SD 3 - ED 160 - p. 31 (224) 25 June
Arnold, Daniel mw 66 teamster - VA Ky Ky
Margaret 56 kpg house - Md Md Md
William 11 gd son - Ia Unk Ind
Mary R 9 gd dau - Ia Unk Ind1
1885 Iowa State Census - Polk County - Des Moines
Daniel J Arnold 73 VA
M A 63 MD
William 16 —k
Rosie 14 —k
I would think the grandchildren were Alonzo’s, since I haven't been able to find him after the 1866 Des Moines Directory listing, and as he was married in 1864, then these children, born 1869 and 1872, would fit. HOWEVER, the birthplace of their father is listed as "Unknown" - and surely Daniel and Margaret knew where their own son(s) had been born. Add to this, that his wife remarried in 1868, before these children were born. It is possible they belonged to Martha and Vincent Knapp IF it was our Martha who married Knapp. They are probably not William’s children, first because William would have been awfully young to be a father - in 1869, he was about 14 - and also because William seems to be alive and well and also living in Des Moines and working as a teamster (he married Lizzie Speroeslege in Des Moines in 1875):
1880 Iowa Polk Des Moines 1st ward - SD3, ED160, p. 35
Arnold, William 28 Ind Va Md teamster
Elizabeth 27 NY Baden Baden
Molly M 4 Ia Ind NY
Archie 1 Ia Ind NY
Young, Jennie servant Pa Pa Pa
(William Arnold married Lizzie Speroeslege 6 Feb 1875 in Polk Co IA)
In 1889 (according to Margaret's obit), Daniel and Margaret left the big city and moved to Winterset, Iowa. That is in Madison County (as in The Bridges of . . .) and is just southwest of Polk County. Daniel died there in (probably) 1892, and is buried in the Winterset Cemetery (see below).
Margaret died in 1916, and is buried in the same cemetery as Daniel. The date for Daniel is often given as 1882, but that cannot be, because he is on the state census for 1885, so.
Internment.net has the following entries
Arnold, Margaret A., b. 8-5-1823, Md, d. 3-5-1916
Arnold, D. J., d. 11-11-1882, 82y
Winterset, Madison, IowaAnother webpage, CEMETERY/DEATH RECORDS has more information:
Arnold, DJ [b. 25 Nov 1811] d. 11 Nov 1882 Winterset
80y, 11m, 17d - h/o Margaret A
Both these files were compiled by Judy Wright Branson.
note the birth date - it is in red on the website, meaning it was calculated using the death date - BUT the math is wrong.Ancestry.com has a different date for Daniel.
DJ Arnold - d 11 Nov 1892 - Winterset Cemetery, Winterset
(category = Relative - 82)
Margaret A Arnold b 1823 - d 6 Mar 1916 - Winterset Cemetery, Winterset
their source: Tombstone Records of Madison County, Iowa
Update - I finally sent for the death certificates for Margaret and Daniel. Daniel's is not available, at least from the state department, because their indexes begin only in 1896.
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Page last updated 16 Nov 2011