************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm
************************************************

Submitted by Cheryl Van Wormer.


				GEORGE W. AND ALVIRA (KING) ARMS.

GEORGE W. ARMS, living on section 25, Orange Township, Ionia County, was the first white male 
child born in the township, his father being Selah Arms, a native of Rutland County, Vt., born 
there in 1809, and his mother before marriage being Mariette Utter, a native of New York.  The 
family originated in the north of England and Noah Arms, the father of Selah, a Vermonter, 
served bravely in the war of 1812.  The father of our subject was one of the early settlers of 
Michigan, coming here in 1834 when still quite a young man.  He settled upon the farm now owned 
by our subject, taking it up from the Government in 1836.  He was the first pioneer in this 
township and in due time helped to organize it.  He entered eighty acres of land all timbered, 
and bravely putting his last money into it looked to be his strong right hand for future wealth. 
Shortly after settling upon this land he married the mother of the subject of this sketch.  Both 
of them were earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the affairs of which they took 
an active interest.  He was a prominent man in the church, warmly promoting its interests and 
keeping open house for all the traveling brethren, and liberally supporting its finances.  In 
all other ways he showed a corresponding liberality and was ever a warm and efficient friend to 
the unfortunate.  His first home was a log shanty, but two years later he erected a more 
substantial log house.  In 1852 or 1853 a frame house became the home and it was considered one 
of the very nicest in that section.  Unfortunately it burned to the ground in 1865.  He cleared 
off eighty acres of his land and put it under cultivation.  Two years after marriage he had a 
serious illness which rendered one of his limbs stiff.
	Mr. Arms knew every man in this county and nearly all in Clinton County.  The first frame
barn in Orange Township was built by him nearly fifty years ago.  He used to do coopering and 
made a large number of sap buckets.  He was fairly successful in his farming operations 
notwithstanding a great deal of illness and other misfortunes.  He died in 1865, his wife have 
preceded him in 1851.  Three of their five children still survive--George W., James and Ruth 
(Mrs. Charles Hastings).  He was a strong Jacksonian Democrat, was for twenty-two years Justice 
of the Peace, also for some time Supervisor of Orange Township and Superintendent of the Poor.
	The subject of this sketch was born October 21, 1842.  His education, after the district 
school, was taken at the Portland High School.  Then he began for himself at seventeen years of 
age; when at that age the Civil War broke out and he enlisted in May, 1861, in Company E, Third 
Michigan Infantry.  The regiment was organized at Grand Rapids and was ordered to Washington, D. 
C., where it was put in the Third Brigade under Col. Richardson.  They were in the first battle 
of Bull Run in July, 1861.  He received a slight wound at Blackburn's Ford.  His brigade covered 
the retreat from Bull Run, and at Arlington Heights they were camped about the residence of Gen. 
Robert E. Lee.  Our subject helped build three of the forts in that locality.
	In the spring of 1862 Mr. Arms went through the entire Penisular campaign under Gen. 
George B. McClellan and passed through ten battles without a scratch.  Under Gen. Pope he took 
part in the second battle of bull Run and here received the most serious wound which he experienced.  August 29, while he was loading his gun a minie ball struck his right leg and passed through it just above his heel, entering his left ankle.  He crawled upon his hands and knees a mile and a half to an ambulance, in which he rode two miles to the field hospital.  He lay there a day and a night then traveled ten miles in the ambulance to a railroad track and lay beside it for two days; then on a flat car he was transported to Washington, D. C.  From the station at Washington he was put into an omnibus and lying on the floor of it was rattled over the cobble stones to Georgetown Hospital.  Great difficulty was experienced in locating and extracting the ball.  Amputation was deferred from day to day hoping against hope that the limb might be saved.  Fifteen days after his arrival it was finally decided that it could no longer be postponed and the left leg was amputated below the knee.  He remained a year in the hospital and received his honorable discharge in August, 1863.
	Upon his return home George Arms went to school for a while and in 1865 he went to work 
upon the home farm where he has since lived excepting one year which he passed at Portland.  He 
has eighty acres of land, all of it improved.  He built his present residence three years ago at 
a cost of $2,6000 besides his own labor.  He does active work upon his farm, carrying on mixed 
farming.  He has Short-horn cattle, also some fine specimens of horses both for draft and 
roadsters.  He has one of the finest Short-horn herds registered in Ionia county.  He began his
herd in 1882 with "Lady Thornapple," No. 20.  She is recorded in volume 26, page 491.  She was 
of "Young Mary" family, tracing back to "Young Mary" by "Jupiter" No. 21,070.  He has nine of 
this grade of cattle, including "Lady Thornapple" and her descendants.  At the head of his 
present herd in "Gladstone" No. 86,708, bred on the farm of the Michigan Agricultural College at 
Lansing.  He is a Victoria Dutchess record in volume 33, page 161 of the American Short-horn 
Herd Book; calved May 25, 1887; is of red color.  His dam's sire was twenty-third "Duke of 
Airdrie, " who was valued at $10,000 and the most noted one ever owned in Michigan.  "Gladstone"
was sired by "Fennel, Duke 2d" of Sideview, Ky.  He has eight distinct Duke top crosses; he took 
his first premium at the Ionia Fair in the fall of 1890.
	On the 5th of October, 1867, the marriage was solemnized between George W. Arms and Miss 
Alvira King, a daughter of Platt B. and Diantha (Beals) King, both natives of the Empire State 
who removed from there to Ohio about 1833.  Mr. King was one of the pioneer farmers of the 
Western Reserve, and made a permanent home there, where he died sixteen years ago.  His wife 
still survives him and now at the age of eighty-five years lives at Oberlin, Ohio, with one of 
her daughters.  Four of the six children are now living:  Harriet, Mrs. Avery; Abiah, Mrs. 
Whitney; Mary, Mrs. Whitney; and Mrs. Arms.  The wife of our subject was born June 22, 1845, in
Ohio; she received a good education, completing her school days at Oberlin College.  She taught 
school previous to her marriage.  Her parents were close communion Baptists and her father held 
responsible positions in the church.  In politics he was a strong Republican and was an earnest 
promoter of the Abolition movement.
	To Mr. and Mrs. Arms have been born two children:  Frank C., born December 21, 1868; he 
has a good education, having completed his studies at Oberlin College and is now an artist at
Portland.  Clara M., born October 1, 1875, is at present a student in the Portland High School.  
Mr. Arms is a charter member of the Grand Army Post at Lyons.  For many years he has been a 
member of the School Board.  He has been frequently elected to township offices, but never 
qualifies; he is a Democrat in politics.  He now has two hundred trees on his place and will set 
out six hundred more this spring; he purposes to have one thousand.  He is the only person now 
living in this district who was a pupil in the first school organized here.  Forty-six years ago 
when his father was taken down with the fever there were no doctors here.  His wife left with 
the neighbors her two babies and putting her husband in a one-horse wagon upon a bed took him to 
Harrisville, Medina County, Ohio, for treatment.  Our subject was one of the babies whom this 
brave mother left in the kind care of benevolent neighbors.



This biography is taken from "PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM OF IONIA AND MONTCALM COUNTIES, 
MICHIGAN."  Chapman Brothers.  Chicago, Illinois.  1891.  Pages 417-419.