Southampton-Nansemond County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Arthur, Dr. William H., 1935 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ WILLIAM HARDY ARTHUR FRANKLIN LOSES FINE CITIZEN IN PASSING OF DR. W.H. ARTHUR Dr. W.H. died at his home in North High Street early Wednesday morning in his 62nd year after an illness of about six weeks’ duration. He had been practicing dentistry successfully here since coming to Franklin in 1898, and was in the fullest sense of the term one of our town’s most useful and worth-while citizens. Dr. Arthur gave to the town for 20 years invaluable service as a member of the Town School Board, which found its most constructive work in the time so freely spent in the matter of planning for and practically supervising the construction of the handsome high school building erected here in 1922. It may be said of him without exaggeration that he was a mechanical genius not only in the practice of his profession but in many other inter-related subjects, and his flair for and knowledge of mechanics were generously used in even the most minute details of the building of the new high school and its appointments, the writer, who served with for a short while on the school board during that time, considering our modern high school plant and equipment a lasting monument to his ability and his keen interest in public school education. It is remembered that the first high school annual, "The Diplomat," published after the occupancy of the new building was appropriately dedicated to him with the following legend: "To Dr. W.H. Arthur/ Promoter of Our Interests,/ Our Friend, and a Gentleman./ The Diplomat of 1925 Is Ascribed." William Hardy Arthur was born July 6, 1873, on Bennett’s Creek, Nansemond County, the son of the late Francis Marion Arthur and Mrs. Mary Irvin Williams Arthur, who is now critically ill at her home here. Both parents were of old Nansemond families and his father was a gallant follower of Lee throughout the War Between the States. He was alumnus of the College of William and Mary, where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, and of the Medical College of Virginia. He was a member of the Franklin Baptist Church, of Franklin Lodge No. 151 A.F. & A.M., and a Past President of the Franklin Rotary Club. He was a charter member of Jefferson Davis Camp Sons of Confederate Veterans of this town, and took an active interest in many of the town’s civic programs. During the World War, he was prominently connected with several of the drives carried on for the successful prosecution of American’s part in that conflict. By nature a student, he was a constant reader and possessed an unusual store of information on so any things that he was considered by all who knew him intimately, as well as by the writer, the best informed man in the town and county. His natural reticences had largely confined his friendships to those who came in contact with him professionally and socially, but to all of these he was genuinely admired and appreciated for his many fine qualities of heart and mind. In 1906, Dr. Arthur married Miss Bessie Lawless, daughter of the late Dr. J.L. Lawless of this town, and there are two children, Miss Frances Arthur, who teaches at Kempsville, Princess Anne County, and Miss Mary Irvin Arthur, a student at the Farmville Teachers College. He is also survived by his mother, Mrs. Mary Irvin Arthur. Burial was made in the family plot in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Suffolk, Thursday afternoon at 3 o’clock, the Episcopal service being read at the grave by Rev. E.P. Miner of Norfolk, rector of Glebe Church, Driver, Va. The pallbearers were: F.F. Jenkins, R.A. Pretlow, J.F. Bryant, Jr., E.T. Fitzgerald, G.G. McCann, W.E. Smith, Dr. Darden W. Jones and Paul Scarborough. Dr. William Hardy ARTHUR, dentist, School Board member, & civic leader, b. 6 Jul 1873, Nansemond Co., d. 30 Jan 1935*, at home, Franklin, interred in Cedar Hill Cemetery**, Suffolk, 1 Feb 1935, "The Tidewater News" (Franklin, VA), Feb. 2, 1935 *Va. BVS Death Certificate 1418-2650: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/vitals/deaths/a636w1dc.txt **not on the SCHS list for Cedar Hill Cemetery, although his parents are given - his mother's stone is noted as buried (Block F, Lots 77-78) His widow is bu. in Nimmo United Methodist Church Cemetery, Virginia Beach. Her obit ("Tidewater News," Mar. 14, 1974, p. 2B) is posted at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/a636b1ob.txt Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by William J. DelMonte (JazzyBill@aol.com) & Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), and re-formatted by File Manager. file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/a636w1ob.txt