Arthur and Farrar families papers

The Arthur family became established in South Carolina before the Revolutionary War. During the early colonial period, James's ancestors emigrated from England into Caroline County, Va., and then eventually to the Lexington and Orangeburg regions of South Carolina. A line of the family, from which James descended, migrated to Union, S.C. Of the family, one Arthur writes, "According to published histories of South Carolina it appears that the Arthurs were prominent influential leaders identified with the economic, political, and governmental development of South Carolina." William Arthur, James's great-great grandfather, was a delegate representing South Carolina at the Second Provincial Congress (1775-76) and later served in the South Carolina General Assembly. William Arthur married Elizabeth Friday, and they were the parents of Friday Arthur, who married Anna Class. Friday and Anna's oldest son, William Friday Arthur, was mayor of Columbia, S.C. during the 1850s and a political cartoonist. Another son, Benjamin Franklin Arthur, Sr. (1826-70), was James's grandfather and played a prominent role in the politics of South Carolina preceding the Civil War. Benjamin F. Arthur, Sr., attended South Carolina College, from which he was graduated in 1845. He was admitted to the bar in 1848 and practiced law with his brother, Edward, in Columbia. In 1851 he moved to Unionville and began practicing there. He became magistrate for the Union District in 1852 and later Judge Advocate of the 35th regiment South Carolina State Militia. From 1858 to 1860 Benjamin Arthur served as private secretary to Governor William H. Gist. In December, 1860, he was elected clerk of the South Carolina Secession. His signature appears on the official copy. In 1853 Benjamin Arthur married Ann Elizabeth Dogan, daughter of Joseph Herndon and Ann Rice Dogan of Union. Warren Dupre Arthur, one of their sons, was an avid collector of historic documents and genealogical material. He passed along to James much of the documentation he collected on the Arthur family, together with a large group of material relating primarily to the businesses of the father of his wife, Josephine Farrar Arthur. James Arthur's father, Warren Dupre Arthur (1865-1940), was active in the government and commerce of Union. According to a newspaper article of 1927, he built the first telephone exchange and established (1899) the first wholesale grocery and bottling store in Union. He was a wholesale distributor of petroleum products and a cotton broker. In 1897 he was elected as Union's City Treasurer, a position in which he served for approximately 40 years. In 1889 Warren Arthur married Cynthia Leonora "Nora" Wilson (1867-1931) of Charlotte. The early Wilson family, of Scotch-Irish origin, moved from Maryland and Pennsylvania into the Poplar Tent region of Mecklenburg County, N.C. Nora's father was Marcus Andrew Wilson (1832-83), and her grandfather was Samuel Alexander Wilson (1791-1856). Her mother was Elizabeth Jane McComb (1840-1909), daughter of Joseph McComb (1805-53) and Martha Parks (1807-56). She was also a descendant of Hugh McEwen (1727-92), an early settler of Iredell County, N.C., and was related to the Parks King family of Concord, N.C., and Charlotte. Nora attended Clifford Seminary in Union, where she met James's father. Warren and Nora Arthur had nine children: Marcus Wilson; Dogan Humphries, a World War I aviator killed in an accident at Langley Field, Va. in 1923; Warren Dupre Jr., Elizabeth Parks (Wannamaker); Frances Marion (died in infancy); James Harrison; Cynthia Leonora (Wagnon); Mary Wallis (Jennings); and Ann Jean. James Arthur was born September 10, 1901, in Union. He attended The Citadel from 1918 to 1919 and graduated from the College of Charleston in 1922. He was active in sports and his graduating class was the first to include women at the College of Charleston. After 1922, James, nicknamed "Jaybird," became a cost accountant for various textile firms in North and South Carolina, including Ralph E. Leper Cost Engineers (1925-28), Cotton Textile Institute (1930-32), and Hanna Pickett Mills (1934-40). During World War II he was given a special assignment with a CPA in Washington, D.C. From 1940 to 1949, James worked as an independent cost accounting consultant, traveling from mill to mill through N.C. and S.C., and then as a purchasing agent for American and Efird Mills in Mount Holly, N.C. (1949-61). Between 1961 and 1967 he worked for two other corporations. After 1967 he again became an independent consultant and eventually entered semi-retirement. He died in 1978. James married Mary Katherine Miller (1914-74) of Gastonia, N.C. on December 29, 1936. The daughter of Herbert and Stella Miller and a 1935 graduate of Women's College of the University of North Carolina (now UNC at Greensboro), Katherine taught in Rockingham and Mount Holly, N.C. James and Katherine Arthur had three children: James Harrison Jr. (b. 9-27-38, m. Amelia McGinnis), Leonora Wilson (b. 1-14-41, m. Frank Coleman), and Katherine "Kacky" Miller (b. 4-9-44, m. Bennett Bryce). The family lived primarily in Rockingham, Wadesboro, Mount Holly, and Gastonia, N.C.