Southampton-Nansemond County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Arthur, Dr. William H., 1935 

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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