My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE M. ARNOLD is a farmer of Portland town who takes considerable interest in the political welfare of his town. His parents were Hiram and Sally (Eley) Arnold, and he was born in the town of Westfield, Chautauqua county, New York, September 23, 1833. His grandfather, Elisha Arnold, was a Connecticut Yankee, of English descent. He was born in 1778, and came to Chautauqua county in 1814. He decided to make a home in Westfield, and engaged in the distilling business which, for that day, was one of magnitude, and also owned and conducted a farm. He died in 1841, when sixty-three years of age. His wife’s name was Prudence, who came from Herkimer county, They had twelve children. He was justice of the peace and supervisor of the town for a number of years, a whig politically, and a very enterprising man. Hiram Arnold was born in Chenango county, this State, in 1806, and came with his father to Westfield town when eight years of age. He lived in that town for twenty-one years and then bought the farm in Portland town now occupied by his son, G. M., and moved upon it in 1835. He was also engaged in the saw-mill business and was a prominent and important business man in the section. He died in 1851. He married Sally Eley, who was born in the State of Connecticut in 1811, and is still living with her son, George M. They were the parents of five children.

George M. Arnold was reared upon his father’s farm and educated in the public schools. When of sufficient age he learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner, by which he gained his livelihood until 1866. The subsequent two years were spent in the Corry car-shops where he had charge of the machinery. In 1868 he returned to his farm of one hundred and seventy-five acres, two and one-half miles from the village of Portland, where he has since resided. He has a vineyard that has averaged the unusual yield of nine tons of grapes to the acre.

In 1861 Mr. Arnold married Mary Pecor, a daughter of Benjamin F. Pecor, of this town.

He is a member of the Congregational church, one of its trustees; belongs to the Lodge, No. 461, Knights of Honor, is a republican, and has held the office of road commissioner, constable and assessor. He is the present incumbent of the last-named office, and has held one or another for twenty-eight years. He is enterprising and substantial — a good citizen for the town.