Joshua Arnold

From History of Frederick County. p. 1150-1151:

Joshua Arnold, deceased, who was intellectually and morally one of the best men of this region, was a son of John and Sarah (Koon) Arnold, and a grandson of David Arnold, deceased. He was born in 1833, on his father’s farm in Burkittsville District.

Mr. Arnold was emphatically a self-made man. He was sent in his youth to a country school, and enjoyed its limited advantages for only fourteen days; yet a better mathematician was hard to find in his neighborhood; and he became one of the most scientific farmers of the district. He assisted in the management of the homestead farm until the death of his father. After that event, he remained at home until his marriage, in 1868. A short time later he removed to the village of Broad Run, where he spent one year; he next resided for five years in Burkittsville. During these years, Mr. Arnold was engaged in various financial enterprises, and among his investments, bought a farm of over 160 acres, in Petersville District, to which he removed from Burkittsville, and cultivated that land until his death, which occurred in 1897.

Joshua Arnold was married in Carroll County, Md., in 1868, to Miss Annie, daughter of Daniel and Lydia (Slifer) Heffelbower, both now deceased. Her paternal grandfather was of German birth, and emigrated to this country, settling in Pennsylvania. His son, Daniel, resided at the time of his daughter Annie’s birth, and during her childhood, in Jefferson County, Va. The children of Joshua and Annie (Heffelbower) Arnold, are: 1, Edgar Franklin, who died in his twenty-first year; 2, Inez (Mrs. A. K. Graybill), who has three children; 3, Elizabeth (Mrs. Greenberry House), resides near Burkittsville, 4, J. Claude, residing on the homestead; married Miss S. Grace Flook, and has two children, Austin F. and Dorothy La Rue.

Joshua Arnold possessed one of those rare characters in which great moral strength is combined with the utmost gentleness. He fought manfully against evil in all forms; yet was temperate in his utterances, as in all else, gentle and charitable. In his private relations as son, husband and father, he was exemplary; and when he was called away, not only his family, and a large circle of friends, but the poor who had experienced his generosity, sadly missed him. The best legacy of such a man is his example.