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Have you read the history of Arnold, MD?  Well, here is a brief summary for your pleasure.

A Brief History of Arnold, Maryland

It is generally thought that Arnold takes its name from Thomas Hamilton Arnold, a resident and prominent figure in the history of Anne Arundel County. From looking at his tombstone, we realized that he was pretty important. It is one of the biggest, most elaborate tombstones in the cemetery.

Our preliminary research quickly pointed to Thomas Arnold as playing a huge role in the development of this town.

We first got to know Thomas Arnold through his newspaper obituaries. In that time, obituaries were written in a very detailed, colorful style. The newspaper account not only told the cause of death and the names of the relatives left behind, but also described the highlights of his life and evaluated his character as well. We received an obituary from Mrs. Carol Larson, a descendent of Mr. Arnold. She showed us the original one that had been cut out from some newspaper. We became very intrigued about the life of this man because of what the obituary said.

"Mr. Arnold has had the respect of men throughout his life and for a half century has been prominent in the affairs of his county. A man of fine judgment, his advice was often sought. He was never a candidate for office, but in the famous fight of 1875 he was forced upon the ticket of that year for county commissioner and with the ticket of that year was declared elected, but after a contest in the courts the ticket was ousted." Later in the obituary we read about his role in a very famous trial. " Mr. Arnold is the last survivor of the noted Wharton jury. It was he who stood firm for the acquittal of the prisoner, and after a prolonged lockup, the other eleven joined him in the verdict." We were very curious about this trial, and wanted to know more about it. We were unable to determine which newspaper this particular obituary was from, so we decided to look up the Capital and the Baltimore Sun to see if it had come from either of those newspapers.

When we went to the Maryland State Archives to look up Mr. Arnold's obituary, we were surprised to find that a different obituary was on the front page of the Evening Capital newspaper on Friday, September 6, 1901. The obituary stated that "No man held the respect of a larger number of residents in this county than Thomas H. Arnold."

Also on that front page was a notice that President McKinley was shot and died within an hour after the shooting. It was very sad to read the accounts of how a stranger had shot the President and had escaped. The President and his party had just returned to the Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y. It was interesting to hear what national events were happening at this time.

Thomas H. Arnold was described also as "an interesting figure in Anne Arundel county for the past half a century" The obituary also stated that: "The deceased was a man of fine qualities and estimable character, and was highly esteemed by all who knew him."

We became anxious to learn more about this man just by reading his various obituaries. The Capital said that "he was a member of the famous Van Ness-Wharton jury." And that "he held no public office except that of county commissioner".

The Baltimore Sun also published an obituary for Mr. Arnold. It states that he "was one of the most prominent men of that section of the county". We read that "he was a farmer, but of late years conducted a retail merchandise business", and that "in 1870, he was a member of the jury which tried the Wharton-Van Ness case". Along with the obituary was a death notice which stated that the funeral would be "this Saturday afternoon". Relatives and friends of the family invited. Train leaves Camden Station at 1:10 P.M." It sounds as though people were expected to make the trip from Baltimore to pay their respects to Thomas Arnold.

When we started to research his life, we found that, indeed, Thomas Arnold played a big role in the early history of Arnold. First, he donated land for the Asbury M.E. Church. Next, he started a store which gave the town its name. Around the time of 1866, the town was called Arnold's Store. It is noted that way on the historic Hopkins map of 1878.