Arnold, Mark L.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Mark L. Arnold, president and manager of the Plaquemine Stave & Heading Co., which conducts one of the important industrial enterprises in the City of Plaquemine, Iberville Parish, and he has a natural heritage of predisposition for the lumber business in some of its varied forms, as his father was a prominent figure in extensive lumbering operations in Michigan for a long term of years. Mr. Arnold was born in the City of Manistee, Michigan, June 14, 1869. His lineage traces back to English origin, and representatives of the Arnold family made settlement in Massachusetts in the Colonial era of our national history. Alonzo G Arnold, grandfather of the subject of this review was born in Massachusetts but passed the major part of his life near Trenton, New York, where he became a successful farmer and where both he and his wife continued to reside until their death, Mr. Arnold likewise having been a native of Massachusetts and her family name having been Woods.

John L. Arnold was born in Massachusetts, May 20, 1839, and was young at the time of the family removal to the State of New York, where he was reared to adult age. He was attending college in Massachusetts at the inception of the Civil war, and promptly manifested his youthful patriotism by returning to New York State and enlisting, early in 1861, as a member of Company E, Ninety-seventh New York Volunteer Infantry. This command made a record of splendid service and gained designation as "The Fighting Ninety-seventh." Mr. Arnold participated in many battles of major importance, including those of Gettysburg and Harper's Ferry, and he was twice severely wounded. He continued in service until the dose of the war and received his honorable discharge as corporal of his company. In later years his continued interest in his old comrades was signalized by his active affiliation with the Grand Army of the Republic. He was affiliated also with the Masonic fraternity, and his political support was given to the republican party.

After the close of his military career as a loyal young soldier of the Union,John L. Arnold removed to the West and engaged in the lumber business at Madison, Wisconsin. Shortly after his marriage he established his residence at Manistee, Michigan, then the center of great lumbering operations, and there he became a successful and prominent lumber manufacturer of that section of the Wolverine State. He continued his residence at Manistee until his death, in September, 1912, and his widow, now venerable in years, is a loved member of the home circle of their son, Mark L., immediate subject of this sketch. Mrs. Arnold, whose maiden name was Emma E. Nuttall, was born in Wisconsin, in November, 1850, a member of one of the sterling pioneer families of that state, where she was reared and educated and where her marriage was solemnized. Mrs. Arnold still retains a deep affection for the Michigan cityin which her interests were centered for many years, and she still maintains a summer home at Manistee, where she is thus able to vitalize the memories and associations of the Past. Of the children, Mark L., of this sketch, is the elder, and the younger, John F., who died at Manistee, Michigan, when thirty-eight years of age, was there holding at the time a responsible Government position. At the age of eighteen years Mark L. Arnold completed his studies in the high school of his native city, and thereafter he was employed in Michigan lumber mills until 1901, when he came to Plaquemine, Louisiana, and assumed the position of foreman for the Plaquemine Stave & Heading Company. His thorough knowledge of all details touching the lumber industry have made him a specially efficient executive, and he has been vice president and general manager of this company since 1910, the while his administration has done much to advance the scope and success of the important business. The manufacturing plant and offices of the company are situated eight miles south of Plaquemine, on the Bayou Plaquemine road. Here are the most improved facilities for the manufacturing of slack heads forbarrels used in the packing of sugar, apples, flour, etc., and a largebusiness is controlled also in the manufacturing of high-grade barrelstaves. The company ships its products throughout many of the Eastern andmiddle states, and controls also a substantial export trade in Mexico and Cuba.

Mr. Arnold is aligned loyally in the local ranks of the democratic party, and he gave eight years of service as a member of the police jury of Iberville Parish. He has won a host of friends in business and social circles since establishing his residence in Louisiana, and is one of the most loyal and progressive citizens of Plaquemine, where he owns his attractive home property, on Lauve Avenue, besides being the owner of valuable tracts of timber land in Iberville Parish. He is a stockholder and director of the Citizens Bank & Trust Company of Plaquemine. Mr. Arnold is actively and prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity, in which he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, his affiliations being here designated: Acacia Lodge No. 116, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Plaquemine; Washington Chapter No. 57, Royal Arch Masons, and Plains Commandery No. 11, Knights Templars, in the City of Baton Rouge; the Scottish Rite Consistory and also Jerusalem Temple of the Mystic Shrine in the City of New Orleans. He is a member also at Plaquemine Lodge No. 1398, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and he and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. June 14, 1911, recorded the marriage of Mr. Arnold to Miss Tommie Lee, who was born at Flora, Mississippi, and who attended Whitworth College in that state and also a business college in the City of New Orleans. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold have a daughter, Helen Lee, who lends youthful charm to the family home circle.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 256-257, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.