Arnold, George W.

George W. Arnold (1846?-?) was a successful retail grocer in Pioche, Nevada. According to the 1870 census, Arnold was born in New York. At an early age, he enlisted as a corporal in the First Calvary, California Volunteers. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on March 11, 1863, and he was later promoted to 1st Lieutenant. He mustered out on February 20, 1865. Following a failed business venture in California, he arrived in Pioche, Nevada in 1869 at the age of twenty-three. He lived through one of Nevada’s most important silver booms in the 1870s. He was a business partner of Frank Wheeler & Co.; importers and dealers in general hardware, mill goods, mining goods, iron and steel, stoves, and tinware. Their store was located on Upper Main street in Pioche.

In a letter to his Uncle Gideon, Arnold describes traveling through Arizona and New Mexico, the Native population, and he describes the boomtown Pioche and mining activity in the area. Because of the town's remoteness, Pioche had a reputation for being one of the roughest towns in the region.

His letter includes comments on the lack of mills to process ore and the reasons for the lack of equipment. In 1874, George W. Arnold was named as a plaintiff in a noted lawsuit (Frank Wheeler V. The Floral Mill and Mining Co.) foreclosing on a mechanic’s lien for hardware, sold and delivered, amounting to $1,700 against the defendant. This lawsuit stemmed from a failed attempt to establish a community ten stamp quartz mill with a furnace. According to the suit, the town project proposed to have the citizens of Pioche, whether in their capacity as miners, mechanics, or others, to hold an interest in the ownership and receive subscriptions for the carrying out of the enterprise. However, sufficient funds were not secured for the project, and a vague business plan caused the project to fail.

Although Pioche never died, it was devastated several times from fires and flash floods. In his correspondence, George W. Arnold expressed his wish to ultimately move back to ‘civilization’. At the time, he had been ordering and purchasing goods from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

He registered a stay at the Parker House in Eureka, Nevada on July 19, 1878; still listing his residence in Pioche. This is his last known whereabouts. It can be surmised that he returned east when the Pioche silver boom fizzled out in the late 1870s.

Sources:

1870 U.S. Census, Lincoln County Nevada, populations schedule, Pioche City.

Orton, Richard H. Records of California Men in the War of the Rebellion, 1861 to 1867. California: Adjutant General's Office, 1890.

George W. Arnold Letter, 1870. MS-00037. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

Wheeler v. Floral Mill & Mining Co., 1874.

“Hotel Arrivals”, Eureka Daily Sentinel, July 19, 1878.