The biographical history of California is made up of the life stories of men which read like romances of a different world from that of the cultivated and populated state of today. Many of our worthy pioneers suffered hardships and privations unknown to this generation, in order that their descendants might reap the reward of their forebears' bravery and endurance. Such a pioneer was William Henry Arnold, a native of Shelby County, Ala., where he was born February 1, 1826. He followed farming in his native state until the gold days of the early fifties, when stories of fortunes awaiting the adventurous, in far-away California, reached the Southern plantations, and he joined the trail of Argonauts to the coast, and with his wife, who was before her marriage Adeline Pridgeon, a native of Georgia, he crossed the plains in an ox-team train, a long and hazardous journey in those days. They arrived safely in Sacramento, and Mr. Arnold engaged in freighting to the mines as a first occupation, while getting his bearings in the new country. He later sold his teams and mined for gold in El Dorado County, and finally bought a tract of timber land in Shady Creek, Nevada County, and there ran a sawmill.
After these various pioneer enterprises, Mr. Arnold came south to Los Angeles, in 1868, and from that city drove down the Valley where Pomona now stands, and farmed for thirty years at Spadra, cultivating a twenty-seven-acre ranch, which is now owned by his daughter, Mrs. Ida F. Collins of Pomona.
No praise is too great for these sturdy pioneers, who gave of their best years to the upbuilding and development of our wonderful state. They lived to see Pomona grow into the beautiful city it now is, surrounded by a Valley of prodigal fruitfulness and beauty; their efforts were rewarded and their lives are an example for future generations. Mr. Arnold passed to his greater reward December 23, 1918, aged ninety-three years, and his wife to hers in 1908, leaving two children, Mrs. Ida F. Collins of Pomona and Frank Arnold of Victorville, Cal.
History of Pomona Valley, California, with Biographical Sketches
of The Leading Men and Women of the Valley Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
Published in Los Angeles, Cal., by the Historic Record Company
1920
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 9/17/08, Pages 404 & 407
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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