George Arnold (settler)

George Arnold was an early Scottish settler in Ontario, and the owner of Arnold's General Store on Richmond Road in "the Corners". He purchased the store from his brother-in-law, Andrew Main in the 1840s.^[3] When the post office first opened in 1851 the community had to adopt a more formal name and was named Bell's Corners after Hugh Bell.^[4] On 6 August 1851 George Arnold became the first postmaster of the Bell's Corners Post Office.^[5][6] After the great fire of 1870, he rebuilt facing the west instead of the north.^[7] George Arnold held the position of postmaster until his death on 21 October 1891. He and his wife had two sons and a daughter.

On 22 January 1892 he was succeeded by his son, J. F. Arnold. On 30 May 1893 J. F. Arnold resigned as postmaster and the Arnolds sold the business to John Dawson and his sons. On 6 July 1893 A. G. Dawson assumed the postmaster duties.^[8]

History of the Ottawa Valley, J. L. Gourlay, 1896: -

John Dawson, nephew of the old bachelor pioneer, has taken a great interest in municipal affairs, and with his sons, has recently bought out the store of the late George Arnold, of pleasant memory, who had kept it for say fifty years. John Robertson began a store there, and one of his daughters kept it for some time. Kenneth McKaskill held it a time ...

Another son, William Arnold, born in Bell's Corners in 1851, married Georgiana Eaton of Buckingham, Quebec on 27 May 1875. They both lived to celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary in 1945.^[9]

Daughter Jessie Ann Arnold, born in 1858, married William Albert Eaton, also of Buckingham, Quebec, on 29 January 1881.^[10]

References