Samuel was born in Cumberland Valley, Bedford, Pennsylvania on Monday, March 6, 1775.
[Note: The use of (1st, 2nd, etc.) is somewhat arbitrary and only implies this is the first, second, etc. of that name in the direct line from Thomas Arnold down to the latest generation.]
1770’s – 1780’s
Samuel was one of a family of nine children, consisting of three sons and six daughters; was given a good education and named after his father, with whom he spent much of his youth but some time was spent at the village blacksmith shop of a Mr. Jacob Plumb where he learned the art completely.
Arnold Luckey Family Ties, 1931
1790’s – 1800’s
It was on this wise that Samuel first met his future wife in the person of the little newly born babe of Jacob Plumb when he was just eighteen years and 27 days of age.
He was in the blacksmith shop on April 3rd, 1793, when the child was being born and the father of the child invited him into the house to see the little stranger, and as Samuel looked upon her the father jokingly remarked, “Who knows, friend Samuel, but that she may become your wife some day!”
The saying must have pleased Samuel, though he tried to hide it in his heart, and jocosely put it aside as of but little moment and immediately gave his attention to something else. It is said by those who stood by, his cheeks flushed and he seemed engrossed in thoughts which lie deeper than the surface. Could it have been “a love at first sight” or was it only a modest embarrassment peculiar to the occasion and the remark? We must leave our readers to resolve this in their own minds; but if it was a real admiration which bordered on companionate love, it could not have been mutual for the babe was incapable, as yet, of forming such love and personal admiration.
It is said, the day was exceedingly fair, and the sun must have shone brightly and smiled into the village blacksmith shop, which stood in a place near where Glenco is now situated, on the day when Samuel first looked upon the bright and beaming upturned face of the newly born of whom it had been jocularly prophesied that she might be his wife some day.
Such prophecies are seldom fulfilled, but that Samuel was visibly impressed cannot be denied, for actions speak, and ’tis said, Samuel “dropped in” again and again to see the “little darling” as he termed her. And as she grew up before him as a young and tender plant of the Jacob Plumb household and became–the sweet budding flower opening up into fuller bloom–he could not help casting his weekly (if not daily) glances intently upon her and approvingly smile upon her affectionately. It was but natural then that when she grew into her young womanhood she should return those glances and sweet affectionate smiles and join with him frequently in graceful, lovely, personal conversations.
It has long been known and firmly held by some that the gods have many and divers ways of bringing such tender and loving hearts together and of binding them the more firmly together in a love that is truly keen, ardent and even adamant.
The child was so named as to bear the appellation of its mother and that of Samuel’s own mother, and to him she became a maiden of most excellent worth. Personally he supervised her studies, gave some attention to her health, manifested his personal interest in her social activities and joined her in her works and doings.
They resided but a very few miles from each other and their relation and admiration for each other made that distance of a few miles seem much shorter than it really was and made it much easier for them to get together the more frequently.
Arnold Luckey Family Ties, 1931
1810’s – 1830’s
Samuel Arnold (2nd) and Elizabeth Plumb were married in Somerset, Pennsylvania, USA on Wednesday, May 13, 1812.
The young Miss Elizabeth, in her glowing and ever-increasing love for Samuel, on hearing of his coming over to her father’s house, would frequently don her bonnet and shawl and hasten down the road to meet him (sometimes fully halfway) coming on the road and then gleefully and rejoicingly return with him to her home. Perhaps, dear reader, you yourself have been moved to do that self-same thing, or at least you have strongly felt like doing so. Be this as it may, it was a thing naturally and psychologically impossible for such personal admiration and devotion to fail in coming into bloom and reach in time its fruition, and this it did when Elizabeth had reached the age of 19 years, 1 month and 10 days.
Yes, there was a difference in their ages. He was 37 years, 2 months and 7 days when their courtship brought forth the sweeter fruits of joyous wedlock. Age and differences in ages have little or nothing to do with true love, matrimony and marriage. Some of us have tested the truth of this, know these things by actual experience, and speak whereof we do know and our testimony is reasonable and just.
Samuel loved Elizabeth with a gracious, glowing, tender and ardent affection. By his every word and act for many long years he showed his living, loving admiration for her and his desire to have her for his own. His love was one which asked no question and was heroic and constant. To him Elizabeth was not only fair of countenance, modest and charming in action, but was so very pleasing and fascinating in speech and so lovable in personality that he was truly overjoyed with her in every way and was perfectly happy in her presence. What then but death could stop the wedding engagement, the marriage or the united and joyous pursuit of a long, future, happy and eventful life?
The wedding being consummated in Somerset County, Pa., May 13, 1812, the home established the following year, they became, in time, the parents of a large family of ten children, consisting of five girls and five boys. All these were reared by them as becometh good parents, “in the fear of the Lord”, and they grew up to womanhood and manhood under their loving tutelage and instruction to be honest, moral, upright, progressive citizens, leaving no stain of any kind whatsoever to darken the home or Arnold name or even cast a suspicion or shadow over the character and love of their parents.
Arnold Luckey Family Ties, 1931
Children of Samuel and Elizabeth include:
- Margaret Arnold 1813-1847 (34)
- Daniel Arnold 1815-abt.1865 (49)
- Samuel Arnold 1817-1895 (77)
- Drusilla Arnold 1820-1885 (64)
- Eve Arnold 1823-1899 (76)
- Emanuel P. Arnold 1826-1906 (79)
- Nathaniel Arnold 1828-1887 (58)
- Elizabeth Arnold 1830-1898 (67)
- Sarah Ann Arnold 1833-1901 (67)
- Joseph Arnold 1837-1870 (33)
Samuel passed away in Sharon Center, Medina, OH, USA on Thursday, December 23, 1847 at the age of 72.
There are to be seen now in the family burial lot on the Samuel Arnold farm in Sharon Center, Ohio, three tombstones which mark the graves of Samuel and Elizabeth Arnold and their first daughter Margaret. But the inscriptions thereon are so dim and so nearly obliterated with age in certain particulars as to be undeterminable. The official records of Medina County, Ohio, and Somerset County, Pa., give us the following:
– Samuel Arnold, born March 6, 1775; died December 23,1847
– Elizabeth Plumb (Arnold), born April 3, 1793; died March 26, 1879
This shows that Samuel’s age at death was 72 years, 9 months and 17 days. And that his wife Elizabeth was 85 years, 11 months and 23 days. Although thirty or more years intervened between their deaths, yet Elizabeth never married another and remained on the old homestead and died there at the appointed and above-mentioned date from a shock which she received from a fall.
Arnold Luckey Family Ties, 1931
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