'Milam County Town had Yankee Roots' by Jeanne Williams.Temple Daily Telegram:

Milam Co. Town Has Yankee Roots

by Jeanne Williams - Temple Daily Telegram

January 16, 2012

BEN ARNOLD - A section of drab prairieland, a train station and a 3-year-old girl created

a piece of Central Texas history in 1890 when the community of Ben Arnold sprang up.

The toddler - youngest daughter of ex-Union officer Capt. Benjamin I. Arnold - was chosen

as the mascot to ride the first San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway train into a new

depot at an unnamed town. The town ultimately was christened Ben Arnold, a variation of

the child’s name Bennie Arnold, according to “History of Milam County, Texas” by Leila M.

Batte.

“The post office was opened in 1892, and four years later Ben Arnold boasted three

churches, a district school and 125 occupants. In 1903, the community was home to 250

people, but by the late 1960s, only 148 called Ben Arnold home.”

The Ben Arnold school consolidated with Cameron by the early 1970s. In 1977, the Southern

Pacific Railway abandoned the section of track connecting Ben Arnold with Cameron to the

south and Rosebud to the north. The community still holds on to about 148 residents

today.

Arnold’s baby daughter’s much heralded public appearance was neither the beginning nor

the end of the family’s exploits.

Arnold, a native of Carlisle in Clarke County, Ohio, was born Feb. 3, 1841. He warranted

a mention in “The History of Texas,” published in 1893 by The Lewis Publishing Co.

Arnold enlisted in the Union Army in 1861 with the Fourth Illinois Cavalry, participating

in all engagements in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas.

At the close of the war, his regiment was consolidated with the Twelfth Illinois Cavalry

under Gen. George Armstrong Custer and dispatched to Texas to serve in the army of

occupation.

For about a year, Arnold was stationed at Brenham, where he served in the Freedmen’s

Bureau Department.

In May 1866, he quit the service and for two years engaged in farming in Washington

County, then in the mercantile business. That lasted until March 1870, when he came to

Cameron to accept an appointment on Jan. 23, 1871, to the office of Milam County sheriff

under appointment of Gov. Edmund Jackson Davis, said Bastrop County Sheriff’s Deputy Greg

Kouba, who researched Milam County sheriffs.

The appointment was made under Reconstruction measures. Arnold served as sheriff until

Jan. 3, 1873, when he left public office to open a business in Cameron.

For 16 years, Arnold operated a successful real estate business and insurance business,

later known as Hefley-Stedman Insurance Agency. Arnold served two terms as Cameron mayor

and was identified with every town improvement project that surfaced.

Arnold earned the respect and admiration of Cameron residents, and established a

reputation as a sound man of business by successes he attained in his dealings.

Arnold was a Republican in politics but accepted few favors from federal authorities.

He married Mary C. Tucker on Aug. 28, 1873, becoming son-in-law of respected Cameron

resident William Tucker.

The couple’s three daughters, Myrlie Katherine, Mamie Arnold Hefley and Bennie Mabel

Arnold, were recognized as local debutants.

On Feb. 14, 1895, while living in the old county clerk’s office building, fire nearly

destroyed his residence. The mantle and ceiling over the fireplace caught fire.

Arnold died in 1899 and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery. A trust fund provides for flowers

to be placed on his grave each year.

Seven miles north of Cameron off U.S. 77 the village of Ben Arnold honors the heritage of

the Arnold family, and a 3-year-old child who rode the first train into town.

jwilliams@tdtnews.com

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Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram