Cabell County, WV Heritage 1809 - 1996
Produced by: KYOWVA Genealogy Society, Huntington, WV
Pages 102-103

Thomas Arthur
     Thomas Arthur was born about 1788. Birth place is unknown; possibly Greenbrier or Bedford County, VA. He is believed to have died at some time after 1862, the year that he and his wife Elizabeth signed a deed stating that their place of residence was Mason County, WV. He is possibly buried in the unmarked cemetery on the Howard Adkins property in Cabell County, WV or in the Sheff Cemetery.
     From the list of heirs in the will of Isaac Blake, we can assume that Thomas Arthur's first wife was Sally Blake, whom he probably married in Greenbrier County, VA (now WV) before 1813. Sally Blake was the daughter of Isaac Blake and Margaret Jourdan, the granddaughter of John Blake and Ann Newton. Although no record of her death has been found, it believed that Sally Blake Arthur died before 1842. The second wife of Thomas Arthur was Elizabeth King, daughter of James and Mary King. She was born about 1810, possibly in what is now Lincoln County, WV.
     The father of Thomas Arthur is thought to have been Joel Arthur, a Revolutionary soldier from Bedford County, VA, who, after living in Greenbrier County in the same period as records say Thomas Arthur lived there, moved to Jackson County, OH, where he died in 1837.
     By 1813, at which time he was about 25 years old, Thomas Arthur was said to have been living in the Cabell Creek Community, Grant District, Cabell County, VA, now WV. From the History of Cabell Creek Community written for the Farm Bureau Country Life Conference, June 1925, by Mrs. Walter Mitchell "Cabell Creek Community was first settled by white men in the year 1813 by Thomas Arthur. Thomas first moved to McArthur Junction, OH from Greenbrier County, VA, then to Cabell County, VA, on account of so much sickness in his family due to ague. His first wife was Sally Blake of Greenbrier County."
     On 10 April 1817, a plot of 24 acres was surveyed for Thomas Arthur. This was part of Treasury Warrant #5924, and was on Big Cabell Creek, branch of Mud River, opposite the Rock house camp. In later years, Thomas acquired lands amounting to about 60 acres.
     The late 1700's and early 1800's was a time of westward migration in the newly formed United States. Land was cheap or often free to Revolutionary soldiers. At the time that Thomas Arthur settled on his land, the forests were still virgin, wolves and panthers could be heard and again quoting from Mrs. Mitchell "One day while hunting along Mud Lick, Thomas Arthur and his hunting dogs were bitten by a rattlesnake. He knew it would be death for him if he took a drink or did not do something at once, so he ate all the powder from his hunting horn, then lay in the stream. His eyes soon swelled shut and his tongue swelled out of his mouth. Some time in the night, he was found crawling upstream; his dog was found dead where it had gotten a drink from the stream." Perhaps, this an exaggeration, but it begins to give us an idea of what life must have been like when the early settlers arrived. These men and their wives, who had very little education but a great deal of ambition, courage and respect for nature were the pioneers that made our county what it was to become.
     Issue of Thomas and Sally Blake Arthur: (1) Isaac Arthur, b ca 1812, m. Rebecca. From a marriage record in Jackson county, OH, it is believed she was Rebecca Arthur, a granddaughter of Joel Arthur. (2) James Arthur, b. 12 December 1813, m. Elizabeth Sizer, (3) Elizabeth Arthur, b about 1815, married William Adams. (4) Pennell Arthur, b. ca 1819, m. Virginia. (5) John M. Arthur, b. 1822 m. Sarah Perry. (6) Mary Emily Arthur, b. ca 1827, m. Richard Bexfield. (7) America Arthur, b. ca 1828, married Samuel Davis, (8) Thomas Washington Arthur, b. about 1833, m. Julia Ann Hageley.
     Issue of Thomas and Elizabeth King Arthur: (9) Lafayette Arthur, b. ca 1842-43, according to army and death records, but 1850 census gives his age as four years old.
     Lafayette Arthur was born in Cabell County, VA (WV). He died 2 August 1931 in Mason County and is buried in the Henderson Cemetery.
     He enlisted in the U.S. Army, 16 January 1862 from Coalsmouth, VA. He served in Co. D., 8th Reg. Virginia Infantry. He was mustered out in 1865. At the time of enlistment, he was 5'4" tall, blue eyes and light hair. although he gave his age as 19, he was possibly only 16 at the time of his enlistment. He married (1) Mahala Patterson, 19 October 1865 in Mason County. (2) Sarah Frost, 24 December 1879. He lived up Arbuckle Hollow in Mason County at the time of his death. He was a farmer all of his life.
     Lafayette Arthur had eight children by his first wife, namely, (1) Sarah E. Arthur, b. 8 August 1866, m. Louis Walker. (2) Elizabeth Viola Arthur, b. 15 August 1868, (3) William T. Arthur, b. 11 November 1870, m. Mary Lee Bates, (4) James T. Arthur, b. 1873, m. Ruthie Sheline, (5) George W. Arthur, b. 1875, (6) Mirtie Arthur, b. 1877, (7) Thomas Arthur, b. 1879, m. Mary McGillivray, (8) Nettie Arthur, b. 6 February 1880, m. Ernest Leightenheimer. Thomas and Nettie were raised in Portsmouth, OH by their mother. Lafayette had four children by his second wife: (9) Mary F. Arthur, b. 19 February 1881, m. Jim Mayes, (10) Delphia Arthur, b. 24 June 1883, (11) Nora B. Arthur, b. 15 May 1885, m. John Watson, (12) Jennie Arthur, b. 13 June 1887.
     William T. Arthur, the son of Lafayette and Mahala Patterson Arthur, was born 11 November 1870, in Mason County, WV. He died 3 November 1949 in Huntington, WV. He married Mary Lee Bates, daughter of Lemuel and Martha Arnold Bates, 1 December 1894 in Mason County.
     William Arthur moved to Huntington about 1910. He owned a livery stable, later a grocery store in the vicinity of St. Mary's Hospital. He lived at 26th Street and Emmons Avenue. He later moved to the west end of Huntington, where he was living at the time of his death. William Arthur had two children: Arnold and Charlotte.
     Arnold Mercede Arthur, the son of William Arthur, was born in Mason County, WV, 26 June 1896. He died in Carrollton, GA, 2 December 1979. Arnold graduated from Huntington High School in 1917. He served in World War I. He married Mary Holland, daughter of James S. and Florence Lee Musgrave Holland.
     Arnold was a traveling salesman, and in 1940 his company transferred him to Georgia. His wife, Mary Holland Arthur, b 3 December 1895 in Fairmont, WV was an elementary teacher in the Huntington City schools for ten years before her marriage. She died in Carrollton, GA, 7 November 1971.
     Mary Florence Arthur, the only child of Arnold and Mary Holland Arthur, was born 10 May 1923, Huntington, WV. She graduated from Huntington High in 1940; moved with her family to Georgia where she continued her education: married Reuben Word, taught 7th grade Science and math for 24 years and raised three children. She is a Certified Genealogical Record Specialist and the founder of the Carroll County, GA Genealogical Society.
     Charlotte McCausland Arthur, the daughter of William Arthur and Mary Bates was born 15 February 1900 in Mason County, WV. She married (1) Earl Gallaher (2) Harry Almond. She died 15 May 1970, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. she had two children, Janice Mae Gallaher and Norma Ellen Gallaher.
     Janice Mae Gallaher, daughter of Earl and Charlotte Arthur Gallaher lived for many years in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl, but now resides in Huntington, WV. Norma Ellen Gallaher, daughter of Earl and Charlotte Arthur Gallaher, married Clovis Mannon and lives in Proctorville, OH. She has four grown children.

Submitted by: Mary Florence Arthur Word